INDIANAPOLIS – A years-long disagreement between Statehouse Republicans over how best to fund pension benefit bonuses came to a head last week when a Senate committee stripped a House bill providing 13th checks and instead inserted a Senate bill introducing a future hybrid approach.
Senators also approved legislation prioritizing “intellectual diversity” in higher education institutions – over academic freedom fears – alongside controversial election security and cosmetology bills. However, they encountered a stumbling block on a prison proposal.
Indiana’s lawmakers have traditionally offered public retirees a 13th check or a cost-of-living adjustment to supplement pension benefits that lag inflation. The ad hoc bonuses have become a sticking point between the House, which favors them, and the Senate, which has desired a long-term solution.
Last year, lawmakers approved no bonus, angering many public retirees.
“We have to fix this so we’re not having these discussions every year,” said Sen. Ryan Mishler, who chairs the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
This session, the House put forth legislation giving public retirees a 13th check this year. The Senate, meanwhile, proposed Senate Bill 275, establishing a long-term, hybrid approach in 2025 – but it never got a hearing in the House, killing it.
But when the Appropriations panel added House Bill 1004 to its agenda just before Senate deadlines, it wasn’t for a compromise. Mishler offered an amendment emptying the bill and replacing it with his chamber’s version.
Mishler said he doesn’t believe the General Assembly can do both in tandem.
“We have to build the fund up,” he said. “If you do a 13th check, you’re going to prolong the permanent fix. That’s the trade-off.”
A fund already exists to pay for such additional benefits. But Mishler told reporters public employers would face higher surcharge rates to finance both the short-term and long-term approaches at the same time.
“They wouldn’t be able to afford that,” he said.
Several groups representing public retirees said they continued to support the long-term fix but were disappointed in the lack of a short-term stopgap.
Read the rest of the Indiana Capital Chronicle story on this bill, here. You will also learn what other bills moved forward last week at the Indiana Statehouse.