INSIDE THE STATEHOUSE: Bills would mean big bucks for local government
Indiana lawmakers are debating ways to give money back to local governments—money that already belongs to cities, towns and counties but the state has been holding in reserves.
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Senate bets on fantasy sports, sends regulatory bill to House
The bill’s author, Sen. Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, said his bill is about providing consumer protection and transparency to the tens of thousands of Hoosiers who spend money on the games.
Indiana business community fears fallout from gay rights failure
"Indiana's economic competitiveness and the Hoosier brand have potentially been compromised again," said Indiana Competes, a business coalition that includes Cummins Inc., Eli Lilly and Co. and the NCAA.
Lawmakers advance alcohol bills for Indy 500, suburban counties
The House passed legislation Tuesday that would provide more alcohol permits for Hamilton and Boone counties, while the Senate passed a bill to let the Indianapolis Motor Speedway sell carry-out bottles of commemorative booze.
Senate passes legislation to help farmers by cutting tax bills
Senate Bill 308, which is now headed to the House for consideration, would reduce the total assessed value on agricultural land by an estimated $4.2 billion for taxes paid in 2018 and $8.9 billion for 2019.
Bill to stop drug offenders from buying cold meds advances
Indiana drug offenders won't be able to buy cold medicine containing a common ingredient to make methamphetamine without a prescription under a bill passed by a Senate panel Thursday.
State seeks to regulate, not ban, fantasy sports betting
A bill moving through the Senate and another introduced in the House are designed to encourage fantasy wagering in Indiana.
Tax break in works for struggling farmers
Farmers across Indiana would get a big property tax cut under legislation moving through the General Assembly that would reduce their assessed land values an estimated $4.2 billion for taxes paid in 2018 and $8.9 billion for 2019.
Bosma cool to gay-rights bill
After a Senate committee advanced a civil rights bill that excluded transgender people and included several caveats, House Speaker Brian Bosma said Thursday that he has “yet to talk to someone who thinks the bill is a good idea.”
INSIDE THE STATEHOUSE: Required Work One visits move jobless off assistance
The Department of Workforce Development finds that 30 percent of people move off unemployment after they receive notice that they must visit a Work One center. In most cases, the worker finds a new job; in a few cases, the culprit is fraud.
Gay-rights bill that leaves out transgender protections advances
A Senate committee on Wednesday narrowly advanced a bill that would extend civil rights protections to gay and lesbian Hoosiers but punt the issue of transgender discrimination to a study committee, as well as offer religious exemptions for clergy and other groups.
‘Super RFRA’ bill dies; LGBT rights bills set for testimony
Sen. Mike Young, an Indianapolis Republican, said critics who “fear monger” had mischaracterized his proposal, which would have thrown out the state’s religious freedom law and replaced it with more robust protections for worship, speech and bearing arms.
Bill letting police withhold video clears Indiana House
A proposal giving Indiana law enforcement agencies broad authority to withhold police body camera video is advancing in the state Legislature.
Lawmakers hear another pitch for cold-medicine prescriptions
Supporters of a proposal to allow pharmacists to require prescriptions to buy medicine with pseudoephedrine say the requirement is the only way to curb Indiana's methamphetamine problem.
Proposal for cold medicine prescriptions being scaled back
The new version of the Indiana bill would classify pseudoephedrine in a way that most consumers would be able to buy it, but pharmacists could require a prescription from suspicious customers.
Indiana House Republicans consider tolls on existing highways
There’s no question that tolling one of Indiana’s interstates could generate serious cash to help maintain the state’s roads. But are taxpayers willing to pay a few bucks to travel highways that now are free?
Key lawmaker wants state to buy GM site for green space
Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, wants the state to buy the 102-acre General Motors stamping plant site on the western edge of downtown and turn it into an expansion of White River State Park.
Senate passes bill to open adoption records
Adoptees born between 1941 and 1994 would be able to access their birth records under a bill passed Thursday by the Indiana Senate.
INSIDE THE STATEHOUSE: Broad support not enough to save work-share bill
Big business and labor both support legislation that would let companies cut workers’ hours during downturns but let the employees collect partial unemployment. But Gov. Mike Pence’s administration says it would be expensive to implement and so the bill will die.
Senate passes bill regulating fenced-in deer hunting
Hunting preserves have operated unregulated in Indiana since February, after a court ruling that said the Department of Natural Resources overreached when it tried to close one in Harrison County.