Indiana Statehouse 2025: Budget and property taxes on deck
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This is the last week for state lawmakers to get their bills out of committee this legislative session.
Why it matters: They'll take action on dozens of issues, including priorities such as the state budget and property tax reform.
Yes, but: It's not over till it's over.
- Provisions that look dead may still rear their heads in amendments later in session.
Here are the bills we're watching:
🤑 State budget
House Republicans need to introduce their budget proposal this week.
Yes, but: The House Ways and Means Committee hasn't released an agenda for its next meeting yet.
What we're watching: Gov. Mike Braun's budget proposal cut more than $700 million from state funding, carried over no one-time spending and held higher education budgets flat.
🟢 Partisan school boards
The Senate Elections Committee on Monday will vote on Senate Bill 287, which would make Indiana's school board elections partisan.
Catch up quick: Partisan school boards have been a recurring issue at the Statehouse since 2022, when lawmakers filed a host of bills modeled after a national conservative education agenda being pushed in the wake of mask mandates, pandemic-era school closures and largely unfounded concerns about critical race theory infiltrating K-12 schools.
- The Indiana School Boards Association, which represents all 1,700 public school board members statewide, has opposed the effort to mandate partisan elections.
- School board members who have opposed similar bills in previous years have done so over concerns about injecting politics into education policy and deterring would-be board members from running if they have to do so with a party affiliation.
The other side: Supporters have argued the measure would give voters more information about candidates and increase turnout for those races.
🟢 Closed primaries heads to floor
The Senate will consider amendments to Senate Bill 201, which would move Indiana to a closed primary.
- Several bills have been filed to close the state's primaries, seemingly in reaction to an effort last year to encourage "crossover" voting by Democrats in the GOP primary.
🟢 Teacher pay increases heads to House
It's looking likely that Indiana will raise the starting pay for teachers to $45,000.
- Braun has called for the increase and Senate Bill 146, which would do just that, has passed the Senate and heads to the House.
⏳ ICE partnership on hold
House Bill 1158 would require county sheriffs to participate in U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement's 287(g) program, which trains officers and then allows them to perform certain functions of immigration enforcement within their jails.
Yes, but: The program has existed for three decades, and Indiana counties have always had the option to participate.
- Hamilton County became the first to opt in this year.
The latest: The House Local Government Committee held the bill while lawmakers wait for state fiscal analysts to provide a better understanding of what it might cost.
- HB 1158 has not yet been scheduled for a vote.