INDIANAPOLIS — The new legislative session is still eight months away, but the wheels are already in motion to determine what topics lawmakers will address with proposed bills next year.
Indiana's Legislative Council passed a resolution Tuesday, May 14, confirming the topics lawmakers will study in the coming months.
Some of those topics include current trends in criminal behavior and sentencing, how schools can improve attendance and the impact of absenteeism on school funding.
When it comes to your money, expect lawmakers to look at the cost of health care.
They'll also be studying ways to reduce and eliminate the individual income tax, along with property taxes and how they can be reduced or eliminated on certain properties.
A committee will also look at capping the total amount a school corporation can ask for in an operating referendum.
Another big topic, one that emerged even last session, will be artificial intelligence. Lawmakers will study its use by state agencies, looking at the benefits and risks.
As much as Tuesday was about the topics study committees will take on – 66 topics in all – there were also issues that didn't make the cut from the 157 submitted to the Legislative Council.
One issue not on the list was cannabis.
Recently, the federal government announced it was looking to reclassify it.
"It's certainly a topic, especially if the federal government does make a change, that obviously is relevant,” President Pro Tempore, Senator Rodric Bray said. “It's not to say there won't be some people looking at that over the summer, but we've had a couple of summers of public hearings on those, and I think it's one of the reasons it didn't get selected this year."
Study committees give lawmakers a chance to do a deep-dive on topics and hear testimony from the public or other stakeholders. Committees vote on recommendations that come out of those deep-dives.
Those recommendations can eventually find their way into proposed legislation.
Over the next month, lawmakers will be assigned to study committees so the work can begin this summer.