– By Carolyn Wright, IMPA Vice President of Government Relations
On April 25th, the Indiana General Assembly closed out the 2025 “long” legislative session that began on January 8. The legislature finalized several key policy issues during the session, including pushing through a new two-year state budget, ratifying education regulation (House Enrolled Act 1002), narrowly approving a partisan school boards bill (Senate Enrolled Act 287), approving health care pricing and transparency legislation (House Enrolled Acts 1003 and 1004), and backing plans to eliminate two county courts – the original plan was 11 (House Enrolled Act 1144).
One focus of the session included competing property tax relief proposals put forth by Governor Mike Braun, House Republicans, and Senate Republicans. Other focal points involved figuring out how to fund state government and all of its agencies and programs over the next two years, numerous education initiatives, health care cost and transparency proposals, and energy legislation. Through the session, IMPA’s Government Relations team was at the state house advocating for the interests of public power and the Agency’s 61 member communities.
On the energy and utility fronts, IMPA’s team anticipated various bills of interest to be introduced. There were several consequential bills pertaining to the electric industry, including incentives to manufacture and build Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which is a form of nuclear generation that is safer, smaller, and expected to be easier to construct than typical nuclear power plants. Other bills expedited regulatory procedures for electricity generation for large load customers (including data centers and advanced manufacturing), siting for generation projects, and regulatory processes for retiring or refueling existing coal facilities. Additionally, a measure dealing with communications providers seeking to attach their facilities to electric utility poles (IOU, REMC or municipal electrics) was passed. IMPA’s staff kept a close eye on other areas of interest, such as economic development, environment, cybersecurity, and all things local government.
Several interesting legislative proposals did not make it across the finish line. For example, changes to municipal annexation were once again introduced this session, but as in the past several sessions, it did not make it through the House after passing out of the Senate. Much to the disappointment of many, legislation that would have made the persimmon Indiana’s state fruit died on the vine in House committee, as did the effort to make the Indiana bat the official state mammal.
Of the 1,204 bills and 21 Joint Resolutions that were introduced this year, 337 (156 Senate bills, 2 Senate Joint Resolutions, 178 House bills, and 1 House Joint Resolution) survived the first half of the session. About 255 bills and joint resolutions made it through the second chamber. At the end of the 2025 legislative session, 244 bills and 3 joint resolutions survived the entire legislative process and were sent to the Governor. That is about 20% of what was introduced!
Though the legislative session has wrapped for the year, IMPA’s Government Relations team will continue to monitor any developments at the state and federal levels. Through participation and close monitoring of the Indiana General Assembly and Congress, IMPA works to ensure that the needs and concerns of the Agency’s 61 member communities are represented.
For more information on particular bills mentioned and IMPA’s perspective on them, read IMPA’s “2025 State Legislative Wrap-Up” at https://www.impa.com/wp-content/uploads/2025-Session-Wrap-Up-1.pdf.