INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's right-to-work legislation stayed put today as the Democrats stalled for time and Republicans huddled to decide their next move.

This morning's scheduled House session did not take place, as the Democrats pulled a work stoppage for the fifth time this year. A quorum of at least two-thirds of the 100-member House is required to hold a session. Although the House Republicans hold a 60-40 majority, they can't start a session without at least seven Democrats being present.

At issue is whether or not Indiana will become the nation's 23rd right-to-work state. Under the legislation (House Bill 1001), companies and unions would be prohibited from negotiating contracts requiring employees to join unions and requirements that non-union employees pay union dues would be banned.

The latest line from the Indiana House Democrats is that they're not boycotting the House sessions, just the bill. They're claiming they need more time to prepare their referendum amendment.

The referendum amendment was one of 44 amendments the Democrats were expected to try to get attached to the bill in a scheduled debate on Tuesday. Just before the debate was supposed to take place, however, the Democrats bolted and the session came to a halt.

According to the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency that serves the Indiana General Assembly, the Democrats' original version of the referendum amendment included violations of the Indiana Constitution.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has said the state's $1,000 per-day fines would be put into effect today if the Democrats failed to show up for the House session. House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer, however, has told his colleagues and the news media that the fines can't be enforced.

A commonly reported context for the stalling tactics used by the Democrats is that they are trying to delay the issue until the Super Bowl, which takes place Feb. 5 in Indianapolis. In addition, it appears that a growing portion of the Indiana news media is reporting on the RTW battle with skepticism about the motives on both sides of the aisle.

Salem Township employees don’t contribute anything to their health care costs.

And they won’t have to contribute up to 20 percent of their health care costs as a new state law mandates after the Salem Township board voted 7-0 to exempt itself from the law at its Dec. 13 meeting. Municipalities need a two-thirds vote from the governing body to be exempt from the law.

The Publicly Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act (Public Act 152) states that as of Jan. 1, 2012, “a public employer shall pay not more than 80% of the total annual costs of all of the medical benefit plans it offers or contributes to for its employees and elected public officials.”

The township's resolution states: “Salem Township further believes that the determination of compensation and benefits for the township employees are most properly under the venue of township’s elected representatives, and not the State of Michigan or its officials.”

Salem Township Supervisor Robert Heyl defended the vote in an email.

“We exempted ourselves to allow us time to work on a complete benefits package for our employees,” Heyl said. “Our only union employees are the paid on-call firefighters, and none of them have opted for health insurance. Our other employees currently do not contribute to health insurance. This will more than likely change.”

Jack McHugh, senior legislative analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, said no private-sector businesses would contemplate paying 100 percent of health care costs.

“Does government exist to serve the people, or the other way around?” asked McHugh. “Township officials who vote for excessive benefits show they're confused about who really deserves their loyalty — taxpayers or government employees and their unions.”

The average Michigan private-sector worker pays 21 percent of their health insurance, and the average federal employee in Michigan pays about 25 percent.

Salem Township is located in Washtenaw County.