Magistrate court stalls in legislature

Mar. 14—A proposal to add several new courts in southern Indiana, including one in Daviess County, has hit a wall in the Indiana General Assembly. A bill that would have added new courts in Dubois and Spencer counties and a magistrate court in Daviess County wound up stopped dead in a legislative committee.

"We are stopped right now because the bill that would have given us a magistrate as a full-time judicial officer has been stopped in the Ways and Means committee in the House," said Daviess Circuit Court Judge Greg Smith. "It passed unanimously out of the first committee is went to then all of the bills about the courts got stuck in the Ways and Means committee."

Without those bills advancing the court proposals would normally be considered dead. But local officials are looking for some type of legislative procedure that will bring the proposal back to life in the state Senate.

"We are going to see if we can get one of our senators to look at it and get it going," said Smith. "We are looking to see if there is some way to get the courts amended to another bill in the Senate and revive it."

Smith says the bill getting stalled in the house committee caught most everyone by surprise.

"I have not been able to get an answer as to why it did not move forward," he said.

Local officials say they have made presentations to the legislature and committee members demonstrating the need to expand the courts in southern Indiana.

"Our statistics show that Daviess County was one of only two counties in southern Indiana that grew by more than five percent. The other was Dubois County," said Smith. "I presented the numbers to the interim study committee on courts and Judge (Dean) Sobecki and I and other judges went to Indianapolis and testified. The chair of that committee wound up sponsoring the bill. We had the numbers together, we just don't know why the bill did not get out of the House."

The fiscal impact of the bill to add several courts was going to be $1.4 million annually.

"That is kind of a drop in the bucket for the legislature," said Smith. "The state has a big surplus and a large COVID funding sitting around. The fiscal impact of all of the courts (including some in Vigo, Delaware and Elkhart Counties) would not be significant."

Judge Smith says the area judiciary are trying to enlist the entire area legislative delegation to try and make the new courts happened.

"We have talked with Senator (Eric) Bassler and Representative (Shane) Lindauer and Senator (Mark) Messmer to get an answer on why it got stalled," he said. "We are hoping it is not totally dead in the water. We are looking to see if there is a way to revive it and get some reconciliation between the two houses."

Because the courts bill would include additional funding to pay for judges and operations, local officials will have to wait at least two years before they can re-file a bill to try and bring in new courts, if there is no way to bring the current proposal back to life.