Politics

Indiana’s new governor will be sworn in Monday at the statehouse in Indianapolis.

Republican Mike Pence will become Indiana’s 50th governor during an 11 a.m. ceremony, taking the oath of office along with Lt. Gov.-elect Sue Ellspermann and Attorney General Greg Zoeller.

Pence spokeswoman Christy Denault says the new governor will deliver his inaugural address and then get right to work.

"At 11:53 we expect to conclude, turn around and walk through those doors, and then Gov. Pence will walk straight to his office and we have some order of business to begin immediately, says Denault. "He’ll be signing executive orders that day, first day executive orders."

Pence will deliver his State of the State address to the Indiana General Assembly on January 22.

Outgoing governor Mitch Daniels will report for duty Tuesday as the new president of Purdue University.

Kentucky legislative leaders say they haven't responded yet to Gov. Steve Beshear’s request to delay General Assembly redistricting in the 2013 session.

Senate President Robert Stivers says his leadership team has not yet decided on a response and that many in his chamber are conflicted on when to address redistricting.

“And we all have varying opinions on what needs to be done and when it needs to be done and one thing I don’t think we need to do is a special session,” he says.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo says he’d like to get the issue out of the way, but will work with Stivers and the governor on a resolution during the legislature’s upcoming two week break.

Current Kentucky state employees and retirees packed the Capitol Rotunda to encourage lawmakers to rethink some proposals made by a task force on public pensions last year.

Calling themselves the Kentucky Public Pension Coalition, the group of more than a dozen interested organizations encouraged their members to tell lawmakers not to switch to a hybrid pension plan for new hires and to reinstate cost of living adjustments every year.

Bill Londrigan is the president of the Kentucky AFL-CIO and a member of the coalition. And he says a study by the group shows a hybrid 401K plan reduces benefits year after year.

“You know if you look at it, you’ll see the estimates decrease benefits over the long term, something we’re totally against,” he says.

The Tennessee House has voted to cap the number of bills members can introduce, a move GOP leaders think will help streamline business in the chamber.

The Tennessean reports the House passed a 15-bill limit for each member. House Speaker Beth Harwell initially wanted a ten-bill per member limit.

Supporters say the limit on legislation will lead to an increase in the overall quality of bills brought up in the chamber. But opponents describe the move as an effort to muzzle them. Representative Joe Towns of Memphis denounced the limit, saying “this is not the chamber of a communist country.”

The Tennessee Senate, meanwhile, finished their weekly business without deciding whether to bind the chamber to the state’s Open Meetings Act.