AUDIO: Indiana Lawmakers Hope Special Session Lasts Just A Day

In essence, the unfinished bills would be picked up from where lawmakers left off in March.

Indiana House of Representatives. File photo.

(Indianapolis, Ind.) – Indiana’s state lawmakers will try Monday to finish off the legislation they needed to but couldn’t during the normal 2018 legislative session.

At a cost of about $30,000, a one-day special session will be held May 14 at the Indiana Statehouse. A chaotic end to the session in the GOP-led House and Senate in March left a number of critical bills unpassed.

It is the first time the General Assembly has held a special session since 2009.

The bills in question deal with bringing the state into compliance with changes in the federal tax code, providing an extra $5 million for the Secured School Safety Grant Program, and a state takeover of Gary and Muncie schools.

The House convenes at 9:00 a.m. Monday, while the Senate will start at 1:30 p.m.

Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma (R-Indianapolis) said lawmakers may take advantage of a constitutional provision allowing them to ignore the requirement that bills be heard in each chamber on three separate days – a move that 34 of 50 senators and 67 of 100 state representatives must agree to.

State Rep. Randy Frye (R-Greensburg) said the bills were thoroughly vetted during the regular session.

"They've been through the process of hearings and they've been through conference committees. So we're just going to finish up what we ran out of time on there at the end of the session," Frye said Monday.

LISTEN TO EAGLE COUNTRY 99.3'S INTERVIEW WITH RANDY FRYE.

Some Democrats have opposed the idea of not vetting the bills, some of which they claim have been amended since the session ended two months ago. But Republicans have supermajorities in both houses.

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said this will be “a special session for special interests.”

“If working Hoosiers didn’t finish their job on time and on budget, they’d be handed a pink slip. Statehouse Republicans are so out of touch, they simply chose to stick Hoosier taxpayers with the $30,000/day bill for their incompetence,” said Zody.

Bosma, however, warned that not waiving the three-day requirement would turn the one-day session into one that lasts a week.

"That would not be a wise vote. We need to get in, complete our business just as it existed on the last night and in as expeditious a fashion as possible for the taxpayer,” he said.

The speaker said taxpayers come out ahead, as the 2017 lawmaking session adjourned eight days early.