By a vote of 74-25, the Indiana House of Representatives gave local governments more power to raise taxes in exchange for property tax relief. Under the measure locals could levy a .25 public safety tax to pay for police and pensions, in addition, local governments could levy an income tax, but must reduce property taxes […]

It’s 8:35 p.m. Lawmakers are about to start debating the budget and property taxes soon. This should be interesting. I’m in the House Chamber and watching the Senate over my wireless Internet.

Indiana lawmakers are caucusing right with less than five hours to go before the midnight adjournment deadline. The state budget is out. The $26 billion spending plan includes money for schools and full-day kindergarten. It also has more than $4 billion in property tax replacement credits. There are also some smaller items like a pre-kindergarten […]

Indiana lawmakers have less than 7 hours to go before adjournment and it looks like Indy Works (in some form) may be back on the table. The curent “compromise” would have the City-County Council approve the merger of all Township fire departments, but not until 2008, after this year’s election. This would put the measure […]

With a little more than 8 hours to go before the end of session deadline, Indiana House Republicans are crying foul over the current tentative budget agreement and say they won’t support the measure unless there is more tax relief for Hoosiers. Minority Leader Brian Bosma called the plan for a tax rebate check a […]

With less than 11 hours to go, Indiana lawmakers are still haggling out the big issue of tax relief. House Republican Leader Brian Bosma says his caucus will not sign on to a bill that includes a 24-percent tax increase average statewide. Despite plans for a possible rebate by mail in November, Bosma says that’s […]

Just when I think I’ve seen it all, something comes along that takes me completely by surprise and after I spend some time thinking about it, I remember I really shouldn’t. In case you’re wondering, I am referring the $15 million screw job Marion County House Democrats (MCHDs) put to fellow Democrat, Indianapolis Mayor Bart […]

Unless something changes in the next 24 hours, Mayor Bart Peterson’s third attempt at government consolidation has failed. House Democrats and Senate Republicans are deadlocked over whether township trustees should be included in the latest merger proposal. Republican State Senator Jim Merritt wanted wanted the Trustees to be included in the consolidation package while Democrat […]

I’ve spent most of my day over at the Indiana General Assembly. Listed below is a timeline of events starting from this morning until now. 11:30 A.M. BUDGET DEAL? Some more details are now available about the budget. It has tax caps as well as tax increases. Senator Luke Kenley tells me there would be […]

Things are so slow at the Legislature that I have time to go back to my downtown apartment, shower and change for a birthday party tonight (and getting pretty takes a while to do it right) and write this. It looks like there’s an agreement with the majority parties in the House and Senate on […]