An 11th-hour deal struck before the end of Indiana's yearly legislative session will give Gov. Mike Pence just a fraction of the $1 billion he proposed spending to make state highway improvements.
GOP leaders said Wednesday that the deal will be a two-year agreement expected to pump about $1 billion into highway and road spending while allowing local governments to implement their own vehicle registration taxes.
Legislation for road improvements that would also fund a key piece of Gov. Mike Pence’s agenda passed the Indiana House on Wednesday, but not by a large margin.
Too many Indiana roads and bridges are in disrepair thanks to the Legislature’s reluctance in recent years to hammer out a long-term road-funding plan.
Planners thought most of the $53.5 million earmarked for projects would come from leasing excess space on the state’s 310 cellphone towers. But the Legislative Services Agency estimates those leases will bring $10 million to $12 million over the next 10 years.
The measure is stalled in the Ways and Means Committee, but Speaker Brian Bosma says the governor’s help on a long-term road funding bill could get it moving.
The 2016 Indiana bicentennial can serve both as party and as a springboard for thinking about our future. The state’s bicentennial commission has laid plans that both bolster Indiana’s statewide opportunities and promote local initiatives.
Young, talented people are looking for quality of life, and will choose a community with a rich lifestyle over a good job elsewhere. Indiana has seen stagnating population growth at least in part as a result of our failure to keep up with this trend.
While leaders for the GOP majorities in both chambers discussed an array of policy priorities, they had much less to say about the debate over adding discrimination protections for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender people to state law.
Republicans who control the Indiana Senate are supporting a request from Gov. Mike Pence for an extra $42 million toward the new state grant program. And House Speaker Brian Bosma says it will likely pass.
The legislative priorities for Indiana Senate Republicans include $418 million to improve local roads, another $42 million for the Regional Cities program, and protecting educators from negative impacts of ISTEP.
On the eve of the 2016 legislative session, the governor released a list of bills that doesn’t include proposals to expand civil rights protections to people who are gay or transgender.
A lack of consensus among Republicans on several issues—including questions about gay rights, transportation funding and ISTEP testing—looms large as lawmakers ready for the 2016 legislative session, which kicks off Tuesday.
Officials in four Indiana areas that failed to win a share of the tens of millions of dollars in the Regional Cities competition are looking to other sources fund their dream projects.
