Redistricting commanded a lot of attention this week as the proposed maps for the next decade were released Monday morning.  Rep. Eric Koch (R-Bedford), Chairman of the Elections and Apportionment Committee and Co-Chair of the committee, Rep. Kathy Richardson (R-Noblesville) presented the boundaries of state House Legislative and Congressional Districts for the coming decade.  Every ten years, upon completion of a new federal decennial census, the General Assembly redraws district boundaries.  The House map can be viewed by clicking here, the Congressional map can be found here, and the Senate map can be viewed here.

The Senate maps protect all incumbent Senators.  The House maps create an array of incumbent primary election challenges of Democrat vs. Democrat and Republican vs. Republican.  In fact, in one proposed Indianapolis district, Rep. Greg Porter, Rep. John Day, and Rep. Ed Delaney (all Democrats) are pitted against each other.  The other set of Democrat incumbents drawn into the same district includes Rep. Jeb Bardon and Rep. Vanessa Summers.  However, Rep. Bardon has publicly indicated he plans on stepping down and will not challenge Rep. Summers in a primary race.  One set of incumbent Republicans were drawn into one district which will include current Ways & Means Chairman Rep. Jeff Espich and Rep. Dan Leonard.  Furthermore, Republican Rep. Ralph Foley was drawn into the same district as Democrat Rep. Matt Pierce. 

SB 590, the immigration bill, received a public hearing in the House on Thursday and will be voted out on Friday.  Governor Daniels has asserted that SB 590 needs to be changed in the House, most importantly removing the bill’s initial provisions, which allowed police to check someone’s immigration status if they had reasonable suspicion that they were here illegally.  Large multi-national employers based in Indiana have testified such burdensome language would harm their international recruiting efforts.  However, with the mounting public pressure in Indiana for something to be done on immigration, we will likely see some form of legislation enacted.

HB 1007 is this session’s omnibus tax legislation.  The bills that were amended into HB 1007 include SB 589 – corporate income tax rate reduction, HB 1435 – extends the time to file amended personal property tax returns, HB 1483 – the Department of Revenue collection of state tax changes and the Internal Revenue Code update, HB 1484 – the Department of Local Government Finance compilation of miscellaneous property tax administrative issues, two county innkeeper’s tax bills (HB 1388 and HB 1460), changes to the venture capital investment credit (HB 1008), one affecting the wind power device exemption (SB 481) and one regarding local government reorganization (SB 26).  Most of these bills are rather large bills by themselves, but the nearly 200 page amendment in the Senate Tax & Fiscal Policy Committee this week combined them into one.

Next week is a week full of important deadlines.  Monday is the last day for both House and Senate committees to pass bills.  Wednesday, April 20, is the final day for second reading bills and amendments in both the House and Senate and Thursday, April 21, is the final day for third reading bills to pass. 

Following the passage of third reading legislation, the final week of session will be a busy week full of conference committees.  We are already beginning to see dissents filed by authors of certain bills meaning that a particular bill will proceed to conference committee.    

To view the entire report click here.

To view the tracklist click here.