Indiana lawmakers approve utility relief bill, but does it go far enough?

INDIANA - Indiana lawmakers approved a utility bill aimed at providing relief to residents.

The vote came Tuesday as many Northwest Indiana residents say they are struggling to pay high NIPSCO utility bills.

What we know:

Several House Democrats tried amending the bill, which included eliminating the sales tax temporarily and permanently on public utility bills.

Those amendments failed along party lines.

Lawmakers debated and approved House Bill 1002, which would create a "levelized billing plan." The proposal would allow customers to opt out of the plan at any time without penalty.

The measure would also prohibit utility companies from promoting a "budget billing plan" unless it offers specific forms of customer relief.

What they're saying:

State Rep. Mike Andrade, D-Munster, read letters from constituents describing financial hardships and asking lawmakers for immediate relief from rising utility costs.

"I have heard loud and clear from my constituents, who a lot of them have gone through some emergencies…," Andrade said. "They are falling behind on their utility bills. They're not able to come to a consensus with a utility company."

"Eliminating the sales tax on utility bills is a major structural revenue change and in a non-budget year we don't have the complete fiscal modeling, especially for the impacts to other units of government," Rep. Alaina Shonkwiler said. 

No other Indiana House Republicans spoke during debate except for Shonkwiler, but some House Democrats spoke in favor of Andrade's amendments. 

"We're having a crisis, we have no idea why, but the public should just suffer. That seems to be our current standing here," said Rep. Edward DeLaney, D-Indianapolis. "Is it simple corporate greed? What is it?"

Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, argued Indiana House leadership is siding with corporations like Amazon, Meta, and Google by allowing them not to pay sales tax on utilities for its data centers, saying the companies don't need any more tax breaks. 

"We don't seem to worry too much about the fiscal impact. There doesn't seem to be a lot of discussion about that, we just hand out these incentives right and left," said Pierce. "Now we have an opportunity to help the average every day residential ratepayer and now we're wringing our hands about potential fiscal impacts," said Pierce.

Before the vote, Fox Chicago spoke with Rafael Manzo from Gary, Indiana. He's one of several viewers who reached out to us to talk about his rising NIPSCO bills. He said in January 2025, his family's NIPSCO bill was $324, but this month it's $698. 

We asked him about the explanation he received from NIPSCO.

"Their explanation for it was that bills need to be raised because of usages in our area and because they were doing projects," said Manzo. "It wasn't a very satisfactory answer.

We also asked Manzo about what happens if Indiana lawmakers don't step in to help with utility bills. 

"If they don't stop, organizers within our communities will get them all out of office, no matter what party, because standing with NIPSCO is standing against Hoosiers," said Manzo.

What's next:

The bill now moves on to the Senate and comes as hundreds of NIPSCO customers are getting ready to protest outside NIPSCO offices in both Hammond and Merrillville next week.

There's also a public utility hearing next Wednesday in Indianapolis about the billing practices from NIPSCO.