Legislators report a busy start to the General Assembly session

MUNCIE, Ind. − The Indiana General Assembly session is just a few weeks old but the effort to pass a biennial budget is well underway with lots of talking before action.

State Rep. Elizabeth Rowray, R-Yorktown; State Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie; State Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City and State Sen. Scott Alexander, R-Muncie, discussed their work so far in the General Assembly Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce Legislation Update gathering on Friday morning.

Rowray sits on the House Ways and Mean Committee, which hears budget requests and gets the legislative process for a state budget going. She noted the days seemed longer than the previous budget year in 2021. Then she recalled that COVID-19 had limited meetings, testimony and personal contact at the Statehouse. Those days are gone but says she wouldn't want a return.

The long days listening to people are important.

"We're back to listening to all the testimony from all the parties," she said.

Yet the committee members know the requests are already hundreds of millions of dollars beyond the money Indiana will have to spend.

Prescott also serves on the Ways and Means Committee. He said there is an effort this year to allow more time to listen.

"It will be interesting to see what is prioritized," he said.

By week three of the session, about 500 bills had been filed in the State Senate and another 650 in House, Rowray said.

Many of those will die in committee, but legislation that would add a magistrate position to Delaware County Courts has already passed the House and is now in the Senate, she said.

In the Senate, Alexander is an author and is helping to steer the legislation, said Prescott.

The entire Delaware County delegation supported the effort. Individual bills for the magistrate position were combined with other magistrate requests from elsewhere in the state to create one bill, he said.

The legislators worked with Delaware County Council to assure local backing for the bill. It would provide a magistrate to work under the circuit court judges and assist them in handling the workload across the local courts, Prescott said.

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Prescott is also offering legislation that would take the Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction out of the line of succession to become Indiana governor. The superintendent spot is seventh in line, but the office is no longer elected; it's appointed.

Errington has authored bills that would strengthen renter's rights in the wake of multiple complaints in Muncie last year that included landlords barging into homes without notice. The Muncie City Council had asked Errington and the General Assembly to help tenants.

She also has authored legislation that would tag houses where meth labs have been, so buyers would know a lab had been in the dwelling, that is has been cleaned of hazardous materials and is safe to live in before it can be sold as a dwelling.

One amendment to legislation in the House Errington authored has gone down to defeat on a party line vote. Thursday House Republicans blocked an amendment to House Bill 1007, which would have established community solar facilities.

Community solar facilities are small solar fields owned by entrepreneurs who sell subscriptions to people for whom rooftop solar is not an option. The subscribers receive credits on their utility bills for their share of the power the facility produces. This amendment would have required at least 50% of the subscribers to be low or moderately-low income.

Errington told The Star Press that the amendment likely failed because it was opposed by electric utilities.

"They like big things," she said of the utilities. "This is smaller."

The solar facilities envisioned in the legislation would have been small compared to solar fields that have caused controversy in the county. But it would have helped people who want solar for their home but can't afford to buy panels for their roofs.

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Alexander said he is working on legislation that would give local governments more control over their expenditures. He is a freshman in the Senate. Most of last year Alexander served as president of the Delaware County Council.

A number of other issues were discussed, including a state public health initiative to provide more funding to county health departments in exchange for an increase in additional public health services.

Also introduced during the session is House Bill 1004, which seeks to lower hospital pricing among nonprofit hospitals in Indiana. Changes proposed in the legislation include prohibiting "certain nonprofit hospitals from entering into physician noncompete agreements."

The bill also specifies provisions that may not be included in a health provider contract.

The legislation, beginning in 2025, requires a nonprofit hospital operating in Indiana to annually submit to the department of insurance a certified statement of, and supporting documentation to demonstrate the average price charged by the hospital for each health care service provided to patients; and the hospital's total patient service revenue generated from all health care services provided by the hospital along with the federal Medicare reimbursement rate for the health care service; in the preceding calendar year.

The bill summary on the General Assembly website says the legislation provides that, if a nonprofit hospital charged amounts for health care services that exceeded 260% of the federal Medicare reimbursement rate, the department shall assess a penalty against the hospital.

Errington said the legislation was in reaction to Indiana nonprofit hospitals charging significantly higher prices than other hospitals across the country. Leadership in the General Assembly sent a warning to hospitals last year telling them that "if they don't get their act together, we will do it for you."

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She also noted that IU Health, which operates hospitals Muncie, Hartford City and Portland, had responded with a plan to lower its prices.

It was reported last year that a study in 2020 by the RAND Corp. showed that IU Health was the most expensive hospital system in Central Indiana, charging private insurers 333% of what it charges the federal government through Medicare. Statewide, it was second only to Parkview Health System in Fort Wayne, which was charging 388% of the Medicare amount.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Legislators report a busy start to the General Assembly session