The Indiana House of Representatives passed an expansion of slots at the race tracks by a vote of 54-44. The expansion would pay for the property tax relief in the state budget.

I’ve written ad nauseum this weekend about Indy Works III and Marion County Consolidation. I’m going to give this a rest for a while, but as the Mayor gets ready to craft Indy Works IV in the wake of this most recent defeat, I have one piece of advice for him. Instead of taking aspirin for your headache, step up the raids at the pea shake houses and put them out of business. I think that might be more effective at making your headaches go away as well as the pains that are right below your lower back.

The Indiana House is now taking up a bill to expand gaming in the state. The measure is necessary to pay for more than $500 million in property tax relief. The bill would expand slots at the state’s racetracks. The House also voted tonight would also crackdown on illegal gaming by adding more enforcement staff (16 officers) to the state gaming commission.

The Indiana State budget cleared its first major hurdle tonight. The House of Representatives passed the $26 billion biennial budget by a vote of 51-49. Democrats said the budget was structurally balanced and provided Hoosiers with $700 million in property tax relief over the next two years. However, Republicans say the budget contained a 24 percent average tax increase and ridiculed the mail rebate Hoosiers would receive in November for the tax credit included in the legislation. Democrats disputed that number saying it was only a 7 percent increase after the tax credit kicked in. The measure now goes to the Senate.

This time it really is dead for another year. Efforts to consolidate the Marion County Township Fire Departments are dead, according to Senate bill sponsor James Merritt. Merritt was putting together a plan that would allow the City-County Council to vote on consolidating the fire departments, but it would also have to vote on consolidating the Trustees. Merritt says there was not enough time to put together the legislation in the final hours of the General Assembly. He also reiterated the fact that Democrat Bill Crawford opposed the merger of the Trustees. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. When State Rep. Phil Hinkle, Republican, opposed consolidation we labelled him an obstructionist. I think that title has now been passed on to Bill Crawford.

It’s 9:10 p.m. while the House floor debate continues the shenanigans have begun. Democrat Ryan Dvorak is ticked off and stormed out of the chamber. His fellow Democrats are trying to calm him down. And there may be something with State Rep. Craig Fry, who has doubted whether he will vote for the budget.

By a vote of 74-25, the Indiana House of Representatives gave local governments more power to raise taxes in exchange for property tax relief. Under the measure locals could levy a .25 public safety tax to pay for police and pensions, in addition, local governments could levy an income tax, but must reduce property taxes accordingly.

It’s 8:35 p.m. Lawmakers are about to start debating the budget and property taxes soon. This should be interesting. I’m in the House Chamber and watching the Senate over my wireless Internet.

Indiana lawmakers are caucusing right with less than five hours to go before the midnight adjournment deadline. The state budget is out. The $26 billion spending plan includes money for schools and full-day kindergarten. It also has more than $4 billion in property tax replacement credits. There are also some smaller items like a pre-kindergarten grant pilot program. Don’t ask me what that is.

As far as contentious issues go, to the best of my knowledge, there are enough votes in the Senate to pass, although some Conservatives may balk at the spending. On the House side, to the best of my knowledge, no Republican will vote for the budget if it does not include more property tax relief, which means Democrats will need all 51 votes, and it’s not clear of those are there yet.

There is some apparent movement on Indy Works. The current plan includes fire consolidation and a three-year free on township levys. The City-County Council could vote on consolidation as early as this year. The trustees and assessors would still remain in place. However, my gut instinct tells me that that there is more to here than meets the eye.

Stay tuned.

Indiana lawmakers have less than 7 hours to go before adjournment and it looks like Indy Works (in some form) may be back on the table. The curent “compromise” would have the City-County Council approve the merger of all Township fire departments, but not until 2008, after this year’s election.

This would put the measure on a “defacto” ballot by letting the CCC make the decision. Although it would make the consolidation a campaign issue it would clearly put the Business Community and Fire Fighters on the side of pro-consolidation candidates. The GOP, should it choose to back anti-consolidation candidates, would have the task of being in the intellectually-challenging position of appearing to defend more governement.

The Mayor’s Office is not crazy about this proposal. They say it would delay the necessary $15 million in savings needed to fund public safety by a year.

Their hope would be that the public is so upset with Peterson and the way the police merger and other matters have been handled that they would not trust him on fire consolidation and would elect candidates who would keep the Mayor in check. Good luck. I hope this is part of some bigger negotiating ploy.

More to follow.