Kayla Dwyer

1 month ago | southbendtribune.com | Brittany Carloni |Kayla Dwyer

The Indiana General Assembly completed its work for the 2025 legislative session on April 25. Now, the bills that made it to the finish line are in the hands of Gov. Mike Braun. The governor can either sign, veto or take no action on bills that arrive at his desk, although bills that Braun doesn't act on automatically become law after seven days. Braun has already signed more than 100 bills into law, including the signature property tax relief legislation in Senate Enrolled Act 1.

1 month ago | indystar.com | Kayla Dwyer

Gov. Mike Braun rebuked his lieutenant governor's remark that the Three-Fifths Compromise was "a great move" but stopped short of calling for an apology as others have done. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith aired his perspective in a social media video last week, arguing that the agreement made during the 1787 Constitutional Convention to count an enslaved person as three-fifths of an individual for representation purposes actually cut against the southern states' goals of enshrining slavery.

1 month ago | indystar.com | Kayla Dwyer |Brittany Carloni |Hayleigh Colombo

Around 2 a.m. April 25, Indiana lawmakers wrapped the 2025 legislative session, sending their final round of bills to Gov. Mike Braun's desk and leaving a few in the dust. Braun had already signed a major property tax bill ― the subject of a campaign promise ― into law last week. Soon he will decide whether to sign or veto his first state budget, among other high-profile bills, like ones tackling the cost of health care. State budget: Indiana lawmakers passed the state budget over night.

1 month ago | indystar.com | Brittany Carloni |Kayla Dwyer

Indiana lawmakers closed the books on the 2025 legislative session in the early hours of April 25, approving some of the most controversial bills of the session and the state budget on the last day.  It’s also the time of year where lawmakers in the House and the Senate make last-minute adds and eliminations to some bills and resurrect once-dead language in others before the final versions of legislation head to the governor’s desk.

1 month ago | indystar.com | Kayla Dwyer

It was an unusually topsy-turvy road to get there, but Indiana lawmakers finally gave final approval to the next two-year state budget shortly after 1 a.m. Friday morning. Just a week earlier, a dispiriting revenue forecast sent lawmakers back to the drawing board to find $2 billion to either cut or raise. They ended up finding a combination of both: a smattering of cuts to public health, higher education and public media, a little dip into reserves, and a hike in the cigarette tax.