Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 136, Greencastle, Putnam County, 6 February 1985 — Page 3

Marital property bill receives support down the Senate aisle

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Legislature has advanced a bill that would treat property acquired by either spouse during a marriage as marital property. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 Tuesday for Senate Bill 178, sponsored by Sens. Virginia M. Blankenbaker, RIndianapolis, and Julia M. Carson, DIndianapolis. The bill now goes to the full Senate. The measure would treat property, salaries, interest and other income acquired by either spouse during a marriage as marital property, instead of individual assets, with certain exceptions. Property owned before the marriage would continue to belong to its original owner. However, income earned on that property would belong equally to both spouses. If property owned by one spouse appreciates during the marriage, the increase in its worth would remain the property of the individual owner. Supporters say the measure wouldn’t turn Indiana into a community property state where a couple’s property is split 5050 upon divorce or death. The bill is needed, they said, to restore fairness, particulary for women, in

House curtailing Supreme Court caseload

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) A proposed constitutional amendment to curb the state Supreme Court’s growing criminal caseload has been approved by the Indiana House. House Joint Resolution 8 would eliminate the right of automatic Supreme Court review in criminal appeals where sentences are 10 years or more. Those cases would go to the Court of Appeals, if the amendment is adopted. Rep. John Donaldson, R-Lebanon, the sponsor, said the proposed amendment would do away with mandatory Supreme Court review in death penalty cases. But he said he wouldn’t object if the Senate changed the resolution so that capital punishment cases would receive scrutiny by the state’s highest court. The Supreme Court could choose to review any criminal case but would not be forced to, he said. The vote was 87-9 for the resolution, sen-

Committee votes to raise income tax exemptions

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Families stand to gain more than working couples under an exemption-raising bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee. The panel voted 18-0 Tuesday for legislation that will boost state income tax exemptions for the first time in more than 20 years at an annual cost of $40.5 million in lost revenue. “The taxpayers thank you,” said Rep. Patrick K. Kiely, R-Anderson, the committee’s chairman and the bill’s sponsor, after the vote was announced. House Bill 1082 would double from

Blood banks being drained by increased use, lack of donors

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) An emergency call for donors by The Central Indiana Regional Blood Center was made necessary in part by the public’s fear of AIDS, officials said. • Blood supplies fell to a critically low level last week and had to be bolstered by emergency contributions by National Guard and military reserve units, according to Jeannine Murphy of the blood center. “We were just praying for people to come in,” added Carol Sumner, also of the blood center. The public’s awareness and misconceptions about Aquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS, have also hurt, according to Ms. Murphy. “You can’t get AIDS by giving blood,” she said. “I can talk and talk and talk, but they hear only ‘AIDS and transfusion.’ AIDS has absolutely destroyed many blood drives. It’s a mess and a problem ... all across theU.S.” The needles used in blood donations are

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distribution of property at the end of a marriage. Sen. William H. Vobach, R-Indianapolis, said he supported the concept of the measure, but voted against it because he feels the committee should reconcile the measure with existing Indiana divorce and probate statutes. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-3 for a measure that would allow the natural grandparents of an adopted child to maintain visitation rights ordered by a court prior to the child’s adoption. S.B. 305, sponsored by Sens. Ralph J. Potesta, R-Hammond, and John B. Augsburger, R-Syracuse, was amended so a judge could withdraw the original visitation order in certain cases. The bill goes to the full Senate. A bill that would reduce the mandatory sentences for certain habitual offenders cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee 70. S.B. 6, sponsored by Sens. Leslie Duvall, R-Indianapolis, and William Costas, RValparaiso, would reduce the mandatory sentence from 30 to 20 years if a Class D felony was one of the three felonies used to convict a person on an habitual offender charge.

ding it to the Senate If the proposal is approved this year, it would have to be passed again in either the 1987 or 1988 sessions and then go to the voters in a statewide referendum before it would become part of the Constitution. In other action on the Legislature’s 22nd working day, the House passed a bill that protects visitation rights obtained by grandparents, even if their grandchild is later adopted by a step-parent. House Bill 1353,

SSOO to SI,OOO the personal exemptions afforded each taxpayer and spouse as well as exemptions for dependents, the blind and the elderly. It would do away with the second SSOO exemption that can be claimed now by taxpayers and spouses who earn at least SSOO in income each year. Kiely said he considered maintaining this extra exemption so that each incomeearning taxpayer and spouse could get $1,500 apiece in exemptions. But that would boost the cost to almost SBB million, “which I thought was a little more than we

sterilized and thrown away after they are used, the blood center operators emphasized. And persons who give blood are not exposed to needles that have been used by others. The problem is nationwide, not just in Indiana. But in the Hoosier state the Indianapolis blood center serves 39 hospitals in 26 Indiana counties. Red Cross blood centers provide blood for hospitals in northern and southern Indiana, and “They’re doing terrible also,” Ms. Murphy said. David Lageveen, field representative at the Lafayette blood center, said an overall increase in the use of blood is the main cause of the blood supply shortage. Shipments from the center were up 8 percent last month over January of 1984, officials said, adding that there were five emergency appeals last year the first such appeals in two years. There have been three emergency appeals since Dec. 28.

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If the Class D felony was the third offense, the mandatory sentence would be reduced from 30 to 10 years, and if all three offenses were Class D felonies, the mandatory sentence would be eight years. The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill defining death for purposes of Indiana law. Under House Bill 1476, sponsored by Reps. Marilyn F. Schultz, D-Bloomington, and John W. Donaldson, R-Lebanon, a person is dead when either his lungs and heart stop working or his brain ceases to function. By case law, death is defined as the irreversible cessation of circulatory or respiratory functions. The Judiciary Committee endorsed a bill giving people over 18 the right to create a will, stating their desire to refuse extraordinary medical treatment when they are comatose and terminally ill. The statement must be in writing and witnessed by two disinterested people. The bill was sent to the full House A bill that would allow the Public Service Commission to deregulate the Indiana telephone industry passed the House Public Policy and Veterans Affairs Committee?^.

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approved 91-4, was prompted by a 1984 appeals court ruling that adoption cuts off any visitation rights a grandparent may have won in court. The House voted 82-12 for a bill that would allow a grandparent to seek visitation rights when his own son or daughter has custody of the grandchild. Current law permits grandparents to seek court-approved visitation rights only when a former son-in-law or daughter-in-

couid afford at this time,” he explained. With Indiana’s 3 percent income tax rate, an extra SSOO exemption is worth sls to the person claiming it. The exemption changes would have the effect of giving a bigger tax break to families than to working couples who have no children. For example, under current lgw a family of four with one working spouse gets $2,500 in exemptions each family member plus an extra SSOO exemption for the income-earner If Kiely’s bill becomes law, that family

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Four Greencastle High School students recently served as legislative pages for Rep. John Thomas (R-Brazil) at the Indiana Statehouse. Melissa Lancaster (left), Jodi Green, Jennifer Ferriss and Cynthia Roberts helped deliver messages for lawmakers and assisted the House

law has custody of the grandchild. “If you are going to give grandparents a right of visitation, you ought to give it to all grandparents or to none,” said Rep. Jerome J. Reppa, R-Munster, sponsor of H.B 1181. The House rejected an effort by Rep. Jerry Bales, R-Bloomington, to ban alcoholic beverage sales anywhere except in liquor stores and bars. Bales noted beer and wine may be sold in grocery and drug stores by clerks under 21. He complained that excise police who enforce under-age drinking laws never check anywhere except bars and package stores. When a customer buys beer or wine at a grocery, “who's going to stop you to see what you’ve got in that bag?” Bales asked. “I think you stay up late at night thinking of these provocative amendments,” Rep Edward Goble, D-Batesville, told Bales.

would be able to claim $4,000 in exemptions. By contrast, a husband and wife who both work and have no dependents get $2,000 in exemptions now personal exemptions and another SSOO apiece as income-earner exemptions. They would get no additional tax break under the bill because they would get SI,OOO apiece in personal exemptions; the in-come-earner exemption would be abolished. Kiely described his bill as “tax simplification.”

staff by distributing bills, committee reports and schedules throughout the State house. In recognition of their service, they received a certificate from Rep. Thomas and House Speaker J. Roberts Dailey.

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February 6,1985, The Putnam County Banner-Graphic

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