Rep. Carey Hamilton (D - Indianapolis) speaking to the AIA Indianapolis Women in Architecture Day at the Statehouse attendees.

SB 174, Indiana historic tax credits, authored by Sen. Dan Dernulc (R - Highland) and co-authored by Sen. Justin Busch (R - Fort Wayne), Sen. Travis Holdman (R - Markle), and Sen. David Niezgodski (D - South Bend), Sen. Eddie Melton (D - Gary), Sen. Ron Alting (R - Lafayette), and Sen. Ed Charbonneau (R - Valparaiso), was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on January 26 but no vote was taken. The bill calls for reinstating the state’s historic preservation tax credit. The bill would allow a credit against a qualified taxpayer's state tax liability in an amount equal of 25% or 30% for a 501(c)(3) of the qualified taxpayer's qualified expenses related to the rehabilitation of a qualified historic structure. Also, the bill as drafted provides that the credit is transferrable and may be carried forward for 10 years, but may not be carried back. AIA Indiana strongly supports SB 174.

AIA Indiana believes these tax credits provide a powerful economic incentive to preserve and redevelop the inventory of historic architecture throughout the state. Historic preservation tax credits reinvigorate blighted areas, create jobs, increase state tax rolls, provide affordable housing, and preserve our state’s architectural treasures. Indiana is one of just 13 states without a historic tax credit program for commercial buildings. 

Because the bill did not move out of the committee, passing this measure this session will be difficult at best. Regardless, AIA Indiana will continue to lobby in favor of reinstating and updating the state’s historic preservation tax credit. We hope to resurrect this proposal during the second half of the session. 

In the meantime, please contact your state senator and state representative and ask them to support reinstating and updating the state’s historic preservation tax credit!

House of Representatives Phone - 317/232-9600

State Senate Phone - 800/382-9467

Email/Find Your Legislator - CLICK HERE

HB 1575, residential building commission, authored by Rep. Tim O’Brien (R - Evansville), would create a separate residential building commission within the Department of Homeland Security. The commission would then have the exclusive jurisdiction for the review and adoption of building codes and standards for the construction of dwellings, which would include houses, townhomes and apartments. If this bill were to pass, Indiana would have two different sets of building codes (residential, building, fire, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, energy conservation, swimming pool and elevator codes), one for residential and one for commercial. AIA Indiana strongly opposes HB 1575.  

HB 1575 was heard in the House Government and Regulatory Reform Committee, which is chaired by a member of the Indiana Builders Association and a co-author of the bill. The bill passed out of committee with a vote count of 9-1 and passed out of the House with a vote count of 72-25. It will now be debated in the Senate and has been assigned to the Senate Local Government Committee.

AIA Indiana is very supportive of updated building codes for all types of construction. However, HB 1575 is proposing that this commission have a majority of its members be from the home builders and apartment association. This would equate to the fox guarding the hen house, which was built by the fox.  

If HB 1575 becomes law, class 1 apartments and group homes (R2 and R3 occupancies) would not be regulated under the same code as every other class 1 building. If an architect has a small mixed-use development with office space on the first floor and apartments on the second floor or another part of the first floor, they now would now have to use two different code books to figure out the rules. What if the two code books conflict? Which Commission resolves the conflict? What if it is a really big mixed-use podium project with a parking garage and a restaurant and four stories of apartments above, which code governs the parking garage and restaurant? Is this new commission’s code now going to trump the current code and not require sprinklers in a project like that?

AIA Indiana’s concern is that the new residential related codes will be written based on construction costs and efficiency and safety and sustainability would take a backseat. Weak building codes result in homes and apartments that cost more to maintain. AIA supports common sense building codes that balance the cost of construction with the cost of maintaining a home.

AIA Indiana will continue to fight against HB 1575. Please contact your state senator and ask them to oppose HB 1575!

State Senate Phone - 800/382-9467

Email/Find Your Legislator - CLICK HERE

SB 333, rules governing certain construction inspections, authored by Sen. Mark Messmer (R - Jasper), would allow the Indiana Fire Prevention & Building Safety Commission to provide rules for construction inspection. The current Indiana Building Code explicitly omits nationally recognized building inspection requirements for Class 1 structures, creating a great risk to public safety. Class 1 structures are buildings occupied by the general public and/or three (3) or more tenants. Indiana is one of two states with a statewide building code that currently does not incorporate Chapter 17: Special inspection into its Building Code. The other state is Wisconsin.

The omitted requirements are a critical part of the quality assurance standards of the International Building Code (IBC), the model upon which the Indiana Building Code is based. The purposeful deletion of these inspection requirements has put Indiana out of step with national construction practices and has left Indiana without a defined minimum standard for structural inspection of building construction. 

Benefits of incorporating Special Inspections include: establishment and adherence to a minimum standard for structural inspection would send a strong message that Indiana prioritizes public safety; identification of potentially dangerous structural deficiencies that may otherwise go unnoticed and allow contractors to take timely corrective action; and alignment of Indiana's building code with accepted practices throughout the U.S. 

SB 333 was heard in the Senate Homeland Security and Transportation Committee on January 24 and voted out of the committee 8-0 on February 14. AIA Indiana Executive Director Jason Shelley, Hon. AIA testified in favor of the bill. Unfortunately, SB 333 was not called down for a vote on the Senate floor by the bill’s author because there were not enough votes for it to pass. AIA Indiana will continue to work to pass the language in this bill during the second half of session or in the 2024 session.

AIA Indianapolis Women in Architecture Day at the Statehouse attendees.

SB 335, climate solutions task force, authored by Sen. Shelli Yoder (D - Bloomington), Sen. Ron Alting (R - Lafayette) and Sen. Jon Ford (R - Terre Haute) and co-authored by Send. J.D. Ford (D - Indianapolis), Sen. Dan Dernulc (R - Highland), Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D - Indianapolis), Sen. Vaneta Becker (R - Evansville), and Sen. Eric Bassler (R - Washington), would establish a climate task force to study and make recommendations on climate and clean energy solutions. This task force would work to reduce Indiana's greenhouse gas emissions, develop a sustainable economy for all, and improve quality of life. 

AIA Indiana supports SB 335, which was heard in the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee on February 20 but no vote was taken. The bill will not pass this year but will likely return in the 2024 session. 

Sen. Greg Walker (R - Columbus) speaking with AIA Indiana/Indiana University J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program Day at the Statehouse attendees. 

SB 411, Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, authored by Sen. Greg Walker (R - Columbus), authorizes counties, cities, and towns to adopt a commercial property assessed clean energy program (C-PACE program) as a financing mechanism to allow commercial property owners to obtain financing for energy efficient improvements, with the repayment of the financing obligation for those improvements made from a voluntary tax assessment (special assessment) on the property. 

The C-PACE model is an innovative mechanism for financing energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements on private property. A C-PACE programs allow a property owner to finance the up-front cost of energy or other eligible improvements on a property and then pay the costs back over time through a voluntary assessment. The unique characteristic of C-PACE assessments is that the assessment is attached to the property rather than an individual.

The recent extension of this financing model to energy efficiency and renewable energy allows a property owner to implement improvements without a large up-front cash payment. Property owners that voluntarily choose to participate in a C-PACE program repay their improvement costs over a set time period—typically 10 to 20 years—through property assessments, which are secured by the property itself and paid as an addition to the owners' property tax bills. Nonpayment generally results in the same set of repercussions as the failure to pay any other portion of a property tax bill.

A C-PACE assessment is a debt of property, meaning the debt is tied to the property as opposed to the property owner(s). In turn, the repayment obligation may transfer with property ownership if the buyer agrees to assume the C-PACE obligation and the new first mortgage holder allows the C-PACE obligation to remain on the property. This can address a key disincentive to investing in energy improvements because many property owners are hesitant to make property improvements if they think they may not stay in the property long enough for the resulting savings to cover the upfront costs.

AIA Indiana supports SB 411. The bill was assigned to the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee but did not receive a hearing. SB 411 will not pass this year but will likely return in the 2024 session.

HB 1179, professional licensing, authored by Rep. Ed Clere (R - New Albany), as introduced included language that would have inadvertently weakened architect/landscape architect/engineer licensing but AIA Indiana and our allies worked with the bill’s author to amend our professions out of the bill. 

The bill was also amended with language that puts into statute the terms allowed for graduates of architecture and landscape architecture programs that were established by the Indiana Professional Licensing Board for Architects and Landscape Architects. The bill would allow the use of the following terms for graduates of architectural and landscape architecture programs: Architectural Graduate; Landscape Architectural Graduate. Also, students currently enrolled in college, but not yet a graduate of a program, would be allowed to use the terms: Architectural Intern; Landscape Architectural Intern. 

Also, HB 1179 includes troubling language regarding continuing education matters but AIA Indiana is working to positively amend that language.  

HB 1179 passed out of the House with a vote count of 86-7 of February 16. The bill will now debated in the Senate and it has been assigned to the Senate Commerce and Technology Committee. AIA Indiana will continue to closely monitor this bill as it moves through the legislative process.

HB 1005, housing, authored by Rep. Doug Miller (R - Elkhart), passed out of the House on February 7 with a vote count of 91-6. It will now be debated in Senate and has been assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill calls for the creation of a loan fund that local governments could apply to help pay for housing development infrastructure costs. This measure was born out of this past summer’s housing task force.

SB 300, residential tax increment financing, authored by Sen. Linda Rogers (R - Granger), Sen. Travis Holdman (R - Markle), and Sen. Brian Buchanan (R - Lebanon), removes the threshold conditions for establishing a residential housing development program and a tax increment allocation area for the program, including the condition that the governing body of each school corporation affected by the program pass a resolution approving the program before the program may go into effect. The bill also provides that the fiscal body of a county may adopt an ordinance to designate an economic development target area.

SB 300 passed out of the Senate with a vote count of 28-19. The bill has been assigned to the House Ways & Means Committee.

AIA Indiana/Indiana University J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program Day at the Statehouse attendees.

HB 1157, residential housing development program, authored by Rep. Justin Moed (D - Indianapolis), revises the requirements an allocation area must meet for the redevelopment commission to establish a program for housing in Marion County. Also, the bill allows the redevelopment commission to establish a program for residential housing development and a tax increment funding allocation (TIF) area for the program if the construction of new houses fails to reach a benchmark. HB 1157 corrects an unintentional limitation on Marion County from using the incentive program that happened because its redevelopment commission is governed by a different set of laws than other counties.

HB 1157 passed out of the House with a vote count of 91-0. It has been assigned to the Senate Local Government Committee.

SB 3, state and local tax review task force, authored by Sen. Travis Holdman (R - Markle) and Sen. Scott Baldwin (R - Noblesville), would establish a task force to study Indiana’s tax laws and the feasibility of eliminating the state’s income tax and homestead property taxes. A concern of AIA Indiana related to this effort is that it will bring forth a sales tax on services that could include the taxing of architecture and design services. 

SB 3 passed out of the Senate with a vote count of 49-0 on February 27 and will now be debated in the House of Representatives. AIA Indiana will continue to monitor the debate on this bill as it continues to move through the legislative process. 

AIA Indiana Days at the Statehouse - Support your profession by attending an "AIA Indiana Day at the Statehouse." This is a unique opportunity to learn firsthand about the key AIA state legislative and regulatory issues and become a lobbyist for a day. You will be able to directly impact the legislative process by meeting with your state legislators and discussing the issues important to architects. Current dates available include March 20, 21, April 3, 4, 10, and 12. The legislative session is scheduled to conclude no later than April 29.

Please choose a date and RSVP to AIA Indiana Executive Director Jason Shelley, Hon. AIA, [email protected] , 317/634-6993. The day will begin at 12 p.m. with lunch and end no later than 3:30 p.m. Attendees will earn 2 AIA LUs! A unified voice is vital. Don't wait to get involved!