Voucher expansion awaits governor’s signature
Indiana lawmakers have approved an expansion of the nation's broadest private school voucher program that will allow more children to be immediately eligible.
Indiana lawmakers have approved an expansion of the nation's broadest private school voucher program that will allow more children to be immediately eligible.
An effort to require Amazon.com and some other online-only retailers to start collecting Indiana's 7-percent sales tax this summer has fallen short in the Legislature.
Rep. Bill Friend, R-Macy, said he withdrew the bill he sponsored at the request of Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma.
The Indiana General Assembly worked into the night Friday to hammer out final details on a two-year, $30 billion budget containing new tax cuts, a modest expansion of school vouchers, new oversight of the $2.8 billion Rockport coal gasification project and a series of other measures.
The plan authorizes the state to loan the Speedway $100 million—money it will borrow through bonds—to make the grandstands more accessible to people with disabilities and to install lights for night races.
When partisanship did rear its head—Indianapolis Democrats charged a GOP “power grab” in negotiations over changes in Marion County government structure—it was not disruptive.
A proposal aimed at legalizing five fenced deer-hunting preserves around Indiana has failed in this year’s legislative session.
Indiana lawmakers have reached a compromise that would direct more non-violent, low-level felons to work release and other local programs rather than sending them to prison.
Indiana's new state budget will include at least a small personal income tax cut, although legislative leaders said Wednesday they weren't certain whether it will be as large as Republican Gov. Mike Pence wants.
Republican lawmakers bypassed House Speaker Pro Tem Eric Turner for the chairmanship of House Ways and Means committee last year amid concerns over his potential conflicts of interest, sources say.
Everything is on the table for consideration, says new Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles.
A new poll of 600 voters by Howey Politics Indiana shows 39-percent approval for Gov. Mike Pence’s proposed 10-percent tax cut. But 56 percent said they favor decriminalization of marijuana.
The leaders of the Indiana General Assembly said Tuesday they will continue meeting daily with Gov. Mike Pence to hammer out a broad range of issues before the 2013 session ends.
The casino bill approved by the House last week would grant less than a fifth of the tax breaks first proposed in the Senate. It also doesn't permit live table games at the racinos in Anderson and Shelbyville.
Supporters say the change would help a couple of hundred students who had the rules changed on them after they had already started work on their college degrees.
As the Indiana General Assembly nears the finish of its 2013 session, legislators hope to find homes for initiatives that struggled to win approval on their own, such as backing improvements to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and expanding the state’s school voucher program.
Legislators are hammering out a modest expansion of the state’s school voucher program following a meeting of House and Senate lawmakers.
The Indiana House Speaker said he’s considering changes to rules governing what lawmakers must disclose about their personal and financial ties, after learning about a powerful state rep’s work helping a client of his lobbyist daughter.
Prodding by legislative leaders and an epidemic of Hoosier common have led to compromises on contentious issues.
The Indianapolis area’s largest employers have spent millions of dollars studying and promoting regional mass transit, but if the idea is going to get past the Legislature, they might have to put money into the $1.3 billion system as well.