GOP-backed bill to make professional licensing easier faces opposition
A top legislative priority for House Republicans faced some push back this week from the very professionals lawmakers believed they would be helping with the measure.
A top legislative priority for House Republicans faced some push back this week from the very professionals lawmakers believed they would be helping with the measure.
New state campaign finance reports filed Wednesday show Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb raised nearly $2 million in the last six months of 2019, leaving him with about $7.25 million in the bank for his 2020 re-election bid.
Legislators returned Jan. 6. Even though, as of that morning, only 11 House bills had been filed, committee hearings were underway in earnest (especially in the Senate, where the file list topped 200 bills).
Like Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indiana Senate and House Republicans are focused on health care, education and spending one-time dollars on capital projects this year. But lawmakers have slightly different views on how those surplus dollars should be spent.
Members of the Republican-dominated General Assembly are set to return Monday to the Statehouse in Indianapolis for their 2020 session, during which they will face continued calls from teacher unions and Democrats for better teacher pay.
Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly. But the leadership support doesn’t make the bill a slam dunk.
Top Republicans touted “record investment” in school spending in defending themselves as thousands of teachers turned out for a Statehouse rally this past week calling for a bigger boost in education funding. But it’s not that simple.
Buttigieg was leading the crowded Democratic field with 25%, in the new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll of likely Iowa caucus goers.
After 15 years working in the information technology department for the state of Indiana—the last four as chief information officer, Dewand Neely is departing to take a job as chief operating officer for Eleven Fifty Academy, the not-for-profit coding academy with facilities in downtown Indianapolis and Fishers.
Hill’s decision comes as he awaits the outcome of an Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission hearing over allegations he drunkenly groped a state lawmaker and three legislative staffers at a party in March 2018.
Democrats picked up at least five seats—and possibly six, depending on the outcome of a race with a razor-thin margin. Republican leader Mike McQuillen was among the GOP casualties.
IBJ talked with incumbent Democrat Joe Hogsett and his Republican challenger, Jim Merritt, about why they’re running for mayor, what they’ve learned about themselves in the process and how they’ll tackle crime, neighborhood development, crime and more.
So far for the 2019 election, 6,158 voters have cast ballots in person, which is higher than how many people voted early in person at the same point in 2015 and 2011.
State lawmakers passed legislation during the 2019 session that allowed the Indiana Office of Tourism Development, which is under Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and funded by the state budget, to become a quasi-governmental corporation as of July 1, 2020.
The move comes after Republican state Sen. Jean Leising, of Oldenburg, introduced legislation this year that required the state Board of Education to adopt a program that’s administered nationally.
Voters in central Indiana’s Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, Morgan and Shelby counties use digital record electronic machines that have no paper trail.
The 2020 spending plan—which passed 22-2—is projected to spend about $171,500 less than the city will receive in revenue. Officials say that makes it the city’s third consecutive balanced budget since Hogsett—who is seeking re-election—took office in 2016.
Some state lawmakers want to require paper tickets, but event organizers say they can easily be manipulated and duplicated. Digital ticketing reduces fraud, they say.
First-term Sen. Eddie Melton of Gary joined the Indiana governor’s race Tuesday night in Gary with an introduction from the state’s Republican schools chief.
Ryan Mears, who was Terry Curry’s chief trial deputy, has been serving as the interim prosecutor since Curry stepped down Sept. 23. He promised to be an independent leader who works for the good of the Indianapolis community and takes a tough stance on violent crime.