Ind. Supreme Court rules on fines

TERRE HAUTE, ind. (WTHI) - You may remember the General Assembly walkout from 2011 .

Indiana’s Supreme Court has made a ruling on what fines to give. But the court's decision may be more of a request.
    
During the walkout, House Democrats fled to Illinois to avoid passing legislation they say steam rolled their interests.
 
In an attempt to bring them back, Republicans in the house started fines for each missing member.
    
We sat down with House Democrat member Clyde Kersey to find out where those fines stand.
    
According to him, when Speaker of the House Brian Bosma fined the Democrats there was no law on how to collect the money.
    
He turned to the Indiana State Treasurer who withheld the daily money allowance, or per diem, of the missing Democrats.
    
But, he did so without a court order.
    
So this week, the Indiana Supreme Court heard the case for collecting the fines. But their ruling was less of a decision and more of a mandate.

The Chief Justice told House democrats and republicans to work on a compromise when the new session begins.

With the fines and litigation dragging on for nearly two years, Representative Kersey was asked if he regretted the walk out.

"No, absolutely not. I think we walked out for two things. We walked out to help the working men and women in this state, because they are going to lose probably $5000-per-year,” Clyde Kersey explained, “when this plays out and lose a lot of their insurance benefits. So, I don't regret that for a minute.”

The Indiana legislature convenes on Monday to kickoff a long session.