The Indiana General Assembly completed its 2013 legislative session late Friday, passing a two-year budget that retroactively eliminates the state inheritance tax and increases funding for the Department of Child Services.
The Indiana Senate Friday passed the legislation that is the first comprehensive reform of the state’s criminal code in more than 35 years. It now goes to Gov. Mike Pence for his signature.
Gov. Mike Pence signed Senate Enrolled Act 486 Wednesday, which will allow three counties to appoint additional magistrates or judges.
The Indiana House of Representatives passed on concurrence several bills Wednesday, including legislation dealing with judicial technology and automation.
The Indiana House of Representatives passed several bills on concurrence Tuesday, including legislation on trust administration, magistrates and adoption history information.
The Indiana House of Representatives approved Senate Bills 224 and 225 introduced by Senate President Pro Tem David Long outlining details of the state’s call for a Constitutional Convention. The legislation returns to the Senate with some changes.
Legislation out of the House of Representatives reconfiguring workers’ compensation in Indiana passed the Senate Wednesday and goes back to the House with some changes.
House Bill 1006, which is the first comprehensive overhaul of Indiana’s felony statutes in 35 years, was passed by the full Senate Wednesday and returned to the House of Representatives with amendments.
With a vote along party lines, a pair of bills outlining the selection and duties of delegates to an Article V Constitutional Convention cleared their first hurdle in the Indiana House of Representatives.
Legislation that will add more judicial officers in Hamilton, Hendricks and Owen counties passed unanimously out of the House of Representatives Tuesday.
A proposal to expand Indiana’s school voucher program moved to the full Senate on Tuesday, but not before opponents said the unknown costs and impact of the bill amounted to a fiscal cliff for the state and a bailout of private religious schools.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, on Thursday signaled he supported a boost in funding for the Odyssey case management system and other court technology functions, after proposed funding was reduced in the House budget plan.
The first comprehensive overhaul of Indiana’s felony statutes in more than 35 years passed the Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law Thursday by a vote of 8-1.
A modest increase requested over the next two budget cycles won’t include technical upgrades to allow webcasts of traveling Court of Appeals oral arguments, Chief Judge Margret Robb told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.
After the Indiana Department of Child Services made its presentation to the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday, the discussion quickly turned to Child in Need of Services petitions.
Senate budget writers appeared skeptical of a request Thursday to spend more than $2.1 million over the next four years to give public defenders statewide the same access to case management systems that prosecutors, judges and others have in many counties.
The Indiana Senate approved several pieces of legislation from the House this week, including a bill that would establish sentencing alternatives for certain offenders under the age of 18.
Concerns over sentencing provisions and pleas for adequate funding dominated the Senate hearing on legislation overhauling the state’s criminal code.
Two crime bills moving through the Indiana General Assembly are on the agenda for Senate hearings next week.
Proposals to expand services offered by problem-solving courts and to attempt to curtail fraudulent liens and other tactics of so-called sovereign citizens will be heard Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.