The December hearings by Indiana General Assembly committees focused on issues that legislative leaders designated as
key session priorities, but the committee work was largely unremarkable, with predictable testimony derived from the usual
suspects.
The Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens Action Coalition see an expansion of the state’s
“net metering” policy as achievable during the short legislative session that starts Jan.
5.
Legislation that could bring more wind turbines and solar power projects to the state failed in the last session’s closing
hours.
A state senator from Carmel says he’ll file legislation that would prevent Indiana schools from starting classes before Labor
Day and ending after June 10.
The Indiana General Assembly is taking its first steps toward restructuring Hoosier gambling law.
Indiana lawmakers are preparing to punt on 2009’s must-solve business issue in the hope of a federal bailout. However, it’s
anybody’s
guess how Washington will respond.
Lawmakers are likely to pass property tax legislation, which would send it to a voter referendum in November and potentially
into the state constitution.
About the only certainty for the upcoming legislative session is that it will be over in March.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted 14-10 Monday in favor of the bill, which now heads to the full House for consideration.
Some Indiana mayors, desperate for revenue, think it’s time for "payments-in-lieu-of-taxes."
A group of mayors led by Tom Henry of Fort Wayne and Greg Ballard of Indianapolis is seeking new sources of revenue to replace
the millions they’ll lose because of property tax caps.
Bills aimed at adding caps on property tax bills to the state constitution and delaying increases on unemployment insurance
taxes are now before the full Republican-controlled Senate, weeks before the entire Legislature convenes on Jan. 5.
The Indiana Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee plans to vote Tuesday on bills to cap property taxes and delay unemployment
insurance tax increases.
An Indiana House committee has set Dec. 16 as the day it will take up a bill to tighten lobbying and ethics rules.
A state Senate committee got a jump-start Tuesday on discussing bills on unemployment taxes and property tax caps and plans
to vote on them next week, about a month before the full Legislature convenes.
Lawmakers meet Tuesday for Organizational Day and will begin debating measures Jan. 5 when the Legislature officially convenes
for a short session.
Increases in property and payroll taxes are among the key issues again confronting the business community when the General
Assembly convenes in January.
The state should delay unemployment tax increases on businesses from 2010 to 2011 to help companies retain workers and possibly
wait long enough for a federal bailout, Republicans who control the Indiana Senate said Tuesday.
It seems like everybody at the Indiana Statehouse wants to talk about lobbying ethics these days.
Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer wants to revamp state ethics rules so that lawmakers would have to wait a year after leaving
office before becoming a Statehouse lobbyist.
