Advocates fear cuts to home health care program
Advocates for Indiana’s seniors warned Monday that Gov. Mitch Daniels’ proposed spending cuts for a state program that provides in-home health care for the elderly and disabled would hurt people on the program’s long waiting list. State officials contend that wouldn’t be the case if the General Assembly approves the cuts because a Medicaid waiver offers many of the same home health services as the state-funded CHOICE program.
Indiana working to reduce unemployment claims backlog
The state’s unemployment office is jammed with about 42,000 claims that won’t be paid to out-of-work Hoosiers until paperwork problems are resolved. The Department of Workforce Development said Friday it will hire 100 new employees to help handle the red flags. But that’s little consolation to those who are out of jobs – and out of cash. “A lot of creditors don’t really care if you’ve been laid off or not. They want their money,” said Fort Wayne resident Ron Miller, who applied for benefits after he and his wife both lost their jobs last year. Miller’s unemployment benefits came smoothly, but a snag with his wife’s unemployment claim meant the couple went weeks without her unemployment benefits.
Ban eyed on politics for public workers
The first of the Kernan-Shepard proposals to be heard by state lawmakers met with vocal resistance from public employee groups Monday, a hint of the opposition the rest of the government streamlining proposals potentially could generate. At the Legislature, “Kernan-Shepard” is the shorthand term to describe a package of numerous bills that would restructure local governments at the municipal, county and township levels. The bills are based on ideas of the Kernan-Shepard Commission, a seven-member blue-ribbon panel that in 2007 proposed sweeping changes to Indiana’s local government system.
Head files his first bill
State Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, was to file his first bill with the Indiana General Assembly today. Its aim is closing a loophole that sometimes prevents county prosecutors from seeking a habitual offender charge, which results in a tougher sentence if a person is convicted. Indiana’s Three Strikes Law allows judges to impose additional prison time once a person is convicted of three felonies. Head’s piece of legislation, Senate Bill 276, passed out of committee last week. It would allow prosecutors to file the enhancement request any time before trial as long as the defense has time to investigate the charge. Currently, that filing is required within 10 days after the court-set deadline for all paperwork pertaining to a criminal case to be completed and filed. Head explained his legislation, and talked about other issues being considered by the Indiana General Assembly, at Saturday’s Rochester & Lake Manitou Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast. It was the first of three. The remaining two are Feb. 28 and March 28, at 8 a.m. at Manitou Banquet Hall.
