Latest news with #LeslieBonillaMuñiz
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Indiana comptroller calls for SEC to delist Chinese companies
Comptroller Elise Nieshalla testifies before the Senate Elections Committee on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Indiana, alongside 20 other states, penned a letter last month urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate delisting China-based companies on U.S. stock exchanges 'to protect American investors.' Indiana Comptroller Elise Nieshalla and other state financial officers said there is a growing risk posed by the China-based companies due to Chinese Communist Party interference and widespread failures to meet U.S. transparency, accounting and auditing standards. 'As stewards of invested public funds, we have a responsibility to protect our beneficiaries from foreign entities to seek to exploit our capital markets while evading accountability,' Nieshalla said in a press release. CONTACT US The letter highlights the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on independent due-diligence firms and points to findings by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that revealed auditing failures among Chinese companies. It also states that the CCP's systematic use of Variable Interest Entities — an organization that is controlled through contractual agreements rather than direct ownership — prevents U.S. investors from owning the company. The state financial officers also direct the SEC to investigate potential violations of the Securities Exchange Act, including disclosure of controls and procedures, internal financial reporting mechanisms, falsified accounting records and manipulative or deceptive practices. They alleged that the CCP's efforts to suppress transparency exacerbated these issues. 'As state financial officers, part of our responsibility is to ensure that the American people's finances – and our American financial system – are protected from foreign actors who mean to do us harm,' the signatories said in the letter. Indiana has recently purged Chinese companies from state investments. In 2023, legislation was passed that required the Indiana Public Retirement System to divest from any entities that do military or intelligence work or are controlled by the Chinese government. Within a year, INPRS eliminated its $1.2 billion worth of investments in Chinese entities. Delisting-Letter SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hoosier Lottery adjusts forecast, approves ‘cautious' business plan for next year
Hoosier Lottery signs hang in the organization's downtown headquarters on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) The Hoosier Lottery anticipates earning and spending slightly less than budgeted — but is still on track to deliver a hefty surplus payment to the state of Indiana. The five-member State Lottery Commission also easily approved its next business plan. In a forecast revealed during a Tuesday commission meeting, revenues were expected to end the 2025 fiscal year on June 30 down by almost 4%. But estimates for a trio of expenditures had decreased by even more: prize expenses by more than 4%, game and provider expenses by almost 5% and administrative expenses by a whopping 20%. The latter is due to how the lottery budgets for wages, plus 'other savings,' Chief of Staff Carrie Stroud said. The lottery's contract operator, IGT Indiana, predicts it'll still provide $352 million in net earnings to state coffers. Because the incentive payment mark is set at $342 million, the lottery and its operator plan to split an anticipated $10 million in overflow instead of the $15 million budgeted. If the operator hadn't cleared the $322 million minimum, it would've owed the lottery a shortfall payment. In a year-to-date financial report for the 10 months ending April 30, surplus revenue to the state was on schedule — about $285 million. Hoosier Lottery Executive Director Sarah Taylor said Powerball sales — 'a huge favorite' in Indiana — were down here and nationwide. 'It's just the nature of the game,' Taylor told reporters after the meeting. 'You know, we have a year where it has huge jackpots and a year where it doesn't. So nothing's wrong with it.' Worsening economic conditions may have contributed to scratch-offs' almost $58 million underperformance when compared to the budget year-to-date. 'Folks may spend a little bit less on their entertainment dollars with us, and we respect and understand that and look forward to when they are returning to us,' Taylor said. 'But we still offer a variety of price points. So even if they'd like to play at the $1 (price point), we've got some fun $1 (products).' In its fiscal year 2026 business plan, the lottery hopes to net $352 million and gross about $1.6 billion — the same amounts it's expecting to earn this fiscal year. 'We did take a cautious approach on, not only the draw games, but also on scratch,' Taylor said. '… We want to make sure it's the right fit for our players. We want to make sure the play style is fun and interesting, so we'll be very flexible, like we were this year, into next year. And yes, we were cautious.' Lawmakers recently killed a proposal that would've let the Hoosier Lottery establish interactive online gaming — likely raising overall sales. 'We're 35 years old … And so, we're selling the same product the same way,' Taylor told reporters. 'If the Legislature decides that it's the right time to make that move, we'll accept it and be happy to launch an iLottery program,' she continued. 'In the meantime, we'll do everything to bring home the monies that we've committed to bring to the state of Indiana, but look forward to maybe some additional modernization and innovation when it's the appropriate time.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indiana elections chief defends voting ban on ‘unsecured' student IDs after legal challenge
One of Secretary of State Diego Morales' booths at the Indiana State Fair, shown on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales on Wednesday celebrated the state's forthcoming student ID voting ban — just two days after he and other Hoosier election officials were named in a lawsuit challenging the prohibition. Since Indiana enacted its photo ID law in 2005, it has allowed students to use IDs issued by public colleges or universities as proof of identification at the polls. A card must include the prospective voter's name, photo and a valid expiration term. That's changing under Senate Enrolled Act 10. Gov. Mike Braun signed it into law last month, but the ban goes into effect July 1. Elections bill would strike down student IDs as voting option A news release from Morales' office asserted that the law ends the use of 'unsecured' cards 'that do not meet uniform security standards' — and instead 'ensures that all forms of ID used at the polls are held to the same level of verification.' 'Voting is a sacred right, and it must be safeguarded through consistent and reliable security standards,' Morales said Wednesday. The law 'reinforces my promise that only eligible Hoosiers are voting in our state,' he continued. But a lawsuit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, called it a 'surgical attack on young voters.' Indiana University sophomore Josh Montagne — who is originally from Missouri — doesn't have any other form of ID. He said obtaining one would be 'burdensome' because his primary form of transportation is walking and he doesn't have access to a car. Count US IN and Women4Change Indiana, meanwhile, said the ban would hamper their get-out-the-vote efforts by requiring resource-intensive volunteer re-training and voter education campaigns. They anticipated needing to help students secure alternative forms of ID or provide on-site Election Day assistance so unaware students aren't disenfranchised. The trio of plaintiffs alleged that Senate Enrolled Act 10 'deliberately abridges young voters' right to vote,' in violation of the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs further argued that the 'sever(e) burden' on such voters, done 'without any corresponding justification,' violates the 1st and 14th Amendments. They requested an injunction. An estimated two-thirds of students at Indiana University's flagship Bloomington campus used student IDs to vote at the in-campus polling place in the 2024 general election, according to the complaint. It cited Monroe County's election supervisor. The plaintiffs alleged the law's narrow exclusion of student IDs was unfair. 'Indiana law does not exclude any other category of ID in this way. In fact, in recent years, the legislature has amended the voter ID law to expand the scope of acceptable IDs, even allowing for the use of certain IDs that do not otherwise meet the statutory requirements,' the lawsuit reads. For example, documents issued by the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the Indiana National Guard, a federally recognized Native American tribe or other entities can be used even when they don't have expiration dates, or have indefinite expiration dates. Morales and lawmakers justified the ban as ensuring that only Indiana residents and U.S. citizens can vote in the state's elections. The plaintiffs, however, noted that Indiana's photo ID law isn't structured to confirm a voter's residence or citizenship — just that the person who shows up at the polls is who they claim. Proof of residency and citizenship are established during the voter registration process and 'should not be conflated' with proof of identity requirements, the state's guidebook reads. Other accepted federal forms of ID, like a passport or military-issued card, don't indicate where their subjects reside. 'While prohibiting the use of student IDs will not advance any of the legislators' purported rationales, it will make it harder for a specific group of people — young voters — to participate in Indiana's elections,' the complaint argues. Meanwhile, Morales and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita are waging their own lawsuit to force federal citizenship verification for nearly 600,000 Hoosiers who registered without providing an Indiana driver's license number or a Social Security Number — or who live overseas. Some of those could include those who registered before those numbers were required. Morales also applauded the passage of legislation allowing county clerks to send a notice requesting proof of citizenship when someone registers to vote with a temporary credential ID. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Medicaid work requirements, Indiana-Illinois boundary commission signed into law
Gov. Mike Braun signs a pair of executive orders dealing with unemployment insurance in his Statehouse office on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Gov. Mike Braun signed a whopping 56 bills into law Friday, including measures setting contentious work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients and evaluating the addition of secessionist Illinois counties to Indiana. Twenty of the bills came from the Senate, led by Senate Enrolled Act 2 — which would require enrollees under the Healthy Indiana Plan to either work or volunteer for 20 hours a week or risk losing their benefits. The proposal includes over a dozen exemptions and must also get the stamp of approval from the federal government before being enacted, however. Other Senate ideas include a handful of health bills — one reforming prior authorization requirements and a wide-ranging omnibus package — along with public safety and energy matters. One adopts a new set of eyewitness identification procedures — a move celebrated by exonerees wrongly convicted of crimes partly due to mistaken eyewitness identification. CONTACT US The Innocence Project reports that over a third of wrongful convictions stem from such errors, including Indiana's Leon Benson. Benson spent over 24 years imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. A small modular nuclear reactor pilot program will also move forward, part of a package of bills drafted with the intention of bringing the technology to Indiana. Among the 36 House-originated bills signed Friday were three chamber GOP priorities. House Enrolled Act 1005 continues incentivizing housing construction while House Enrolled Act 1006 creates a prosecutor review board to scrutinize so-called 'noncompliant' prosecutors. The final priority measure, House Enrolled Act 1008, establishes a commission to study Hoosier absorption of secessionist Illinois counties — though such a move would also require Prairie State consent and federal approval. Other House bills set to become law following Braun's signature include an Indiana National Guard enlistment boost, a 'Medicaid diversion program,' and new pediatric cancer research grants. Additionally, a transportation infrastructure funding revamp will change how communities fund roads, bridges and more. It eases barriers to tolling and changes up the popular Community Crossings Matching Grant Program. The measure will also increase the speed limit on Interstate 465. To see the full list of newly signed bills, visit the governor's 2025 Bill Watch page. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Here's what died – and got dropped in – during the final hours of the Indiana legislative session
Sen. Ed Charbonneau talks to colleagues late Thursday, April 24, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Controversial language targeting homeless Hoosiers, regulating marijuana-like products and cracking down on illicit massage parlors perished late Thursday — even as Indiana lawmakers crammed changes to a new property tax reform package into an unrelated agency bill to end the session. And despite big health care reform talk, few fixes survived a breakneck session marked by a dismal revenue forecast. The time of death was 10:12 p.m. That's when House Speaker Todd Huston announced a package of technical corrections would be the last to make it through a critical procedural step. Community advocates celebrated the defeat of shuffled-around language they maintained would have criminalized homelessness. Sleeping or sheltering on government property would've been a Class C misdemeanor. One version would have required local law enforcement to consider emergency detention, offer transportation to temporary shelter and contact crisis intervention specialists before making an arrest — an attempt to connect homeless Hoosiers to help, supporters maintained. But the original, long-dead bill only provided a legal defense: no nearby shelter. It was the work of the Cicero Institute, a Texas think tank pushing such policies around the country. 'In these times of economic volatility, the most vulnerable Hoosiers and the community organizations who serve them can sleep a little better knowing their elected officials chose not to force local law enforcement to fine and jail people just for not being able to afford a place to lay their heads,' Prosperity Indiana policy head Andrew Bradley wrote in an early Friday news release. His organization was among the proposal's fiercest opponents. Some lawmakers joined in, too. 'I worked hard to ensure this legislation never became law,' Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, said in an early Friday statement. 'The solution to homelessness is not incarceration.' The General Assembly also snuffed out a contentious set of regulations for marijuana-like products, after seven rounds of substantial edits failed to ease concerns. Products with legally low concentrations of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol have proliferated in Indiana, alongside those containing delta-8 THC and other isomers. Although lawmakers have repeatedly failed to regulate the nascent industry, they seemed poised to do so this session through Senate Bill 478. But it never emerged from closed-door negotiations over a final version. Critics, including Indiana's attorney general and anti-marijuana groups, maintained the language would expand existing loopholes instead of closing them. 'I just think we couldn't get to a place of agreement, you know?' Huston told reporters early Friday. '… I just don't think we were ready yet.' Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray said it was 'tricky' to 'get it absolutely right,' adding, 'We just wanted to be certain that we didn't move forward in a way that wasn't in the state's best interest.' Lawmakers had hoped to 'get some small piece of that across the line,' like a 21-plus age restriction, he told reporters, but 'ran out of time.' He cited young children who may rely on cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive anticonvulsant, to treat seizures. 'We'll come back, I can promise you, next year, and get something passed,' Bray said. And one legislator's attempt to fight human trafficking in massage parlors — following arrests in his district — was stripped out of an awareness measure. Rep. Wendy McNamara, repeatedly dubbed the detailed regulations appended to House Enrolled Act 1416 overly 'prescriptive' before cutting them. McNamara, R-Evansville, is an influential force in criminal matters and was among the co-authors. Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, vowed to find another place for it in comments to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. But he admitted defeat — for now. 'This is something I'm going to continue to work on through the summer and into the next session, so we get some good language around this,' Bohacek said on the Senate floor. 'The practices that are happening there (in massage parlors) is something we need to address for human trafficking in the future.' One concept that did cross the finish line? A ban of mysterious origin on government-supported 'obscene performances.' And 'any person' could seek injunctive relief. Indiana already has detailed obscenity laws on the books, and no one gave any examples of problematic performances being paid for by government. It was first spliced into legislation cracking down on child sex abuse materials, with the lawsuit provision inserted on the House floor. Then, as the end of session loomed, it was wedged into House Enrolled Act 1014, which previously focused on misdemeanors. 'Your shoulders have to be really aching from all the water that you're carrying on this bill,' Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, told sponsor Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange. He and other opponents feared the language would have little practical effect, instead 'chilling' activities some simply may 'disagree with' and putting local governments at legal risk. Republicans also made eleventh-hour changes to a Department of Local Government and Finance (DLGF) measure, baking in trailer language to a contentious property tax bill that passed — and was signed into law — a week prior. The final version of House Enrolled Act 1427 approved by the House and Senate in the last hours of the session deletes an increase in the business personal property tax exemption for 2025 that was previously approved in Senate Enrolled Act 1. Instead of jumping to $1 million in 2025, the exemption will remain at the $80,000 in current law and rise to $2,000,000 starting with the 2026 assessment date and beyond. 'One of my biggest concerns with our initiatives this year was the movement with business personal property tax, and I know that the $2 million exemption is for the 2026 assessment,' said Rep. Chris Jeter, R-Fishers, hours before the end of session. He discussed the trailer language, briefly, in the House Rules Committee. 'What I'm hoping for, as we get closer to that point in time, is we're going to take a real hard look and get some local runs to see what that looks like for our local communities,' he continued. 'My district is very heavily reliant on business personal property. This is kicked down the road a little bit, so we can't really see a lot of trouble in the runs now. But going forward, as we get closer … I would hope that we would be able to talk about what those runs look like as we narrow in on that time.' Indiana Senate sends finalized local property, income tax plan to governor The property tax legislation already sign by the governor also created an exception to allow certain new depreciable personal property placed in service after Jan. 1 to avoid the 30% minimum depreciation floor. The trailer bill walked that language back 'if property tax revenue that is attributable to the depreciable personal property is pledged as payment for bonds ,leases, or other obligations.' Under House Enrolled Act 1427, the agricultural base rate in Senate Enrolled Act 1 additionally will not apply for the January 2025 assessment date for land that is considered 'inventory.' Another part of the legislation deals with disabled veterans. Although Senate Enrolled Act 1 repealed traditional property tax deductions for veterans and replaced them with local credits, trailer language repeals those new local credits and reinstates the traditional veteran deductions that existed previously. Huston maintained early Friday that post-passage changes to Senate Enrolled Act 1 weren't the result of a rushed legislative process on property tax reforms. 'One of the reasons we wanted to move (Senate Enrolled Act 1) was to continue to get that feedback — and we're glad we got the feedback around the business personal property tax. We still have the long-term vision of it. We just want to make sure in those areas where it's being bonded against, those bonds are protected,' he said. 'And then on the veterans credit, I think there's a little miscommunication with what the policy is, and with the veterans organizations. We want to make sure we're listening to their concerns and adjust to it, and we'll have that conversation again next year. I imagine it was probably not the last time we'll talk about that topic.' But Senate Democrat leader Sen. Shelli Yoder, of Bloomington, said additions in House Enrolled Act 1427 were needed, in part, because lawmakers moved too quickly before the state's April budget forecast was released. 'The Senate Democrat caucus has been saying to slow down. Let's make sure we get this right. Let's not get to a place, especially when we've had real concerns. But when we got that budget forecast — and all of a sudden, we're having to do some serious back-stepping — no, this was no surprise,' she said. 'What we did quickly see is sort of wide-eyed like, 'Oh gosh, what did we do? How are we going to fix this, and maybe slow down the rollout?'' Yoder added, referring to Senate Enrolled Act 1. 'But again, no matter you know how you spin it, it was kind of a bait and switch. It was a shell game for Hoosiers. You know, here's property tax relief that never really came as relief.' After years of targeting Indiana's health care prices, Indiana lawmakers started the session by introducing several comprehensive reforms — but where did they end? Many new laws will follow in the footsteps of their predecessors by requiring more reporting and transparency. Whether it's the 340B drug program, the average cost of hospital services or disclosing ownership ties, health care providers across the spectrum will have more paperwork in their future. One of the biggest packages was reversed after the initial effort was criticized for setting 'price caps' on five nonprofit hospital systems. Violators would lose their tax-exempt status with the state. Now, such a move wouldn't occur until 2029 at the earliest, following a state-sponsored study to determine average prices. Numerous studies have already done such analysis only to be dismissed for being slanted to one side of the debate or another. Authors hope that having a state agency perform the calculations will bring clarity. A long-sought tax: For years, health care advocates have sought an increase to the state's cigarette tax, notching a win this session after a grim financial forecast. Cigarettes will now be $2 more expensive, with proportional increases for other forms of tobacco. 'We have to have a healthier Indiana. We have to have people that are healthier,' said House Speaker Todd Huston about the tax increase. 'This is something that I think will have long, long-term impacts for helping people make positive choices.' One particular disappointment for health advocates was the decision to slash funding for local public health departments from $100 million annually to $40 million. 'Indiana has had abysmal health care rankings over the years … that was the whole idea of finally putting some money behind doing something,' said House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta. ' Now just to basically take the rug out is, I think, just not the way to go.' But Bray rejected the notion that such a cut undid that previous work. 'Absolutely, unequivocally, no,' he said. 'If you look across the counties of the state, there was about 45% of those funds that went unspent. Not because they weren't using it correctly or anything, but because they were … rolling out program and trying to develop them. 'Everybody's left this budget wanting a little bit more,' he continued. 'But this still continues to fund public health projects. And it is our hope that in a couple years, we'll be able to fund that at a stronger level.' Another big strike to the state's overall health: curbing enrollment on Indiana's Medicaid expansion program. The Healthy Indiana Plan serves low- to moderate-income Hoosiers and, like similar programs across the country, has increased access to preventative care services and decreased emergency department visits — though such progress could be derailed if a significant number of Hoosiers lose their health care coverage. Gov. Mike Braun indicated his support for many of the measures above, naming health care as one of his core targets ahead of the 2025 session. But he said that there was more work to be done. 'I think we got a good start on it,' Braun told reporters on Thursday. 'I think health care will be a big agenda item for next year.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
