Local state lawmakers reflect on 2020 legislative session

From health care issues to teacher evaluations, local state lawmakers said this year’s legislative session was more productive than most short sessions.

As the legislative session wrapped up last month, the Indiana House and Senate saw about 300 of the 1,100 proposed bills make it to both full chambers for discussion and votes. About 250 of those bills passed and went to the governor’s desk.

"With a short session, the gun goes off and you’re moving 100 miles per hour," said Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray, R-Martinsville. "I do feel like we had a pretty productive session and got some things done."

Curbing surprise medical bills

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

One of the main pieces of legislation that lawmakers touted as a success was a bill that addressed various health care matters, including surprise medical billing. 

The legislation, House Enrolled Act 1004, generally ensures that hospitals will not charge patients an out-of-network bill that is not included in the in-network coverage unless the patient agrees beforehand. For example, this would include the cost of an anesthesiologist from outside the hospital network.

"You’re not going to get surprised like, ‘Oh gosh that person wasn’t in my network, I guess I have to pay out of pocket,’" Bray said.

The bill also requires hospitals to post procedure good-faith estimated cost of a procedure at least five days before a patient undergoes it.

A priority of the legislature is to help control the overall cost of health care because prices continue to rise, said Rep. John Young, R-Franklin. Young is not a fan of health care becoming a government issue, but something needs to be done about the cost, he said.

"We’re worried about the Hoosiers we don’t hear from who are maybe getting stuck with a $2,500 medical bill that they didn’t see coming," Young said.

But there is much more work to be done in health care, Bray said. This one law is just the first step.

"We’re not going to fix it in a year, but this is a good start," he said.

Reevaluating teacher evaluations

One of the first items to hit the governor’s desk this year was legislation to not base public school teacher evaluations on new standardized test scores.

The state administered its first ILEARN tests last spring, and scores dropped below the scores of the previous ISTEP tests. Teachers were previously evaluated by the state based on their school’s standardized test scores, but a new bill that passed will not hold teachers accountable for those scores over the next two years.

This was something legislators needed to pass a long time ago, said Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus. 

"I have said, for five or six years now, this (the evaluation) is unnecessary. Schools already know how to evaluate their teachers," he said.

This was a step forward in fixing the ILEARN problems, said Rep. Woody Burton, R-Greenwood. Kids should be going to school to learn how to be better in life, not sit for four hours learning how to take a test, he said. 

"We screwed it up last time," Burton said. "We need to figure out a better way to do these evaluations."

This year’s ILEARN tests were canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

What didn’t pass and why

Not every bill that’s filed makes it all the way through the legislature.

One bill that did not pass is something Johnson County residents should watch for—a bill that would have impacted the IndyGo bus line expansion, Walker said.

That legislation would have allowed the state to withhold 10% from IndyGo’s annual local income taxes collected, if the agency did not raise those funds privately in a year. It would also prohibit IndyGo from expanding its mass transit until they complied. 

This was done in response to a law passed in 2014 that allowed Indianapolis to hold a referendum on mass-transit projects, but required IndyGo to establish a nonprofit foundation and raise 10% in operating costs privately.

Six years later, IndyGo raised nothing to go toward that 10%, Walker said. This controversial piece of the bill was then added during the second reading of the bill in the Senate, he said.

"We just told them they needed to start obeying the law," Walker said. 

The bill died at the end of the session because both chambers could not reach an agreement.

With IndyGo wanting to expand its Red Line into Johnson County in the future, Walker said he’s not sure if IndyGo leaders can hold up their end of the bargain if they can’t be held accountable now. 

"I’m very wary of them (IndyGo) being able to hold up their end of the deal to expand, if they can’t do what they promised now," he said.

Another low for the legislature, in Walker’s opinion, was the last minute disagreements on a bill that would have clarified eligibility rules to become the state’s attorney general. 

With current Attorney General Curtis Hill’s pending disciplinary case that could result in the suspension of his law license, lawmakers attempted to make the rules to be attorney general more clear.

Hill allegedly groped four women, including a state lawmaker, at a party following the end of the 2018 legislative session. Since then, Hill has continued to deny the allegations, and the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission filed a complaint against him for his actions. If disciplinary action is taken, Hill’s law license could be suspended.

Current Indiana law is unclear as to whether an attorney general can be elected with a suspended license, Walker said.

The bill, Senate Bill 178, said someone who holds the office of attorney general cannot remain in office if he or she is disbarred or suspended for 30 or more days. The individual also wouldn’t be able to run for the office again.

The bill died on the last day of session because lawmakers could not reach an agreement, Walker said.

Among the dead bills were also legislation by Burton and Young that would have had a local impact.

In response to the burglary of 33 firearms from a local New Whiteland gun shop, Burton authored legislation to require shops in Indiana to lock up firearms at night. The bill never got an initial hearing because many legislators said it was too restrictive on gun rights, Burton said. 

Burton, who is a National Rifle Association member, said he didn’t author the bill to inhibit people’s right to bear arms. He wanted a way to keep people from stealing dozens of guns from stores within minutes, he said. 

"To me, it’s not that big of a deal to just lock them in a safe," Burton said. "I was disappointed it didn’t get a hearing, but I wasn’t surprised."

Additionally, Young had a bill that would have stopped railroad companies from making residents who own property on the railroad pay for upgrades and maintenance.

That piece of legislation stemmed from a local farmer asking for Young’s help after a railroad company tried to make him pay for upgrades on the part of the track that goes through his farm, Young said. 

The legislation wasn’t ready to pass during a short session, but he plans to bring it back next year, he said.

Another hotly-debated bill that did pass was legislation that would have removed a series of protections for renters in the state, but Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed the law at the end of the March, making it his second veto in office.

The bill was widely supported by Republicans, and it would have prevented local governments from regulating landlord-tenant relationships regarding items such as lease applications, the rights of the parties to the lease, security deposits and more. 

What’s next

Burton is retiring after more than 30 years as a state lawmaker. 

Reflecting on his time in the state legislature, he said he was happy he got to help people.

"You know, I didn’t do anything really big while I was here," Burton said. "I’m just happy I got to help people."

Now, it’s time for someone younger with new ideas to take his place, he said.

"I remember when I started, I was young and I had some fresh ideas. It’s time for someone else to do that," Burton said.

For Walker, who is not up for reelection this year, his top priority for next year’s session is to tackle redistricting. Every 10 years when the U.S. Census is taken, the state legislature is in charge of redrawing state and Congressional districts. Walker is in charge of that redistricting as chair of the elections committee, he said.

"My goal is to try to survive that," Walker said. 

Since he’s been in office, Walker has advocated for bills dealing with how district lines should be redrawn, to be more transparent with the public, including trying to create a public mapping website. However, most redistricting bills at the Statehouse don’t make it far in the legislative process.

Bray finished up his second session as the Senate’s president pro tempore. The new leadership role is going well, but he still has a lot to learn, he said.

"Last year and this year, we finished a couple days early, so I feel good about that," Bray said. "The spell of senators I work with are all hard-working and diligent, so that makes my job a lot easier."

Next year, the legislature will take on the state budget. Lawmakers plan to start planning agenda items this summer, Bray said. Some other topics lawmakers expect to tackle next year are teacher pay and continuing to lower the cost of health care.

"A bill goes through the Statehouse much more smoothly when you really start to work on it May or June," Bray said. "By the time you file the bill in December, everybody knows what you’re doing, everybody has had some input."