Weekly Statehouse update: Final budget deal, health care costs, partisan school boards

Lawmakers finish the 2025 session with a state budget that covers a massive revenue shortfall. A measure meant to address high health care costs goes to the governor. And school board races will turn partisan under a narrowly-approved bill.

Here's what you might have missed this week at the Statehouse.

HEA 1001: State budget

Republican leaders said they started closing the revenue shortfall by making cuts and then turned to a $2 per pack cigarette tax increase to finish closing the gap.

Cuts in HEA 1001 include reducing local public health funding down to $40 million a year — from $150 million this year — and slashing higher education funding by 5 percent.

HEA 1003: Health matters

A House priority bill approved on the session's final day includes a variety of policies targeted at different areas within the health care industry, including a policy that clarifies Indiana's current site of service language.

HEA 1003 also prohibits health provider contracts from containing provisions with the intent to limit competition.
 

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SEA 287: School board matters

School board candidates will have to add a label next to their name on the ballot: Republican, Democrat, independent or nonpartisan. Supporters said SEA 287 improves transparency; opponents worried it will inject partisan politics into school board races.

Find all the measures we've covered this legislative session on our 2025 bill tracker.
 

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.