Slopes CEO Sen. Perfect Won't Pursue Child Labor Bill; Takes Exception To Indy Star Report

Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 8:27 AM

By Mike Perleberg @mikedup84

"The hypocrisy there is rich that The Indianapolis Star avoids this (child labor) problem by another mechanism, yet is calling me out on the very thing."

Perfect North Slopes. File photo.

(Indianapolis, Ind.) - A southeastern Indiana lawmaker who owns Perfect North Slopes won’t carry the child labor reform bill any further during the 2019 legislative session.

In light of an Indianapolis Star report published Monday, State Senator Chip Perfect (R-Lawrenceburg) has received criticism that his bill, Senate Bill 342, would benefit his business too much. The ski area in Dearborn County employs hundreds of minors on a part-time basis each winter.

The bill sought to eliminate work permits for both in-state and out-of-state teenagers working in Indiana. It would’ve also changed how many hours 16- and 17-year-olds could work.

Perfect takes exception with the Indy Star’s report about what some characterized as a conflict of interest in him authoring the legislation. The story has gone viral, appearing in a number of other regional and national news publications.

“The story became about people’s perception and not about the facts and that was unfortunate,” Perfect told Eagle Country 99.3 Wednesday.

During a hearing of the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee earlier Wednesday, Perfect announced that SB 342 will be relegated to an interim study committee. The move, he said, will allow the child labor law reform discussion to continue without him being a distraction.

“Frankly, I wanted to get my staff and family off the hook,” he said.

Following the Indy Star report, Perfect said Tuesday he consulted the Senate Ethics Committee and received a unanimous, bi-partisan opinion that his authoring of the bill did not constitute a conflict of interest.

He argued that Indiana uses a part-time citizen legislature – most lawmakers own businesses or work other jobs – to favor people who are experts in certain topics to help craft legislation. For example, as a business owner who employs hundreds of people, he was asked to serve on the pensions and labor committee. Another local lawmaker, State Rep. Randy Frye (R-Greensburg), is a retired firefighter who serves on the House Committee of Veterans Affairs and Public Safety.

The citizen legislature model can lead to many situations which could be misconstrued as conflicts of interest.

“Lawyers pass bills which become laws every day. We have people that have farms that have bills related to farms. We had a person pass a bill, literally today, right before mine to help people who sell Amway and Mary Kay and his wife sells Mary Kay,” Perfect explained.

Perfect said Senate rules only categorize conflicts of interest in situations where bills directly benefit a lawmaker.

The second-term senator admitted he was a little naïve to have people who work for him to testify in favor of the bill at a January 23 committee meeting. Perfect North Slopes managers and the CEO of Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari essentially told the panel that work permits are a layer of bureaucracy that do little, if anything, to protect working minors.

Perfect also pointed to another situation which came up at Wednesday’s pensions and labor committee illustrating the need for child labor reform. One provision of Senate Bill 231 would allow newspapers and magazines to not treat minors who deliver their products – otherwise known as paperboys – as contract employees instead of putting them on the payroll.

“The hypocrisy there is rich that The Indianapolis Star avoids this (child labor) problem by another mechanism, yet is calling me out on the very thing. That’s the kind of hypocrisy we deal with at the Statehouse. It was unfortunate their story became about me and Perfect North Slopes instead of the real issue,” Perfect said.