POLITICS

Rep. Turner led effort to kill measure bad for son’s business, lawmakers say

Tony Cook and Barb Berggoetz
tony.cook@indystar.com

On the surface, Rep. Eric Turner had nothing to do with a last-minute decision to kill a proposed nursing home moratorium that would have harmed his son’s business.

He even abstained from voting on the issue.

But behind the scenes, Turner — the second highest-ranking member of the Indiana House — played a much different role, passionately urging fellow Republicans during a private caucus meeting to defeat the moratorium, according to two GOP lawmakers who spoke to The Star on the condition of anonymity.

By the next day, the moratorium, which had passed both chambers and several committees in one form or another, was dead.

Turner’s successful backroom effort to kill the moratorium raises new concerns about his influence over legislation his family has a financial interest in.

“For him to insert himself yet again on an issue of interest to the nursing home industry — where several members of his family have a direct interest — is extremely disappointing,” said Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, a good government advocacy group.

Turner, a Cicero Republican, did not return several calls from The Star.

He co-founded Carmel-based health care facility developer Mainstreet Property Group, which led the opposition to the moratorium.

His son, Zeke Turner, is chairman of the company; his daughter, Jessica Turner Stults, lobbies for it.

Supporters of the moratorium argued that it was needed to address an overabundance of nursing home facilities that threatened to drive up the cost of the state’s Medicaid program. Three groups representing nursing home operators supported the measure.

But opponents, led by Mainstreet Property Group, argued it would stifle economic development and job creation.

Company officials did not return a call Monday from The Star.

Earlier this year, however, Zeke Turner, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, on which his father sits. He said the moratorium threatened the 24 skilled nursing properties the company planned to build during the next three years.

“If those can’t be done in Indiana,” he said during a news conference, “then we’ll just go elsewhere. It would be a shame not to do it in this state.”

During the debate, Rep. Turner kept his distance from the issue — at least in public. After his son testified in Ways and Means, Turner abstained from voting. He did so again when the issue came before the Public Health Committee, on which he also sits, and during the House vote.

The moratorium passed by comfortable margins each time.

As the session drew to a close, lawmakers had to reconcile the House version, with a one-year moratorium, and the Senate version, with a five-year delay. The bill sponsors agreed to two years.

Moratorium advocates thought they had won.

Steve Tittle, president of Indiana Health Care Association, an advocacy group representing about half of the state’s 520 nursing homes, estimated there were 37 or 38 House Republicans in favor of a moratorium.

“We believed we had very strong bipartisan support in the Senate from both caucuses and support from House Democrats, and also believed we had a majority of the House Republican caucus supporting us as well.”

But then Turner used his influence to make an 11th-hour plea, sources said.

On Wednesday, the day before the session ended, he addressed a private meeting of House Republicans and asked them to kill the measure, highlighting job and economic benefits of nursing home development, according to two lawmakers who were present.

He did not disclose his family’s financial interest, though several lawmakers said the connection was common knowledge.

His appeal apparently turned the tide. The House GOP caucus pulled the provision.

Tittle was shocked.

“At the last minute, things broke down after the closed meeting,” he said. “It’s really disappointing and almost mystifying how this happened.”

In other states, a moratorium on nursing home construction is not unusual. Many either have a moratorium or require developers to show significant need for a new nursing home.

In Indiana, the nursing home occupancy rate is 74 percent, with about 13,000 unoccupied beds. That rate is about 11 percentage points below the national occupancy rate. From 2006 to 2008, under then-Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana had a moratorium on new nursing homes.

The sudden defeat of the moratorium disappointed some Democrats.

“There’s a lot of concern about Representative Turner’s heavy handedness,” said Charlie Brown, D-Gary.

“It is so disheartening,” he said. “At one point, we were moving toward home health care, trying to keep people out of nursing homes, trying to prevent a plethora of new nursing homes from coming online because most are less than 70 percent occupied.”

It’s not the first time Turner’s actions have raised ethical concerns.

Last year, The Associated Press reported that Turner pushed a measure sought by a company that had hired his daughter. Insure-Rite was seeking a multimillion-dollar state contract.

And in 2011, as a member of Ways and Means, Turner planned to vote against a similar effort to limit the number of nursing home beds; his son and daughter testified against the measure.

He ultimately declined to do so after a story in The Star highlighted his connections.

Call Star reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.