The 2023 Indiana legislative session is over, and several local lawmakers’ bills will soon become law.
However, they did have some losses. Of the 1,154 bills filed, state lawmakers approved 252 of those during the session.
Along with passing a $44 billion biennial budget, lawmakers passed bills about education, health care and taxes. For lawmakers representing Johnson County, their bills addressed topics including food delivery services, pronouns in schools and jury duty pay.
PASSED: Food delivery services
Some restaurants may disappear from food delivery apps following the passage of bill by freshman Rep. Robb Greene, R-Shelbyville.
House Bill 1279 would require third-party delivery services, like DoorDash, to receive a restaurant’s permission before listing them as an option to order from. This measure addresses “menu scraping,” a term for used to refer to delivery companies that upload a restaurant’s menu and logo to their platform — and deliver their food —without their consent.
It also allows restaurants to sue if delivery services don’t comply.
Other prohibitions include forbidding a third-party delivery service from charging a restaurant a core delivery service fee, commission or charge that exceeds 10% of the purchase price for each online order. Services are also prohibited from charging a restaurant any other fee that is separate from the “core delivery service” fees, according to the bill.
The bill was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb on May 1, and will go into effect on July 1.
FAILED: Meat expansion and development program
A bill designed to address capacity issues at small meat processing facilities across did not make it across the finish line.
Rep. Peggy Mayfield, R-Martinsville, authored HB 1478, which would have created a state grant program to help increase local meat processing capacity and production. The grant
would have been funded by a $10 million state investment, and recipients would be required to use it to buy land, construct or expand facilities and modernize equipment and technology to ensure food safety, according to the bill.
Part of the impetus for the proposed program resulted from issues lawmakers have seen over the last few years. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, small meat packers and processors were overwhelmed by the demand, which was causing meat producers to be turned away, Mayfield told the Daily Journal prior to the start of the session.
Mayfield’s bill never made it out of the House Ways and Means committee, which is where it was assigned in February. It did pass out of the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee prior to this.
PASSED: Restrictions on gender therapy for inmates
The use of state and federal funds for gender-affirming sexual reassignment surgery for offenders imprisoned in Indiana will be restricted effective July 1.
HB 1569, authored by Mayfield, restricts the Indiana Department of Correction, or DOC, from paying for an inmate’s reassignment surgery, even if its recommended by a medical provider, according to the bill.
Currently, those incarcerated within DOC facilities are able to undergo the transition procedure. There have been no reports of that an inmate has done so yet, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Lawmakers who supported the bill said they want to protect taxpayers from paying for an “unnecessary” procedure, the publication said.
Mayfield’s bill was signed by the governor on April 20. The Human Rights Campaign — an LGBTQ advocacy group — “condemned” Holcomb for signing the bill in a statement issued the same day.
PASSED: Preventing human sexuality education, pronoun change notification
A bill that would prevent human sexuality education for young children will soon become law.
HB 1608, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, requires that human sexuality not be taught to students in pre-K through third grade, according to the bill’s text. The bill also requires schools to notify parents if students ask to use a different name or pronoun.
Davis has said the bill is designed to “empower” parents by reinforcing that they are in command when it comes to telling their children about “sensitive” topics. The bill was created in response to concerns from parents within her district, the Capital Chronicle reported.
The ACLU of Indiana criticized the bill in a press release, saying the bill fails to define “human sexuality,” and would “broadly censor” discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity. They also said that the bill would “force” Indiana teachers to out transgender students.
The governor signed the bill on Thursday, and it will go into effect on July 1.
PASSED: Gun privacy information
A freshman state representative’s bill will limit what information the federal government
can request on lawful Hoosiers with handgun carry permits.
Rep. Craig Haggard, R-Mooresville, authored HB 1323, which shields Indiana handgun permit holders’ background check information from being provided to the federal government upon request, unless an individual is arrested for a crime or part of an active criminal investigation.
Haggard said he authored the bill after learning about a letter the FBI sent to all county sheriffs’ offices in Missouri last year seeking to randomly audit their records on concealed carry handgun permit holders. Missouri already had a law on the books restricting what confidential information can be shared with the federal government. The sheriffs there ultimately declined the FBI’s requests.
The bill was signed into law by the Governor on April 5, and goes into effect on July 1.
PASSED: Increasing jury duty pay
Another bill of Davis’ to increase jury duty pay for the first time since 1997 will go into effect on July 1.
HB 1466 will give Hoosiers serving as jurors in a courtroom $80 a day for service. This doubles the current rate of $40 a day that has been in place since 1997, which was below the current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, according to the bill’s text.
The bill also increases the jury fee collected from a defendant to $6 if they are found to have committed a crime, violated an infraction or violated an ordinance. People who file tort and plenary action lawsuits will be charged a $75 fee because they also use a jury.
Davis said she decided to author the bill after two local judges — Johnson County Superior Court 4 Judge Marla Clark and Superior Court 2 Judge Peter Nugent — gave a presentation to the House’s Judiciary Summer Study Committee last year about how low the state’s jury pay was.
The governor signed the bill on Thursday.
PASSED: Solar panel and wind power equipment disposal study
A state environment agency will soon begin work on a study on the decommissioning and disposal of solar panels.
Senate Bill 33, authored by Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus and Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, directs the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, or IDEM, to conduct a study on the decommissioning and disposal of solar panels and wind power equipment. Findings are required to be reported by Oct. 1.
The study would consider, among other things, the creation of a state program to manage the decommissioning and disposal of solar panels and a financial mechanism to fund the effort, according to the bill’s text.
Originally the bill required a joint study between IDEM and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, or IURC. The final bill allows IDEM to consult with the IURC as needed for the study, the bill’s fiscal statement says.
The bill was signed by the governor on April 20.
