Receiving a highly coveted single bill number, Senate Bill 5 – authored by Sen. Liz Brown (R-Fort Wayne) – was a priority not only for the Indiana Senate but also the Indiana Chamber. Its passage, unanimous in both houses, was the culmination of an 18-month effort by the Chamber and our partners. It represents a win for industry and consumers concerned about where their data goes online and how it is used.
Currently, there is no federal data privacy protections or consumer rights against companies that collect their personal information online, in the stores or at the gas pump and subsequently monetize it as part of their business operations or sell it to third parties.
Last year, Sen. Brown’s data privacy bill, Senate Bill 358, died in the House. As a result, the Chamber was a leading stakeholder that worked with Sen. Brown to ensure this year’s iteration did not meet a similar fate. Representatives from the banking, health, insurance and technology industries corresponded regularly over the past year and agreed on language that would ultimately become SB 5. The law does not take effect until January 1, 2026, which gives businesses sufficient time to prepare and lawmakers at least two sessions to make any adjustments based on lessons learned from other states, like Virginia, Colorado and Utah, which are implementing their own versions of data privacy laws.
In short, SB 5 strikes a balance between consumers’ rights to protect how their personal data is used by companies, if at all, with companies’ ability to use the data they collect from consumers to further their business objectives.
Senate Bill 5 is modeled largely after Virginia’s law, which is favored by the business community. The main difference between Virginia’s version and others, like California for example, is that enforcement authority is granted to the state’s attorney general rather than consumers having the ability to sue companies individually in court.
Much like complaints against insurance companies, which are received and evaluated by the Indiana Department of Insurance, the attorney general is the first line of defense against frivolous lawsuits.
Towards the very end of SB 5’s journey through this year’s session, we caught wind of a poison pill that risked its passage. But, after engaging a group of Chamber members, we were able to keep the bill clean from rogue amendments both in committee and during the second reading phase, which ultimately helped get the bill across the finish line.
Another win in the technology sector is Senate Bill 271, authored by Sen. Brian Buchanan (R-Lebanon) and sponsored by Rep. Craig Snow (R-Warsaw), which will allow certified technology parks (CTPs) to recoup more of the tax revenue generated from the CTPs’ activities.
CTPs’ primary mission is to serve as an incubator for young and small businesses. However, CTPs are unique business models in that the better they perform, the more resources they demand. Why?
Because as companies outgrow the CTP in which they were hatched, CTPs must backfill revenue generating tenants with new start-ups that produce little – if any – tax revenue.
As introduced, SB 271 would have increased from $100,000 to $500,000 the amount of incremental tax revenue that high-performing CTPs may capture and redeploy for the benefit of the CTP.
Throughout session, the Chamber reiterated arguments that it has made over the past three years in support of this additional funding; namely that (1) the incentive that CTPs receive is new money that would otherwise be unavailable but for CTPs repurposing vacant or underutilized real estate in the community, and (2) CTPs have a track record of improving Indiana’s lagging entrepreneurship and average wage metrics.
Ultimately, it was a more modest increase in support for CTPs. The House Ways and Means Committee, led by first-year chairman Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton), reduced the figure to $250,000. We certainly still consider this a victory after failing to achieve any significant progress in years prior.
Throughout session, the Chamber reiterated arguments that it has made over the past three years in support of this additional funding; namely that (1) the incentive that CTPs receive is new money that would otherwise be unavailable but for CTPs repurposing vacant or underutilized real estate in the community, and (2) CTPs have a track record of improving Indiana’s lagging entrepreneurship and average wage metrics.
Ultimately, it was a more modest increase in support for CTPs. The House Ways and Means Committee, led by first-year chairman Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton), reduced the figure to $250,000. We certainly still consider this a victory after failing to achieve any significant progress in years prior.
