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View Full Version : BTW, *Indiana* Democrats who fled their state last month, are still out



Little-Acorn
03-21-2011, 07:21 PM
Yep, Democrats from the legislature in Indiana staged a "me-too" walkout last month, shortly after the one staged by Wisconsin Democrats. But apparently nobody is paying any attention as the Democrat members of Indiana's House sulk in a hotel somewhere in Illinois. It started over similar issues (giving public-employee unions the same status as most states and the Fed govt already have).

But when Republicans started scaling back their union bill as the Democrat minority wanted, the Democrats stayed out and began increasing their demands, frustrating Republican efforts to get things moving again.

Indiana law is different from Wisconsin's. In Wisconsin, a 3/5 majority must form a quorum to pass *budget* bills, but no quorum is necessary to pass non-budget bills.

However, in Indiana, a 2/3 majority must form a quorum to pass ANY bills in the Indiana House, whether budget-related or not. There are 60 Republicans and 40 Democrats elected to this session of the Indiana House, and all 40 Democrats have run away. So the Indiana House has been unable to do ANYTHING for a solid month. And with the House passing nothing, of course the Senate can send nothing to the Governor's desk, and he can sign nothing into law.

What's interesting about the Indiana situation (if anything is), is that the state budget expires after June 30, 2011. If the Democrats remain truant thru that time, the entire state government will come to a halt. Indiana law states that NO money may disbursed without a budget in place... and without the required 2/3 quorum, no budget can be passed at all. Even "continuing resolutions" to keep things going, cannot be passed. State-employed teachers, police, prison guards, firemen etc. will no longer receive paychecks, and neither will state clerks, drivers license agents... or the state legislators themselves.

It remains to be seen what it will take to presuade the elected Democrats to come back and do their jobs. Yielding on the original Union issues, didn't succeed. Will anything?

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704355304576215020786477568.html?m od=googlenews_wsj

GOP Raises Fines In Indiana Battle

by KRIS MAHER And DOUGLAS BELKIN
March 21, 2011, 7:04 P.M. ET.

Indiana House Republicans on Monday ratcheted up pressure on Democratic counterparts who left the state last month, increasing fines on absent lawmakers and moving forward with bipartisan hearings in the Senate on the state's budget bill.

Democrats, holding one of the longest walkouts by a state legislature in U.S. history, left for Illinois on Feb. 22 to protest about a dozen Republican-backed bills. The legislation would eventually cut the pay and jobs of unionized teachers and construction workers, Democrats allege. One right-to-work measure would allow private-sector workers across the state to opt out of unions.

"This is a defense against an oppressive majority," said House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer at the Comfort Suites in Urbana, Ill., where Democrats have been staying for the past month.

He said Democratic amendments were being ignored and the bills the Republicans were voting on constituted a "radical agenda."

Indiana Republicans say Democrats haven't been clear on conditions to return and are using the walkout to kill off a slate of about 65 bills awaiting a vote in the House. Most importantly, Democrats are holding up action on the state budget.

"This takes quorum-denial tactics to an entirely new level," said Republican House Majority Speaker Brian Bosma.

Indiana law requires that two-thirds of lawmakers be present to vote on legislation. Republicans, who hold a 60-40 majority in the House, need seven Democrats to be present and raised a daily fine of $250 for each absent Democrat to $350 a day, effective Monday.

Democrats said they would return last week, Mr. Bosma said, if a bill allowing nonunion labor on government-funded construction projects was changed. But after Republicans agreed to scale back the bill, Democrats backed off again.

"It became clear there was a different agenda," he said.


(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)

DragonStryk72
03-21-2011, 08:27 PM
Well, at the very least, this is going to encourage states to come up with countermeasures against these sorts of tactics, not just with fines, but as well either criminal charges, or stripping the truant legislators of their positions.

This just seems so juvenile though, like a kid who doesnt like how a game of kickball is going, and runs off with ball, refusing to come back until the others let him win.

logroller
03-21-2011, 11:41 PM
What if they just let the state budget deadline pass? What happens when a state "comes to a halt" and is it unprecedented? What repercussions could result-- besides a drastically smaller gov't? :laugh:

seriously though, would the crippling of a state due to lack of budget lead to the feds getting involved and force the absent legislators to perform their duties, or are there mechanisms in place for a referendum/ reelection that would compel the legislators to attend or be replaced? This seems to be getting more and more common, something has to be done to curb such behavior.

fj1200
03-22-2011, 07:16 AM
Tyranny of the minority. Sweet!

logroller
03-22-2011, 09:54 AM
Tyranny of the minority. Sweet!


In politics, representation describes how some individuals stand in for others or a group of others, for a certain time period. Representation usually refers to representative democracies, where elected officials nominally speak for their constituents in the legislature. ~wikipedia

you know the whole no taxation w/o representation; can one technically be represented without their reps being present?

According to the above definition of representation, I say no, so Indiana residents shouldnt have to pay taxes!!!

Little-Acorn
03-22-2011, 11:44 AM
One possible reason why Indiana Democrats are remaining truant even after Republicans yielded on the Govt-employee-union bills:

Congressional districts are dre-drawn in many states after each decennial census, including Indiana. Indiana law says that the redistricting can be done by the State Legislature (House and Senate), up until April 29, 2011. If it isn't done by then, then it will be done by a special state commission.

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Redistricting_in_Indiana

Indiana House Democrats may be fleeing the state to prevent the Legislature from doing this redistricting, and throwing it to the commission. Though the effect of doing this may be questionable, since both groups are Republican dominated. Maybe the Dems think the commission will be less likely to gerrymander the districts into even weirder shapes than they already are, to get more Republican districts?

logroller
03-22-2011, 02:57 PM
One possible reason why Indiana Democrats are remaining truant even after Republicans yielded on the Govt-employee-union bills:

Congressional districts are dre-drawn in many states after each decennial census, including Indiana. Indiana law says that the redistricting can be done by the State Legislature (House and Senate), up until April 29, 2011. If it isn't done by then, then it will be done by a special state commission.

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Redistricting_in_Indiana

Indiana House Democrats may be fleeing the state to prevent the Legislature from doing this redistricting, and throwing it to the commission. Though the effect of doing this may be questionable, since both groups are Republican dominated. Maybe the Dems think the commission will be less likely to gerrymander the districts into even weirder shapes than they already are, to get more Republican districts?

Its' just shameful this behavior; I can't help but shake my head.
Worse yet, we encourage other countries to adopt democracy like ours.:lame2: