Statehouse Scoop: The sprint of a short session
Some people liken the work of public policy to being a marathon and not a sprint, but those people have clearly never seen the work of the Indiana General Assembly in a short session year.
What always feels like a too-short exercise felt even shorter this year because of our legislature's December attempt to conduct mid-cycle redistricting. This left us with just eight weeks in January and February to secure some wins for our community.
How did we do? In a session that many predicted would be like life in Thomas Hobbes’s state of nature (you know, “nasty, brutish, and short”), we were still able to find some clear policy advances and continue our longer-term work on other issues. Here’s a quick summary of our progress across United Way of Central Indiana’s key policy priorities:
Early Care and Learning
One real bright spot this session was progress in early care and learning.
Multiple bills we supported passed unanimously, and others passed with broad, bipartisan consensus. There seems to be real momentum behind the need to find bigger solutions to the state’s child care crisis, especially in the wake of state decisions around waitlists (now more than 33,000 children waiting for a Child Care and Development Fund voucher) and provider impacts (more than 240 providers closing in the last year, and many others seeing significant declines in revenue due to rate cuts).
Two bills with fiscal implications passed unanimously:
Senate Bill 4 allows the Family and Social Services Administration to tap into a $300 million pool of funds to help address the CCDF program.
House Bill 1177 expands an existing employer child care expenditure tax credit to make it more accessible to employers. It also allows local redevelopment commissions to use tax increment financing, or TIF, dollars to support child care expansions. With little budget impact to the state, these bills should help provide a financial band-aid to our state’s child care system.
Two other bills are worth lifting up. House Bill 1018, an effort spearheaded by our partners at Indiana Afterschool Network, modernizes the state’s School Age Child Care Grant, which should make the program more accessible to smaller providers. House Bill 1152 will pre-empt homeowners association policies that prevent residents of neighborhoods from operating home-based child cares, which should help marginally increase access for families.
Medical Debt and Health Care Costs
One success we saw came in provisions of House Bill 1271. It requires additional disclosures by hospitals to patients around charity care, other payment assistance options and payment plans. We are grateful this language, which we have supported over the last couple years, finally made it to the governor for his signature.
At the mid-point of session, we were very encouraged by progress with two Senate bills: Senate Bill 85 and Senate Bill 197, both of which provided enhanced consumer protection to people dealing with medical debt. Both passed with bipartisan support in the Senate, but unfortunately both bills died in the House when there was not time to hear them. However, authors and sponsors in both chambers remain committed to long-term efforts to address health care costs, patient connection to insurance coverage, and resolving the medical debt crisis facing Hoosiers. We are optimistic on this front as we head toward 2027.
Economic Mobility
We continue our efforts – in partnership with the Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute and others – to strengthen paid leave options for families across the state.
One bright spot: a summer study – required under Senate Bill 199 – that will take place by the Indiana Department of Education, to explore what schools are currently offering employees as part of employment contracts.
As we continue to explore ways to support more robust paid leave options for public sector employees (especially mirroring the practices of Indiana’s executive branch agencies), we hope to see more employers in all sectors realizing the importance of paid leave to ensure employee satisfaction and retention.
Safe and Affordable Housing
Our efforts for housing progress remain unrealized.
While an early draft of House Bill 1001 included some useful language, including expanded opportunities for religious communities to use their land to build affordable housing, the final version only included a request for a summer study on that issue and removed some other helpful, development-focused language. We will monitor this issue closely as it moves through the summer, especially in light of the work of one of our funded non-accredited partners, Sanctuary Indy, with Lynhurst Baptist Church.
Another challenge this session was Senate Bill 285, which some have called the criminalization of homelessness bill. The new law, which takes effect July 1, imposes a misdemeanor on anyone who uses public land for long-term camping unless the land was expressly set aside for that purpose. It also provides a defense to the charge of unlawful camping and expands some of the statute around involuntary commitments for those determined to be “gravely disabled.”
Many community organizations that work with people experiencing homelessness raised significant concerns over the bill, but we were unsuccessful in removing the criminal penalty or stopping the bill.
We will carefully monitor the impact of this legislation, especially considering language that requires law enforcement to report to the state on the number of arrests made for unlawful camping.
To Close and to Keep Working
The late senator and ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan once mused, “if you don’t have thirty years to devote to social policy, you shouldn’t get involved.”
What we know is that most Hoosier families don’t have 30 years to wait for their problems to be solved. United Way of Central Indiana remains committed to these generational efforts, but we need you to make these things happen.
Our team remains grateful for your willingness to call, write, show up and give in support of policies that make sure all Hoosiers can live the lives they are capable of living. We invite you to continue making your voices heard during the upcoming election season and in legislative sessions to come.