Indiana House Republicans Block Democratic Plan Tying HB 1032 to Cost-of-Living Relief for Hoosiers

Video: INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – DECEMBER 1, 2025: Indiana State Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis, speaks during a “Rally Against Redistricting” at the Indiana Statehouse, where voting-rights advocates and members of groups including the ACLU of Indiana, Indivisible Central Indiana, and Common Cause Indiana urged lawmakers to reject House Republicans’ proposed mid-cycle congressional maps. The rally took place as legislators returned for a special session focused on redrawing Indiana’s congressional districts ahead of the 2026 elections. Speakers warned that mid-decade redistricting could further erode fair representation and called on Hoosiers to stay engaged, contact their lawmakers, and demand transparent, nonpartisan maps.

Staff report

INDIANAPOLIS — December 2, 2025

Indiana House Republicans on Tuesday voted 64-24 to block a Democratic proposal that would have stripped mid-decade redistricting language out of House Bill 1032 and replaced it with a package of measures aimed at lowering the cost of living for Hoosier families.

The vote came after the House Elections and Apportionment Committee advanced HB 1032, a mid-decade redistricting plan. In response, House Democrats filed a minority committee report — an alternative version of the bill — that deleted the mapping provisions and instead rewrote the measure as a broad tax and family-budget bill.

Under the Democratic proposal, residential utility bills would no longer be subject to state sales tax, effectively cutting costs for electricity, gas, water, steam and heating used in homes. The plan also would have created a new state income tax credit to help offset rising health insurance premiums for Hoosiers who buy coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Democrats said their version was designed to bring down everyday costs at the grocery store by exempting from the state sales tax prepared foods sold in grocery stores, as well as toothpaste, soap, adult diapers and feminine hygiene products.

According to the filed minority report, the package also proposed a one-week back-to-school sales tax holiday each August for clothing, backpacks, school supplies and student computers under $500, new permanent sales-tax exemptions for diapers, menstrual products, basic personal care items and breastfeeding supplies, and a one-time refundable tax credit of up to $350 per household for sales tax paid on purchases made between Nov. 28 and Dec. 24, 2025.

Another major provision would have fully funded the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and On My Way Pre-K vouchers for one year and eliminated waitlists, which Democrats said would help keep children in early childhood education programs and allow more parents to stay in the workforce.

“The legislation I offered to the House today would have eased up on Hoosiers’ wallets as we enter the holiday season,” said Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond, the ranking Democrat on the House Elections and Apportionment Committee. “I keep hearing from my constituents about the rising cost of child care and utility bills. We offered House Republican legislators an opportunity to reverse course and pass something this December that would actually make a difference on pocketbooks, and they said ‘no’ to lowering costs for Hoosiers.”

House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, said the minority report reflected what lawmakers heard at town halls around the state over the past four months.

“Hoosiers told us that they want relief from the rising cost of living, not map rigging and political games,” GiaQuinta said in a statement. “New political maps don’t pay bills or put food on the table. House Democrats know your family budget is the real emergency. It’s too bad House Republicans can only think of themselves — their only emergency is trying to protect their own political power.”

Republican lawmakers advanced the underlying redistricting bill and rejected the Democratic alternative. GOP leaders did not immediately respond in the materials provided to explain their floor vote on the minority report.

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