(Batesville, IN) – State Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg), and Representatives Lindsay Patterson (R-Brookville) and Alex Zimmerman (R-North Vernon) gave an overview of the 2025 Indiana General Assembly session during the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Lunch and Learn Friday afternoon at Ivy Tech Community College’s Batesville location.
Leising noted that out of 521 bills written in the Senate, 103 were approved.
During the session, only about 20% of the 1,229 bills introduced by Indiana’s 150 lawmakers passed the General Assembly.
Of the bills that passed, more than 90% received bipartisan support and nearly 50% received unanimous support in the Senate.
Patterson voted for Senate Enrolled Act 1, which is the property tax relief bill.
She says lessening the property tax burden was a priority among many lawmakers as well as Gov. Mike Braun.
“I understand that it takes away from local government and that’s not something that we want to do. However, that is an inadvertent response in trying to save these homeowners some money off their tax bills,” Patterson said. “That money is not going to be lucrative this first year (2026 installments), but as we go down the road, it is going to be a tremendous savings for the homeowners.”
Patterson acknowledged that local governments and public schools will struggle the first year.
“After that, it’s going to pull itself together and providing that relief for the homeowners was my biggest reason for voting in favor of that,” she added. “It was a tough vote. It was a very, very long bill with a lot of complicated information in it. But the further I delved into it and the more people that I sat down and talked to, I felt like it was the best thing for the homeowners.”
Lawmakers also passed a state budget during the session, which they are required to do by statute every two years.
The spending plan includes 47 % for K-12 education, 22% for Medicaid, and 9% for higher education.
Zimmerman highlighted one of the bills he authored, House Enrolled Act 1114, which will add two new criminal enhancements for those who drive without ever receiving a license of up to a Level 5 or 6 felony if the unlicensed driver causes bodily injury, catastrophic injury, or death.
It goes into effect July 1.
Under current law, the penalty is only a Class C misdemeanor, which can be enhanced to a Class A misdemeanor if the person has a prior unrelated conviction.
Zimmerman authored the legislation in response to the death of a Holton man.
Twenty-seven-year-old Brad Castner was killed last March in a head-on collision with an unlicensed driver.
Zimmerman says this year’s session was the hardest he’s ever been through as both a lawmaker and as an intern/staff member.
A question-and-answer session – which got testy on occasion among attendees – followed the lawmakers’ presentations and comments.
