This past week, the Indiana General Assembly concluded its 2016 legislative session. All bills approved by lawmakers are now headed to the governor’s desk for final consideration.
Senate Republicans announced an agenda at the beginning of session aimed at helping Hoosiers across our state. State Senator Randy Head said, “I’m pleased to report that we delivered on our agenda.” He highlighted several bills that passed:
- Funding our local roads – Senate Enrolled Act 67and House Enrolled Act 1001 work together to provide $1 billion in new state and local road funding over the next two years with no state tax increases and no new state debt.
- Supporting economic development – HEA 1001 fully funds a third major economic development project under the Regional Cities Initiative, providing $42 million each to Northeast Indiana, North Central Indiana and Southwest Indiana.
- Fairness in school accountability – In response to the problem-plagued 2015 ISTEP test, Senate Enrolled Act 200 provided that a school or school corporation’s A-F performance rating for the 2014-2015 school year cannot be lower than the assigned performance grade for the 2013-2014 school year.House Enrolled Act 1003 prevented 2015 ISTEP scores from being used as part of annual teacher performance evaluations unless using the scores would improve the teacher’s performance rating.
- Stopping drug dealers – Senate Enrolled Act 290allows courts to convict people in possession of large amounts of drugs as dealers, not just users. House Enrolled Act 1235 establishes mandatory minimum sentences for the worst drug dealers. Under this bill, the sentence for the highest felony level of dealing meth or heroin with a prior dealing conviction could not be suspended below 10 years.
- Supporting Hoosier veterans – Senate Enrolled Act 295 allows veterans who served on active duty during any armed conflict to be eligible for one-time financial assistance from the Military Family Relief Fund (MFRF). It also gives Hoosiers the option to donate a portion of their state income tax refund to the MFRF.
- Property tax relief for farmers – Senate Enrolled Act 308 modernizes the farmland assessment formula to reduce farmers’ property-tax bills by $16.5 million next year and $49 million in 2018.
Head said, “To help fight meth production in Indiana, I authored Senate Enrolled Act 80, which requires a customer who wishes to purchase products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient to making meth, to be a patient of record with the pharmacy where they are purchasing the medicine.”
Although session has ended, lawmakers will continue to work throughout the summer and fall to discuss issues facing the Hoosier state. For more information on the work that was done during the 2016 legislative session, visit www.in.gov/iga.
