O'Bannon's tax cut veto stands

INDIANAPOLIS -- State lawmakers are unlikely to override vetoes by Gov. Frank O'Bannon when they convene Tuesday to make preparations for the 2001 legislative session.\nHouse Speaker John Gregg said Thursday he would consider taking up only one of 11 bills vetoed in March -- a measure that would give tax cuts to Indiana insurance companies -- and even that was unlikely.\n"The main reason we won't (do overrides) is number one, it's normally a ceremonial day, and number two, we have members who won't be familiar with them yet," said Gregg, D-Sandborn.\nBut he said overrides would be considered when the session begins in earnest in January.\nSenate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, said he did not plan to consider overrides Tuesday on two of the 11 vetoed bills that originated in the Senate.\nThe official name of Tuesday's gathering is Organization Day, a day traditionally set aside in November to do house-cleaning chores before legislative sessions begin in January.\nLast year, Organization Day turned into a six-day "mini session" in which lawmakers approved seven bills, including measures that had failed to pass in the confusing final days of the 1999 session.\nAfter the 2000 session ended in early March, O'Bannon vetoed several bills because he said they could negatively impact the state's coffer.\nJust days prior to the end of that session, news broke that a tax cut approved in 1999 would cost the state $200 million more than originally projected. At the time, O'Bannon said that could reduce the state's budget surplus below $1.1 billion, the amount he maintains is needed to protect the state from an economic downturn.\nAmong other things, the vetoed bills would have cut the insurance premium tax rate from 2 percent to 1.3 percent over five years, and increase research and development tax credits as a way to lure more high-tech jobs to the state.\nO'Bannon said he wanted to wait until the fiscal-year close-out in July to determine whether incoming revenues would make the spending bills affordable. In July, he said it seemed as if they would.\nHe said then that if economic conditions warranted, he would encourage lawmakers in November to override his vetoes of some spending bills.\nBut O'Bannon has said recently that revenue growth might be falling below earlier projections. A new fiscal forecast is due out in December.\n"The governor is hopeful that legislators will take a comprehensive view of the state's fiscal condition and budgetary needs when considering action on Organization Day," O'Bannon spokeswoman Cheryl Reed said Thursday.\n"While the state is in good fiscal health, the most prudent course of action is probably to wait until the December forecast when we have a more definitive, objective and nonpartisan picture"