General Assembly

By Matt Tully, Originally Published in the Indianapolis Star.

Here's a game you can play if you want to get an in-depth look at the cozy relationship between lobbyists and your state lawmakers.
Just go to IndyStar.com/data and search through a new database that shows all the gifts, dinners, trips and other goodies lobbyists provided to our lawmakers during the one-year period that ended April 30.

There were golf trips and Symphony on the Prairie tickets. There were Colts tickets and Pacers tickets. There were expensive dinners and cheap dinners. There were plane fares and hotel stays.

Database: Search and find out what freebies your lawmaker accepted from lobbyists last year..

To play the game, I went to the database and clicked on the names of several lawmakers. First up: Rep. Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes.

Throughout the reporting period -- which, by the way, does not include the recent special session -- lobbyists paid more than $1,000 on Battles' behalf. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce, for instance, paid $106 for a meal. The Indiana Energy Association paid $657 for Colts tickets for Battles and his wife. AT&T chipped in a nice round of golf and NCAA basketball tickets.

In this case, Battles got goodies from groups representing the energy and telecommunications industry. Here's a tidbit: He happens to serve on the Commerce, Energy, Technology and Utilities Committee.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Chris Spangle, Executive Director of the Libertarian Party of Indiana notes that while the Legislature couldn’t pass a budget, it found time to do more important things- like name a State Pie. There were a host of other important things that weren’t discussed, much less voted on, such as the Kernan-Shepard Report recommendations for the consolidation of government.

Because the budget was not passed, a special session will happen, costing Hoosier taxpayers a minimum of $25,000 a day, at a time when money is tight and could have been spent on better things, or better yet, not spent at all. Spangle argues that Libertarians would have passed a budget, would have had the meaningful dialogue on the issues, and generally would be better stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Listen to the new podcast here: 023 Indiana’s Legislature Fails to Fulfill its’ Only Constitutionally Mandated Duty

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