July 1 Ushers in New Laws
Many committees will begin meeting this month.
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA host of new laws will take effect Friday in Indiana. WIBC/Network Indiana Political Reporter Eric Berman says a few of the more high-profile measures include the start of short-term road funding, a controversial security regulation for e-cigarette liquid producers and rules making Indiana one of the few states where daily online fantasy football games are legal. Also starting Friday, licensed Indiana craft distilleries will be allowed to sell bottles of spirits for carry out on Sundays, which is illegal for all other retail liquor sellers in the state.
Berman says he doesn’t think the upcoming election played much of a role in the slate of laws approved by the Statehouse and Governor Mike Pence. "The one area where you certainly saw the influence of the election was in the road funding debate, where you had the House Republicans saying that they were prepared to bite the bullet and raise taxes. They said they wanted that to be an election year debate so that they could explain it to their constituents as needed. The Senate Republicans didn’t like that, Governor Pence didn’t like that and they ended up not doing it."
Earlier this year, Pence signed off on $1 billion in spending over the next three years. It was not the long-term solution some had hoped, but turned out to be an increase that did receive a small amount of support from the minority party in the General Assembly, the Democrats.
He says two, more technical laws that are not receiving as much attention are the codification of the state’s Health Indiana Plan 2.0 and tweaks to the fee structure of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The so-called "Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship" also kicks in July 1. It involves paying a set amount of tuition for college students aiming to be teachers in exchange for agreeing to teach in Indiana for five years.
You can connect to a full list of bill signed into law this year by Governor Pence by clicking here.
Berman says he doesn’t think the upcoming election played much of a role in the slate of laws approved by the Statehouse and Governor Mike Pence.