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.
Lawmakers said Tuesday that Indiana welfare subcontractor Affiliated Computer Services Inc. will come under closer
scrutiny now that Gov. Mitch Daniels has fired IBM Corp. from the project.
An Indiana legislative committee recommends carryout sales of alcohol remain banned on Sundays, and liquor stores stay the
only place to buy cold beer.
State lawmakers are preparing to tackle the question of when the school year should begin in Indiana. The Interim Study Commission
on Education will take up the issue at its Wednesday meeting.
More than $130 million in construction projects will get a chance to move forward after being put on hold over a top lawmaker’s
objections to the schools’ tuition increases.
Supporters and foes of repealing Indiana’s ban on Sunday take-out alcohol sales made their cases before a group of lawmakers yesterday in a preview of what could be a divisive debate in the next legislative session.
Supporters and foes of repealing Indiana’s ban on Sunday take-out alcohol sales plan to make their case before a group of
lawmakers.
Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita pitched a plan today that would make it illegal for lawmakers to consider political
data when redrawing congressional and legislative district maps.
A new committee formed to provide oversight of Indiana’s unemployment insurance fund is set to hold its first meeting tomorrow.
Some Indiana liquor store owners worry that a push to allow Sunday alcohol sales in the state could hurt their businesses
if lawmakers were also to permit grocery stores to sell cold beer.
Officials with casinos at Indiana’s two pari-mutuel horse racing tracks told lawmakers today that taxes imposed on them are
too high and are threatening their viability.
Indiana’s struggling gambling industry didn’t get the relief it sought during the special session of the Indiana General Assembly. But embedded within the budget bill approved June 30 is a provision creating a gambling summer study committee. Its recommendations, due by Dec. 1, may make or break several of Indiana’s casinos.
As both House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, and House Republican Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, see it, this is definitely a "Republican-flavored" budget. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels laid the framework, and legislators from both sides of the aisle largely abided by his bottom lines of spending, state agency cuts and surplus.
The legislative session that concluded June 30 with passage of a two-year budget left a bad taste in our mouths. For starters,
legislators lacked the courage to tackle local government reform—even though cash-strapped units of government
desperately need the millions of dollars in savings they would generate. In short, they put political cronyism ahead of the
interests of the state.
If we are lucky, by the time you read these words the Indiana General Assembly will have passed a new budget. Democrats use
tarot cards and Republicans chicken innards to determine how much to spend. There are alternatives.
