INDIANAPOLIS | Gov. Mitch Daniels signed 33 bills into law Monday, all but closing the books on this year's legislative session.

The final 2008 measures enacted by the Republican governor will move South Shore commuter rail expansion efforts to a summer study committee, allow Hoosiers to pay property taxes through an electronic monthly bank deduction and offer free college tuition to military veterans who receive Purple Heart medals.

The batch of new laws, most of which take effect in July, also includes an attempt to consolidate 911 call centers. It follows one of the 27 recommendations made last year by the Indiana Commission on Local Government Reform, a blue-ribbon panel led by former Gov. Joe Kernan and Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard.

That legislation, co-authored by Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, gives counties until 2014 to consolidate to no more than two emergency response call systems. Lawmakers said that Lake County has 17 separate call systems.

Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, sponsored Senate Bill 208, which will allow counties to set up automatic monthly payment plans for property owners who don't pay taxes through mortgage escrow accounts. County councils can begin offering the electronic deduction option in July 2009.

House Bill 1220 will have the State Tax and Financing Policy Commission examine ways to close a $350 million shortfall in the $1 billion plan to extend South Shore lines to Lowell and Valparaiso. The summer study commission has until November to make recommendations to the General Assembly.

Daniels vetoed only one of the 148 measures sent to him this year by the Legislature. The governor nixed an effort by Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, to create a waiver system for teachers who narrowly fail the state certification exam.

Lawmakers can attempt to reverse the governor's veto when they convene for an organizational day in November or wait until the new session starts in early January.