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Write your Legislator's - click on the links below to access State and Federal Officials
Indiana's US Senators http://senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=IN
Indiana's Congressional Representatives http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/index.html
Indiana General Assembly http://www.in.gov/legislative/legislators/listing.html ------------------------------------------------------ While the website is being updated, we will post their reports on this page. Below are the reports for this session: Your updated bill tracks are listed below. For full language of the bills, visit: http://www.in.gov/apps/lsa/session/billwatch/billinfo?year=2011&session=1&request=all Again, all House bills remain pending the outcome of the walkout. March 11, 2011 - General Information: This week marks the third week of a legislative log-jam as House Democrats are still in Urbana, Illinois. It was announced that a phone call took place on Wednesday between Speaker Bosma and Minority Leader Bauer that Bosma described as a “breakthrough.” Discussions were based around parliamentary procedures and Bauer said he was “cautiously optimistic” but gave no indication when the Democrats might return back to the Statehouse. Originally when the walkout occurred, Democrats stated that it was due to Right to Work legislation, which the Republicans decided to kill in an attempt to bring them back to the Statehouse. Afterwards, the Democrats announced they had a list of 11 bills that they were protesting – including education reforms and the budget. During a House Democrat Town Hall Meeting which took place via teleconference on Wednesday evening, the Democrats said that the list has now been whittled down to three bills: vouchers, project labor agreements and collective bargaining. Constitutionally, all the legislative session is tasked in completing is passing a budget, but it is also of import to draw the redistricting maps for the next 10 years. A union rally took place at the Statehouse on Thursday which expected to draw crowds of up to 25,000 protestors, the largest since union members rallied in 1995 to protest legislation targeting their wages on public projects. Additional protests are planned for next week - the Rally for Equality will take place on Monday to protest an effort to add a ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions to the state constitution and an immigration rally will take place on Tuesday to show opposition to legislation that tasks local law enforcement to impose federal immigration laws. The walkout is handcuffing the legislative process. Speaker Bosma cannot end the session prior to April 29 without a quorum of the House. If the Democrats do not come back before April 29th, a special session will likely be called to try to pass a budget. On the Senate side, if the House does not come back, they will have to try to pass the House bills without any changes in order for the bills to go straight to the Governor’s desk. The Senate had a light but regular schedule this week. The Senate Education Committee heard almost six hours of testimony (both for and against) on Wednesday for HB1002, the charter school bill. The bill was held until next week in which they can offer amendments and vote on the bill.
In other news, Indiana’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.1% in January 2011, down from 9.5%. Indiana’s rate is still higher than the national average of 8.9%. HB 1384 (plumbing matters) was our target to insert some "moisture sensing technology" language and we were set to do so, but the House Democrat walkout has hampered that strategy. Unless the calendar keeps getting extended, it is unlikely we can use a house bill to insert our language on this issue. We will need to rework a second half strategy. Finally, SB 590, immigration is obviously drawing an abundance of media coverage and is pending action in the House. Again with the walkout, no hearing has been scheduled yet. I just sent you all a link featuring an interview with John Livengood and Inside Indiana Business on behalf of the Alliance for Immigration Reform in Indiana , of which I am a member on behalf of GIA. Please review. March 4, 2011 - General Information: It was another interesting week at the Statehouse as the House stalemate entered its second week with Democrats still in Illinois. There was a bit of movement on Wednesday, as Minority Leader Pat Bauer (D-South Bend) returned to the Statehouse for an open-door discussion with Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis). The discussion focused on two of the more contentious bills- HB 1003 (school vouchers) and HB 1216 (public works projects), though Democrats have raised issues with an additional half dozen bills. Though Speaker Bosma said he would discuss the Democrat concerns with the bill authors to see if there was any room for compromise, he would not pledge to take the labor issues off the table completely. Representative Bauer returned to Illinois to discuss these developments with his caucus, and has not made any indications as to when his caucus would return.
Speaker Bosma announced on Thursday that, after two weeks of waiting for the Democrats to return to work, he was left with no other option but to fine the missing members $250 per day for each day they are absent, starting on Monday, March 7. Earlier this week, the Speaker stated that absent members of the House would not receive their per diem payments ($155 a day) while they were gone – which included any Republican members who were absent this week for various reasons.
The House Rules Committee did meet on Thursday to extend the Third Reading deadlines for a second time. The deadline had originally been extended to today (Friday, March 4), and is now set for Wednesday, March 9th. 47 bills left on the House calendar remain in jeopardy, including the state budget.
The Senate, on the other hand, reconvened for business as usual after their mid-session break, though it was a relatively slow week. Only a couple of committees met, but House bills are being assigned to committees and additional committee meetings are scheduled for next week.
In other news, it was announced that State revenue collections for February came in at $716 million, slightly higher than the $711 million that was projected. The revenues were much improved over February of 2010, when the state collected only $638 million. And on Thursday, Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was indicted on 7 felony counts by a special grand jury investigating claims of voting fraud. He will face three voter fraud charges; two perjury charges; 1 theft charge for taking a town council salary in Fishers while living outside his council district; and one C felony for fraud against a financial institution relating to a mortgage application. ------------------------------------------------- 2010 Fly-In The NGWA and their legislative consultants prepare everyone with issues and talking points. Typically we ask a member that has attended along with a member who will visit for their first time. Bruce Moss has attended several times in the past. This was Brad’s first visit. Brad appreciated the fact that Robert Stone of Franklin Electric was also in attendance. They visited with Scott Morrison, Legislative Aid in Senator Bayh’s office. Mr. Morrison was well informed regarding Geothermal and many of the issues regarding our most important resource, ground water. They actually flew back to Indiana on the same plane as Senator Bayh. Bruce took the opportunity to ask him if ‘he was tired of people asking you what you’re going to do?’. He said it was an easy answer ‘ I don’t know.’ They met with LeAnne R. Gibbs, Projects Director, with Senator Lugar’s office and met personally with Rep. Dan Burton where they had a photo taken. As this was Brad’s first visit, he felt the Sunday program was not beneficial as it appeared to be somewhat of a sales pitch for association insurance. The take-a-way was how important it is to have Directors and Officers and Liability insurance for your association (the IGWA has both). If we attend the Sunday session, the NGWA reimburses us up to $500 which helps offset some of our expenses to attend. The issues addressed were as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 12th annual NGWA Washington Fly-In was well attended this year with 110 participants representing 32 states. Representatives from Indiana included Robert Stone (Franklin Electric), Jim Hopkins (Laibe Corp), and Joe L. Armstrong and Joe C Armstrong (Armstrong Drilling, Inc). Joe and Joe also attended the State Leadership Conference where we discussed issues vital to our state organization with a focus on encouraging volunteerism. Attendees from Indiana met with Representative Joe Donnelly (2nd district) as well as staff from the offices of Senator Evan Bayh, Senator Richard Lugar, and Representative Dan Burton (5th district). The main topics of discussion were air emissions regulations, geothermal heat pump systems, a pilot project for a national groundwater monitoring network, and a USGS study on private water wells. We spent time with professionals from other states including several gentlemen from Wisconsin and Minnesota who very graciously offered assistance in our efforts in gaining state pump installers licensing. The Washington Fly-In is a very informative and worthwhile experience, and I’m sure any participant would recommend attendance to a fellow IGWA member. Hope to see you in Washington next year to help spread the issues facing our industry to our lawmakers and maybe make a few friends in the process.
The National Groundwater Association’s annual Legislative Conference was held this week in Washington D.C. Ron Shipe, Shipe Well Drilling and IGWA Treasurer and Brent Welty, Welty & Sons Well Drilling and IGWA Past President represented the Indiana Groundwater Association Sunday, February 24th through Tuesday, February 26th.
Ron and Brent along with Robert Stone, Senior Vice President of Franklin Electric, and Michael Morris of Lee & Ryan Environmental Consulting, met with Rep. Mark Souder of the 3rd District, Scott Morrison in Senator Evan Bayh’s office and Amy Oberhelmarin of Senator Lugar’s office. Rep. Souder, as usual, gave them 45 minutes of his time. (Last year he spent the same amount of time with Mike Kaufman and Donna Sheets.) Robert Stone also met with Rep. Mike Ferguson of the 7th District (interim for Rep. Julia Carson, recently deceased). Robert Stone and Michael Morris also met with Danny Crouch of Rep. Mike Pence’s office.
The NGWA’s legislative staff and Chris Reimer along, with the DUTCO legislative consultants, prepped everyone with the issues at hand. The key issues at this time were:
Geologic Carbon Sequestration – disposal of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the subsurface via well injection is one of the considerations as a viable approach to mitigating greenhouse gas buildup The CO2 generated from large industrial sources is captured, compressed and transported where it is injected into a deep geologic system to be permanently sequestered.
Secure Water Act S. 2156 – water shortages are being experienced now and are anticipated over the next 20 years. While states are gathering data to inform decision making, no state has met it data collection goals. Only 28 states responding to an NGWA survey are confident they know the potential yield from all of their state’s aquifers. One of the key objectives is to enhance the data collection in order to base the monitoring activities on sound science.
Clean Construction USA sponsored by the EPA to regulate the heavy-duty vehicle and its fuel as a single system. The NGWA asks that they be used as a resource when evaluating and implementing programs regarding this issue.
Past issues that were also mentioned are:
LUST – Leaking Underground Storage Tanks – Last year Rep. Souder wanted to know how many were in his district. The NGWA researched and came up with the information.
Geo Thermal Heat Pump Credit
Safe Drinking Water Grants
A detailed report will be included in the next newsletter. For more information on these issues, please visit www.ngwa.org -------------------------------------------------
The program was kicked off with the 2007 NGWA Affiliate State Leadership Conference on Sunday, March 4th held at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. We brought back a couple of ideas for our committee meetings on March 24th!
Monday, March 5th, we met at the Capitol Hill Club right across the street from the congressional offices. We were prepped to review the national message for the following issues:
LUST – Leaking Underground Storage Tanks: Funding Needs – in a nutshell, 211 million dollars per year is raised through a fuel tax of 1% of .01 sold in the US. Only 70 million dollars is actually appropriated to the states. According to the National Association of Convenience Stores, Indiana has 14,049 underground storage tanks. As of this writing, we are researching exactly how many of these tanks are leaking and need immediate action. The states have identified this as the number one ground water contamination source.
Household Water Well System Program – The NGWA is one of a small number of not for profit organizations to receive a $1 – million grant to establish revolving 1% low interest 20 year loan programs, maximum amount of $8,000, to households who are economically disadvantaged. Congress appropriated $10-million over a ten year period starting in 2002. The goal is to continue this program into the future with some modifications. Currently the NGWA has drawn $100,000 on their approved amount this fiscal year. (The NGWA had to put $100,000 up front to be eligible.) There are many examples of loan recipients but the most common are single parents, typically mothers with young children who have no in-home drinking water due to well collapse or pump failure. There are 22 states participating in this program with the NGWA and Indiana is one of them. According to Paul Humes, NGWA’s CFO, there are a couple of loans processing at this time in Indiana.
Ground Water Monitoring and Data Collection Briefing - There are 36 states that expect water supply shortages, either statewide or in certain areas, in the next ten years. The ability to drill large and small capacity wells in the future may hinge on the quality of the data being fed into models at the state and local level. The key objective is to establish a collaborative framework among federal, state, local and non-governmental entities to address data gaps on ground water resources.
Geothermal Heat Pump Systems – There is currently a $300 federal tax credit for residential geothermal heat pump installation. The objective is to have the credit continue beyond December 31, 2007. Geothermal heat pumps are among the most efficient heating and cooling technologies available, according to the EPA’s Energy Start Program.
On Tuesday, March 6th, Mike and Donna delivered legislative materials to Senator Lugar’s office as he sits on the Ag Committee, Rep. Ellsworth who sits on the Ag and Small Business Committees and Rep. Donnelly who sits on the Ag Committee. They met with Ann Terry in Senator Bayh’s office and Brian Fauls in Rep. Burton’s office.
Rep Mark Souder and his Legislative Assistant, Brett Swearingen, met with them personally for 30 minutes. Rep. Souder is Mike Kaufman’s congressman and he was very interested in learning how Mike’s business is impacted by issues in his county. We greatly appreciate the time afforded us by Rep. Souder. He asked for more information on LUST and how it is impacting Indiana.
This was a great experience for Mike and Donna. Next year we would like to see more representation from the Indiana groundwater industry. We would encourage you to work this into your budget for 2008. If you would like more information on these issues, please contact the IGWA office at 888-443-7330 or email ingroundwater@msn.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------IGWA Legislative Report by Fred McAninch, With The Rig Doctors and IGWA DOT Chair
On December 22nd, 2006 I scheduled a meeting with the following members of Governor Daniel’s staff; Shannon Kiely, Governor Daniel’s Legislative Director Andrew Norris, Governor Daniel’s Legal Assistant Joani Howell, Rep. Bill Ruppel’s Legislative Director Jan Zarich, Rep. Lehe’s Assistant
Indiana Groundwater Association members in attendance were: Fred McAninch, The Rig Doctors, IGWA Legislative Chair Brad White, RJM Sales & Marketing, IGWA President Rick Ortman, Ortman Drilling of Kokomo
Also in attendance were representatives from the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
In my presentation, we communicated that although we may have the license plate issue settled (no complaints as of this writing), it was actually just the tip of the “ice-berg”. The following issues are still unresolved: 1) Height exemptions 2) Weight exemptions 3) Length exemptions 4) Width exemptions 5) Inter-state highway movement (never had this)
We still have the following exemptions: 1) Federal exemptions from excise tax for trucks for mounting new or used units 2) Indiana fuel tax 3) Federal fuel tax 4) Federal highway use tax
Under federal law and DOT rules, we are strictly off-road equipment, not trucks equipment. They count the carrier and drill unit as one.
We had a good and lively dialogue that needs to be addressed. As of this date, I have heard nothing as the result of our discussion. I will follow up on this issue. As of this writing, we are LEGALLY not LEGAL on many roads and highways due to the above. We received many puzzled looks of disbelief from our comments and remarks. We are hoping all was understood. They had a hard time comprehending that our small business industry affects over four (4) million people in this state.
Should you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at 317-839-7534. If you are interested in serving on the Legislative Committee or experience any issues that should be shared with our membership, please contact me at 317-839-7534 or the IGWA staff at 888-443-7330 or 317-889-2382 or via email at ingroundwater@msn.com We will post these items on our website and develop a call to action when appropriate. Thank you. |
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