GENTLEMEN, START YOUR NEGOTIATIONS
The 2008 session of the Indiana General Assembly has just started. By amending and passing its version of HB 1001, the Senate has drawn a line in the sand and it can negotiate in earnest with the House of Representatives. While it’s easy to see the lines over how much tax relief to provide or which antiquated elected officials need to be protected here is what you really need to pay attention to; both sides are now playing a game of political chicken, but hoping for different outcomes.
Senators want a “philosophical” victory that means they want to adjourn on time, because to stay late would be a loss. House Democrats want to adjourn on time because if they don’t it becomes a campaign issue that they failed to give Hoosiers tax relief. What I worry about is in a rush to “get something done” mistakes are made which will take years to fix and at the end of the day, the only people who will be happy about this will be that other branch of government, the lobbyists.
