(Statehouse) – A spat that has been decades in the making became a legislative fight on the final night of the 2024 General Assembly session.
Contention over who runs the Indiana State Fair emerged during a dispute over fair date language added, removed and reinserted into a proposal hours before adjournment.
Indiana Capital Chronicle reports 10 words were inserted into the 112-page House Enrolled Act 1120, giving the state’s finance-oriented State Fair Commission the power to set fair dates and take that authority from the event-focused State Fair Board.
Fair Board supporters say it’s a step toward a takeover, while the State Fair Commission calls it a fiscal change.
Local State Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) says the board was slighted by the move.
“What seems like a simple little change in a multi-page bill (is) not maybe as simple as what everybody thinks,” Leising said.
“It is a fiduciary decision,” said Anna Whelchel, spokeswoman for the Indiana State Fairgrounds & Event Center.
Whelchel said the edit ensures consistency in the fairgrounds’ governaning structure.
