Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lawmakers gather for ceremonial start of new legislative session, a 'new time' at Statehouse

The Indiana House Chamber, as seen from its balcony.
Brandon Smith
/
IPB News
Organization Day is the ceremonial start to the legislative session. After elections, it's also when newly-elected lawmakers are sworn in.

Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) said the Statehouse is entering a “new time” ahead of the 2025 legislative session.

Lawmakers gathered Tuesday for Organization Day, the ceremonial start to the session in which all newly-elected members are sworn in.

It’s custom for the House Speaker to lay out his caucus’s agenda — but Huston broke with tradition, instead focusing on advice for legislators, particularly the new ones.

His biggest piece of advice: avoid hyperbole.

“And focus on productive, sensible solutions that actually help the people we represent,” Huston said.

READ MORE: Indiana legislative leaders say likely no major tax changes in 2025 session

Join the conversation and sign up for the Indiana Two-Way. Text "Indiana" to 765-275-1120. Your comments and questions in response to our weekly text help us find the answers you need on statewide issues, including our project Civically, Indiana.

Huston did mention property tax reform as an area of focus for the 2025 session, a sentiment shared by Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray (R-Martinsville).

“We’ve heard that loud and clear,” Bray said. “We need to make some changes to that and we will work through that and do it in a substantive way.”

Lawmakers will return to the Statehouse for the legislative session in January.

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

Tags
Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state. He previously worked at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri and WSPY in Plano, Illinois. His first job in radio was in another state capitol - Jefferson City, Missouri - as a reporter for three stations around the Show-Me State.