It has been an honor to serve as the State Representative for the people of House District 22. We have spent the last eight weeks debating bills, and now we are at the halfway point where the bills that have passed through the House move over to the Senate and the Senate bills come to the House for us to consider.

If a bill passes both the House and the Senate, it will go to the governor to be signed into law. This has been an exciting time for me to be a part of the legislative process here in Indiana.

The highlight for me has been hearing from the people back home in the district and visitors at the Statehouse. I would like to share some insights into a few of bills that we have worked on this session.

One bill that was a hot topic in the district was Deer Preserves (HB 1453). This is an industry that has boomed over the last few years. These deer are never wild and are raised locally. This bill took a new twist when the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that the Department of Natural Resources could not regulate hunting inside fences under existing law. This was an interesting scenario in that a “No” vote would mean these farms could continue unregulated, while a “Yes” vote would provide basic regulations. I voted “Yes”, and this bill passed the House 55-39.

Indiana is the only state in the United States with any sort of sales ban on alcohol on Sunday. There was a bill that would have ended the ban on Sunday sales of alcohol from retail outlets (HB 1624). If it would have passed, the people of Indiana would have been able to purchase alcohol on Sunday for the first time since prohibition.

However, over the course of the legislative process, amendments were made to state that retail stores must meet additional requirements such as alcohol server training for clerks, and that liquor products must be behind a counter and only sold by authorized clerks at the stores. At first the bill was very popular, but with those additional requirements, support for the bill faded fast. The author pulled the bill before it came up for a vote.

Another bill that came up was the repeal of the Common Construction Wage Bill (HB 1019). This is a bill that if enacted, would repeal an 80-year-old law that was created to prevent the undercutting of Indiana contractors with labor from other states who worked for less, and whose labor may not be as skilled.

In my discussions with local contractors, I became aware of other issues that we have had locally with the process of awarding contracts and came to the conclusion that we should take a more comprehensive look at the entire process. Recent projects in Kosciusko County have used the non-union wage scale, so there is no money to be saved by repealing this law. I voted “No” and the bill passed the House 55-41.

Every other year is a budget year, so there was a lot of discussion on the Budget Bill (HB 1001). Over half of the budget goes to K-12 education, and I am happy that our local public schools will see a significant increase in funding these next two years. I voted “Yes”, and the bill passed the House 69-29.

This is only the halfway point of our session for this year. Now we will be looking at many bills that were passed by the Indiana Senate. I always look forward to hearing from all of you. As always, if you have any comments, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Curt Nisly
District 22 State Representative