Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, speaks to reporters after a Senate meeting on Organization Day on Tuesday at the Indiana Statehouse. (Photo/Connor Burress at TheStatehouseFile.com)
By Olivia O’Neal TheStatehouseFile.com November 19, 2024
Following defeats on the state and national level, it took around half an hour for Democrats in the Indiana House of Representatives to receive their first “no” from the state’s Republican supermajority.
Tuesday’s Organization Day officially began the 2025 Indiana legislative session, which will reconvene Jan. 14. New lawmakers in the House and Senate took their oaths of office while chamber leaders discussed their goals for the upcoming term and answered questions from the media.
In the House
The House of Representatives made several changes to its rules. Democrats’ concerns over too little time for lawmakers to digest bills and the public to respond to them were disregarded by Republicans, favoring efficiency in the legislative process instead.
House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, commended Indiana for a swift and accurate voting process, saying, “Arizona and California could learn a thing from us.”
He revisited some of what he considered the House’s recent major accomplishments, including tax cuts and a rise in teacher and state trooper salaries.
“May we never take for granted the tremendous blessing it is to serve our state,” Huston said.
In 2025, the House aims to continue that success with infrastructure improvements, he said, ensuring the state’s energy policy meets the needs of an energy-dependent state, and keeping housing costs and property taxes reasonable while also retaining appropriate public safety and education funds.
“Let’s roll up our sleeves and work together to create a future we want,” he said.
Among his goals, he also mentioned property taxes. “We want to provide significant tax-payer relief to homeowners across Indiana,” he said. “What that looks like is still to be determined.”
In the Senate
The Indiana Senate also swore in new officials and discussed the upcoming legislative year.
“We have a lot of challenges to get to this year … All things are things that we’ll try to work on this legislative session to bring relief and improvement to Hoosiers,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Roderick Bray, R-Martinsville, mentioning health care, Medicaid and electrical power.
He also expressed his caucus’ support for a plan to decrease property taxes that Indiana Gov.-elect Mike Braun recently laid out.
“We want to help make sure that some version gets through the Statehouse,” Bray said. “Myself and probably every other member in this General Assembly—all 149 of us—have heard the pain that property taxes have caused.”
Although Monday Bray mentioned making “tweaks” to property taxes, he said on Tuesday, “This year we do want to provide some relief, and it will probably be more than tweaks.”
2025 is a budget year, and Bray predicted some state belt tightening.
“There’s going to be by all accounts less money to deal with the budget this coming year,” he said. “It is appropriate to say the expectation is a little lower this year because I do not think we will have the revenue we are accustomed to.”
Sen. Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, was reelected minority leader Monday—the same day he was accused of sexual harassment by three women. Talking after the meeting Tuesday, he acknowledged potential financial restrictions but said he doesn’t want belt tightening to affect already struggling Hoosiers.
“Our focus must be clear: addressing the issues that affect Hoosier’s daily lives the most. That’s why we’ve chosen to prioritize public health, housing and education this session.”
Earlier in the chamber, he said, “We all live in a country that gives us all the freedoms that we can. But we must recognize, while we all have the power and the influence to take care of things that some of the people out there cannot, … we are here primarily for them.”
He emphasized a push for PFAS bans, nurse family practitioner regulations, school-based health services, stronger tenant protections and improved education funding.
“This year we prove that Indiana’s government can work together for the people,” he said.
Olivia O’Neal is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news site powered by Franklin College journalism students. Grace Wilson contributed to this report.