More Indiana audits planned with local government fees boost
The state auditing agency would hire about 100 more field examiners to review spending by local governments and school districts under a plan being considered by Indiana lawmakers.
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Transit advocates push to increase state funding
A fund for public transportation could be debated before the House Ways and Means Committee after Rep. Randy Truitt filed a bill that would provide about $20 million more per year than Gov. Mike Pence proposed.
Indiana House bill would legalize chemical cremation
The legislation would require the State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service to adopt rules for alkaline hydrolysis. The process is legal in 11 other states.
Proposal would overhaul state ethics laws after scandals
Indiana legislators would face more financial disclosure requirements and elected officials would be expressly prohibited from using state resources for political purposes under a proposed overhaul of ethics laws introduced Thursday.
Senate bill would increase access to adoption records
Senate Bill 352 would allow those adopted from 1941 through 1993 to access their records unless their birth parents sign a form prohibiting it.
Inmates could get trades training under Senate bill
Senate Bill 173, authored by Sen. R. Michael Young, R-Indianapolis, requires the Indiana Department of Correction to establish a specialized vocational program to train minimum-security inmates in trades.
Panel postpones action on bill to limit local livestock rules
Senate Bill 249, if passed into law, would ban communities from adopting an ordinance preventing the construction of livestock facilities.
Pence proposes utilities set own energy-efficiency goals
Last year, a new law scuttled Indiana’s program for reducing energy use statewide. Gov. Mike Pence’s alternative would allow energy companies to set their own targets.
Bill would put further restrictions on state’s smokers
Consumers of e-cigarettes, smokers seeking employment, and Indiana gamblers could experience changes if proposed legislation is made into law.
Pelath: Lawmakers should debate medical marijuana bill
The minority leader in the Indiana House said Monday the Legislature should discuss whether to legalize marijuana in Indiana for medical purposes.
Lawmaker wants more access to food in urban neighborhoods
A central Indiana lawmaker wants to provide better access to healthy food to inner-city Hoosiers with legislation to promote urban farms, food-co-ops and farmer’s markets
Bill would let Hoosiers refuse gay-wedding services
The proposed legislation would allow small businesses, including bakeries, caterers, florists, and wedding chapels, to refuse services to gay couples based on the owner's religious beliefs.
Proposal would add e-cigarette restrictions, taxes
Indiana would require stores to have a license to sell electronic cigarettes and would tax the battery-powered devices like traditional tobacco products under a bill a state lawmaker said he'll sponsor.
Electric utilities battle over annexing territories
Municipal-owned utilities are trying to fend off an attack on a state law that allows them to expand their territories through annexation. Rural electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities say they’re losing big customers.
Bill would allow Pence to run for president, governor
Sen. Mike Delph’s measure would expand Indiana’s election law to allow a sitting governor or state lawmaker to simultaneously seek both re-election and any federal office.
Indiana low-powered moped law to take effect Jan. 1
Beginning Thursday, owners of mopeds or scooters with engines smaller than 50 cubic centimeters must have a registration, a license plate and an Indiana identification card.
Little Statehouse appetite for government reform
A Republican state senator said he hasn't heard any discussion about pursuing more of the recommendations of a 2007 bipartisan commission that called for 27 local government reforms.
GOP plan would help teachers buy school supplies
The proposed tax credit doesn’t yet have a price tag. But it could essentially reimburse teachers for money they’ve spent on supplies, up to a cap that would be set in the law.
FEIGENBAUM: Crush of big issues await General Assembly
Republican supermajorities in 2013 and 2014 left a lot of unfinished business on the table, and that—as well as changes in technology and public expectations—portends an extremely active 2015 General Assembly session.
Indiana lawmakers mostly older, white, college-educated
Demographics of the General Assembly are significantly different than the average Hoosier.