Indiana Legislative Update……..

Governor signs ISTEP bills, hunting preserves will be limited on size and the BMV changes fee schedules

ISTEP SCORES

Governor Mike Pence has signed two bills into law sparing teachers and schools from penalties for poor student performance on the 2015 ISTEP.

The measures were given final approval by the full House and Senate on Thursday morning, checking off a major priority for Pence and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature. Pence signed both measures Thursday afternoon.

One spares teachers from having merit pay docked due to this year’s low test scores, which plunged because of difficult new standards. The other prevents a drop in school A-F letter grades for the same reason.

The 2015 ISTEP has become a political liability for Republicans. It was rolled out on an accelerated timeline after GOP majorities and Pence withdrew Indiana from national Common Core standards in 2014.

 


 

 

HUNTING PRESERVES

 

Indiana hunting preserves would face minimum size requirements under a bill written by passed by the state Senate.

Jasper Republican Senator Mark Messmer says now that the courts have cemented hunting preserve’s right to operate, the state needs to set guidelines for them.

Messmer’s bill requires high-fence hunting operations to cover at least 80 acres — any new preserves would have to be at least 100. Deer which have been sedated would be off-limits to hunters for 24 hours. The state Board of Animal Health would inspect preserves to be alert any sign of disease outbreaks.

Bloomington Democrat Mark Stoops warns the proposed regulations are too lax and leaves the state open to an outbreak of chronic wasting disease in its deer herds.

 

 


 

 

BMV FEES

Two-million Hoosiers would pay less at the license branch under a bill unanimously approved by the House.

The 431-page bill is the result of a two-year review begun after a class-action suit pulled back the curtain on millions of dollars in overcharges and undercharges. The bill reconciles conflicting laws on some fees and simplifies others — the current schedule of 191 different fees would be slashed to 23.

House Roads and Transportation Chairman Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso) says the bill will still be revenue-neutral.

The bill also requires private contractors who perform titling and registration at dealerships to give customers a written explanation of the convenience fee they’re paying, including an explanation that they can avoid the fee by going to a license branch. The bill would cap the markup over regular B-M-V fees at 50-percent.

The Senate will take up the bill sometime next month