Most of the noise and emotional energy of this primary election season was generated by a dozen or so challengers to incumbent GOP lawmakers, often fueled by rigid ideological stances and grievances accumulated over the two-year COVID health emergency. But did the sound and fury…
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By flunking HB1134 out of the Senate, Indiana’s General Assembly bucked a trend of state legislatures rushing to (over)react to misinformed controversies over “Critical Race Theory” lurking in local schools. At least sixteen states have enacted laws aimed at curtailing classroom discussions about race, and CNN featured…
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The Long Goodbye We said ‘sine bye’ to the 2022 session of the Indiana General Assembly last week, but we can’t close the curtains on legislative business quite yet. Bills have slowly migrated from the second floor of the statehouse to the Governor’s desk, starting the countdown for executive action.
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This so-called “short session” was long on major issues in its ten-week sprint from the opening gavel to adjournment just after midnight on Wednesday. The legislature raced through major tax relief and economic development plans (notably consequential for a non-budget year), detoured into divisive education issues, and finally found the…
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Temperatures are just above freezing as we write this, but it feels like springtime at the statehouse: We’ve got plenty of good news to report as we enter the last few days of this short session. First and foremost, a concurrence of common sense on COVID policy,…
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It’s the eighth week of session; coincidentally, it was eight years ago that the General Assembly passed enabling legislation allowing Marion County to invest in mass transit to make Indianapolis a more competitive, connected city. While local voters spoke loud and clear in favor of improved transit service, some lawmakers…
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The Valentine’s Day week has been far from a lovefest at the statehouse. Committees tackled some of the most controversial bills remaining on the legislative docket and clashed on a number of important issues–starting with a key Senate panel putting the high-profile House tax plan in the fiscal friendzone. The…
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After most of Central Indiana spent the weekend digging out from snow and ice, lawmakers dug into the work of assigning and hearing the hundreds of bills that survived the first half. There’s just over a month to go in this short-but-hectic session. Dealing with the winter storm brought to…
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This week marks the halftime break for the General Assembly, a pause after third reading deadlines that gave lawmakers a chance to stock up on milk and bread before digging out to focus on the legislation that survived the other side of the statehouse. As any Bengals fan will happily…
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This was the last full week of legislative action before halftime of the 2022 session–the final chance for bills to get passing grades out of committee and through second reading amendments. That means plenty of pressure to test the patience of lawmakers, advocates, and observers as deadlines for final floor…
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