Indiana Deferred Compensation ISPA has received several calls on who to contact to receive information on our Deferred Comp Plan. Go to www.hoosierstart.com. and for all questions please call 1-877-728-6738 and take option #2 and this will place you in touch with an |
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| Legislaive Updates |
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March 17, 2008 2008 legislative session has come to an end. However, all action on bills is not completed. Many bills have yet to be presented to the governor for his review and signature or veto. So far, the Governor has only vetoed one bill (HB 1210 dealing with Teacher Certification). Final action on all legislation will not be completed for another week or two. The final process is for the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tem of the Senate to sign the printed version of each act that was passed by both houses. There is no specific time limit for that process. When an Act has been signed, it is presented to the Governor. The Governor must act (sign or veto) within 7 days after an act has been presented. If the Governor does not take an action within 7 days, the act becomes law without his signature. SR 71 (copy attached) was introduced for further studies in the Pension Managemetn Oversight Commission. Apparently the Resolution was prepared before we asked Sen Kruse to remove the MCI part, but Sen Kruse has stated that he can choose not to engage in that particular study. After the Governor has completed his review of all of the acts, I will prepare my standard "categorized" report of all legislation impacting the State Police, including bills imposing criminal sanctions of a Class A misdemeanor or higher. <<...>> <<...>> Stephen R. Buschmann Yesterday, February 18, three House Concurrent Resolutions were introduced. HCR 26 recommended designating a memorial mile of Interstate 65 honoring Trooper Micheal Greene. The resolution was referred to House Roads and Transportation HCR 33 memorialized Master Trooper David Rich. This Resolution was adopted by standing vote Stephen R. Buschmann We are nearing the end of the second leg of the legislative session. All committee action on bills must be completed and reports filed by Thursday, February 21. The last day for 2nd reading amendments is February 26 and the last day for 3rd reading passage of the bills is February 27. Conference committees will begin on Thursday, February 28. SB 33 has passed both houses and has been signed by the President Pro Tem. As soon as it is signed by the Speaker it will be "presented" to the Governor. He then has 7 days to act on the bill. We have been told that this bill may be P.L. 2, (the second bill signed into law for the 2008 Session of the General Assembly) with the first being a special property tax bill that became law on November 26 of last year. Therefore, if this happens, it would be the first bill enacted during the regular session. A big thanks to everyone who attended the legislative breakfast hosted by the Alliance in the Statehouse Rotunda. We especially wish to thank Superintendent Whitesell, Colonel Weigand, and Major Parker for their attendance. Many members of the House and Senate stopped by to chat, and express their continued support for our efforts. The event was a great success. Remember we can only be successful if our members stay involved. Meeting with Governor Daniels We enjoyed a great meeting in the Governor’s Office on January 28th. President Wayne Flick, Vice President Greg Oeth, and ISPA Executive Director Kenny Davis, met with Governor Mitch Daniels and Policy Director for Public Safety John von Arx. The meeting focused on the discussion of issues and events pertaining to our membership. As always we enjoyed the open support of Governor Daniels. Governor Daniels began by expressing his deepest sympathies and concerns, in the loss of Trooper Daniel Barrett. He stands with the entire ISP family in supporting the Barrett family, as they deal with this loss of a son and a brother. Issues Discussed: Pay Maintenance (issues for the 2009 legislative session) Retiree health insurance issues NTC Fall Conference in The Governor continues to express his gratitude for the performance and daily duties of the officers and personnel of the Indiana State Police. He is very much aware of what we do, and he is proud of our accomplishments. Governor Daniels requested that we begin looking at scheduling a spring meeting. He enjoys the updates, and the ability to assist us with the issues and concerns of our membership. If you have the opportunity, thank the Governor for his support, and for all that he has done for us. He very much enjoys hearing from the Troops in the field, remember to stay positive. As you can see we are continuing our work with the Legislators at the State House so the Alliance will again post our legislative issues in this section of our web-site for our members to read and to stay updated. As with most Short legislative session the legislators will try not to open up the Indiana Budget so there will not be many big issues passed during this session. Property Taxes will take up most of this session and we realize any big bill would be hard to pass now. There are a few administrative issues with Bills that were passed last session that we have corrected and they should get through this session. We have started speaking with our legislators about issues that we will bring up in the next long session. For the first time in many many years our new pay schedule brought us up to the average of the surrounding states. One of our goals is to make sure we never get behind these states again and it would be great if for the first time we could be the state everyone looks at for salaries. We are always looking for ways to improve our retirement benefits and pension and we will continue to do that. President Wayne Flick, VP Greg Oeth and Executive Director Kenny Davis have a meeting scheduled with the Governor on 1/28/08 to discuss several issues. As listed above the |
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