ROAD FUNDING

MOBILE AND MANUFACTURED HOMES

• HB 1477 would give the courts and the Indiana Department of Health resources to start enforcement action against mobile home community owners who are not paying utility bills on behalf of their residents so that utilities, including municipal utilities, are not in a position where they must disconnect water service to the entire mobile home community. It also provides some clarifying language for planning and zoning requirements around mobile and manufactured housing.
• Aim worked with the bill author, along with the Manufactured Housing Association, to make sure that this language would be a valuable tool in getting bad actors throughout the state into compliance without negatively affecting residents.
• HB 1477, authored by Rep. Alex Zimmerman (R-North Vernon) and sponsored by Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen), passed the Senate Local Government Committee on Thursday unanimously.

ANNEXATION

• SB 126 would end municipally initiated annexation in Indiana moving forward. Compromise language was proposed to amend this bill that would grandfather in existing annexations that have already adopted a fiscal plan, make the voluntary process easier to administer, and create a new pathway for non-contiguous annexations for specific economic development and housing needs.
• Aim worked with the bill sponsor and the House Committee, in addition to other stakeholders, attempting a workable compromise on the long-standing annexation conversation. However, the Senate author did not support any proposed changes to the underlying language.
• SB 126, authored by Sen. Jim Buck (R-Kokomo) and sponsored by Rep. Dave Hall (R-Norman), was heard in the House Local Government Committee but was withdrawn by the chair. As such, this bill is not expected to move forward this session.

PUBLIC NOTICES

• HB 1312 would create a new statewide website to which local governments could post legally required public notices free of charge instead of being required to publish them in a local newspaper.
• This has been a long-standing Aim legislative initiative. Local newspapers charge for public notice publication, which does create a negative fiscal impact for communities, but just as importantly, local governments have to time their public meetings with when papers can publish the notices to meet statutory deadlines. As papers close or reduce the number of issues they publish per week, this process becomes more and more difficult and, in many rural communities, largely unworkable.
• Unfortunately, this bill was defeated by the Senate Local Government committee with a vote of 2-8 and will not be moving forward this year. However, Chairman Buck expressed a desire to keep working on this concept in future years with the committee.

HOUSING

• HB 1005 reprioritizes the state’s Residential Infrastructure Fund toward communities with development-friendly planning and zoning policies. It also allows qualified third-party reviewers to conduct city plan reviews and inspections if the property owner chooses it and they verify with the municipality that every one of their requirements was fulfilled to their satisfaction.
• Aim has worked extensively with the bill author to ensure that the third-party review process is workable and does not compromise safety or any other required development reviews that are part of the normal city processes. This bill was amended by the Senate Local Government Committee in response to concerns and suggestions brought by our members.
• HB 1005, authored by Rep. Doug Miller (R-Elkhart) and sponsored by Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger), passed the Senate Local Government Committee on Thursday with a vote of 9-1.

Listen to more about this week on the twelfth episode of the 2025 Market Street to Main Street Podcast Series, Aim’s legislative episodes of the Hometown Innovations Podcast and a supplement to this e-newsletter. In this episode, Jennifer sits down with the full legislative team to recap a busy week at the Statehouse and preview what’s ahead in the final weeks of committee hearings.

To listen to Market Street to Main Street, please visit The Terminal post and click the “play button” on the audio player. Or you can subscribe to Aim Hometown Innovations Podcast on Podbean, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.