Final day of the 2025 legislative session
The 2025 legislative session is coming to an end (hopefully within the next 24 hours!), and the Indiana Capital Chronicle team will be bringing you everything from the final day here.
39 mins ago
39 mins ago
As the legislative session enters its final hours, tweaks and overhauls alike are coming rapid-fire.
Indiana's retired public employees are likely to nab pension bonuses intended to boost benefits that don't otherwise keep up with inflation — but with a 5% cut — under a final draft for House Bill 1221. That's after a finance-focused Senate committee cut the 13th check and 1% cost-of-living-adjustment entirely. House lawmakers, however, sought years of bonuses.
Elsewhere, several contentious provisions were dropped from less-controversial underlying legislation. But some authors are hoping to re-home them.
It appears a ban on sleeping or sheltering on public property has been removed from Senate Bill 197, prompting rumors it would be inserted into legislation dealing with juvenile justice. But the final version of that bill is still outstanding.
Another prohibition, this one on government-supported 'obscene performances,' wasn't in a conference committee report filed on Senate Bill 326. But that report was quickly withdrawn and is still in flux.
Asked where the language might go, Rep. Andrew Ireland, R-Indianapolis, told the Capital Chronicle, 'I don't know any better than anyone else.'
And detailed language cracking down on illicit massage parlors was cut from the negotiated draft of House Bill 1416, which would require human trafficking awareness posters in gas stations and rest stops. Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, repeatedly called it too 'prescriptive.'
Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, authored the language after law enforcement raided parlors in his district. He told the Capital Chronicle that he aims to find a new place for a recast version that offers local governments greater decision-making powers.
Last updated: 9:05 AM
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