1/14 Hendricks County Chambers Weekly Statehouse Update

A Week Of Priorities:

The 2024 legislative session of the Indiana General Assembly began on Monday in Indianapolis, kicking off a week of legislative agenda announcements.

Governor Eric Holcomb outlined his final legislative priorities this week in his final State of the State address on Tuesday, focusing his priorities on improving child care, addressing falling literacy levels, and raising awareness of job-related training programs. Specific priorities include:

There was an obvious emphasis on workforce development and education- issues that seem to be addressed every year.

Speaker of the House Todd Huston (R-Fishers) said the House Republican caucus would focus on:

Rep. Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne), House Minority Leader, alsoannounced his caucus’ priorities which focused on economic freedom:

Read more on House caucus priorities.

In the Senate Chamber, Republicans announced their priorities for 2024, which include improving literacy, childcare access and affordability, healthcare prior authorization, setting up an ongoing process to review and return unused state government funds, and upgrading lead pipes.

Senate Democrats, meanwhile, outlined their session priorities to include increasing access to affordable and high-quality childcare, property tax relief, capping certain prescription drug costs, literacy interventions without punitive consequences, and citizen-led ballot referendums.

House and Senate Republican leadership have both outlined that they expect this to be a quick and non-controversial session - will this be the case? Time will tell.

Tax Policy

Lawmakers and experts discussed tax reform and the impact on Hoosiers at the State and Local Tax Review Task Force on Wednesday. The group is studying and scrutinizing the state’s tax structure in advance of next year’s budget session. Among the key topics on the agenda were the possible elimination of the state’s income tax, the impact on low-income residents and small businesses, and the 7% tax on menstrual products. This meeting provided the opportunity for testimony on a number of topics. The task force will meet again in April.

Education Legislation

HB 1001 came before the House Education Committee on Wednesday where attention focused on the state’s Career Scholarship Accounts program, established last year. A House Republican priority bill, the number of applicants and anticipated allocation falling short of estimates, lawmakers are considering amendments to the existing program. One proposal—allowing funding to be used for students to obtain a driver’s license to be used for commuting to job training— was met with some support. The bill also proposes to allow scholarships for college attendance to be used instead for job training. The bill passed in committee and will next be heard on the House floor.

HB 1002 was also heard before the House Education Committee on Wednesday which seeks to protect Hoosier Jewish students fromantisemitism. Also priority legislation, there were over 3 hours of testimony at the hearing with Jewish students, clergy, and college professors asking for the bill’s definition of antisemitism. There were also a significant number of those at the hearing opposed to the bill, claiming that it could chill free speech. The bill passed out of committee by a vote of 12-0 and will be eligible for second reading amendments as early as Tuesday.

Lead Mitigation

Meanwhile, the Senate Utilities Committee heard a Senate Republican priority bill on customer-owned lead service lines. Chairman Eric Koch (R-Bedford) began the hearing by stating that this important issue was an intersection between utility and public health policies. Surprisingly, there are still over 265,000 lead pipelines in use in Indiana currently. With the significant health issues that come with lead pipelines, SB 5 would allow utilities to replace these pipelines more quickly and cost-effectively. Despite a few concerns regarding increased costs, the bill passed the committee 10-0.

What’s Next

Next week is a condensed week with the legislature off on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. With a shortened timeframe during an extraordinarily short session (statutorily we must finish by March 14th), this leaves committees with only a few weeks to hear bills before the deadlines. Next week, expect hearings on the administrative law bill, transit, childcare, alcohol, and lots more. Torchbearer Public Affairs will be following all of the committees and keeping you up to date as things happen at the statehouse.