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Indiana's immigration laws on agenda for summer study
BY PATRICK GUINANE
Friday, May 23, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS | State lawmakers created a special committee Thursday to spend the next five months examining the politically charged issue of illegal immigration.

Efforts to create a three-tiered punishment system for Indiana companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants fizzled in the final days of this year's legislative session, which ended in March.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said the new Interim Study Committee on Immigration Issues will bring fresh facts to a debate sure to resume when lawmakers reconvene in January.

"I think it's real important that we get to understand some of the basic costs associated with this issue," Long said.

The 12-member study committee is charged with charting the financial impact illegal immigrants have on health care, law enforcement, schools and welfare programs.

The Indiana Legislative Council, an oversight panel led by Long and House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, also authorized nearly two dozen other summer study committees on Thursday.

One panel will examine funding woes that have plagued adult education programs in Portage and other school districts. Another committee will weigh funding proposals for the $1 billion plan to extend South Shore commuter rail lines to Lowell and Valparaiso.

The study groups will make recommendations to the full General Assembly this fall. Legislative leaders will appoint lawmakers to various panels in the coming weeks.

State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, is likely to chair the Health Finance Commission, which will review complaints that the IBM-led consortium the state hired to oversee welfare applications has improperly denied food stamps and other benefits.

Some of the 21 summer study committees created by Indiana General Assembly:

-- Immigration Issues -- Cost of illegal immigration in Indiana, methods for verifying employment status on agenda
-- Adult Education -- Expected to focus on funding shortfalls
-- Alcoholic Beverages -- A look at the state's blue laws (liquor stores closed on Sunday; No cold beer in grocery stores) is on tap
-- Education -- Steroid testing for high school athletes among study topics
-- Health Finance -- Should state tweak eligibility requirements for the cigarette-tax funded Healthy Indiana Plan?
-- Tax and Financing Policy -- Will examine state and local funding options for South Shore commuter rail expansion

www.nwitimes.com