Stay Informed

The 2021 legislative session is at its halfway point, which means the Senate will consider bills passed by the House and the House will consider bills passed by the Senate.

Many of Indiana Farm Bureau’s policy priorities for 2021 are still being considered and moving through the legislative process. Those policy priorities include:

State budget

• House Bill 1001 is the budget bill and currently includes INFB's priority to provide additional funding for the Indiana Board of Animal Health so the agency can increase its meat and poultry inspection staff.

Grain Indemnity Program

• Senate Bill 364 would require a performance review of the Indiana Grain Buyers Warehouse Licensing Agency's auditing practices, an actuarial study of the Grain Indemnity Fund, information sharing between the agency and the grain indemnity board and provide funding for staff training and software. The bill also would adjust the failure date from the spring of 2020 to the fall of 2019, which is when the initial financial issues began.
• House Bill 1483 is very similar to SB 364. The major difference between the two bills is HB 1483 doesn’t adjust the failure date. 

Home-based vendors

• Senate Bill 185 would create a working group made up of industry organizations, food safety experts, Indiana State Department of Health, Indiana State Board of Animal Health and Indiana State Department of Agriculture to submit recommendations concerning home-based vendors to the Indiana General Assembly before Dec. 1.
• House Bill 1103 would allow consumers to buy safe foods from a home-based vendor over the phone or online. The vendor may deliver the items in-person or through a third party. The bill also would create the working group as defined in SB 185.

Property taxes

• Senate Bill 72 would make new farm equipment eligible for local tax abatement for new manufacturing equipment, new research and development equipment, new logistical distribution equipment and new information technology equipment. 
• Senate Bill 307 would set up a system to determine the true tax value of commercial real property used for retail purposes that is occupied by the original owner. SB 307 is offered to address "dark box" assessment appeals that have been filed in most counties by owners on big box retail stores.
• House Bill 1166 would provide that if an assessment on a taxpayer's residential real property or commercial property is increased for any reason other than trending and the taxpayer prevails in his/her appeal, the assessing official may not increase the property tax for the next five years for any reason other than trending. “Trending” is the process whereby property values are adjusted on an annual basis to bring them closer to market value-in-use.

INFB also is supporting several bills focused on broadband development. Read more about those on page 1 of this issue of The Hoosier Farmer.

The bills listed above were written in their current form at the time of publication. The bills could have been changed and/or failed to pass before the halftime deadline.

The 2021 legislative session must conclude on or before April 29. For information on bills or to livestream a session, visit www.iga.in.gov.