INDIANAPOLIS – The General Assembly has adjourned for the year after a final-day blitz.

In a 14-hour finishing kick, legislators voted to limit surprise medical billing, nullify local landlord-tenant ordinances, and raise the minimum age for smoking and for getting married. They also voted to make it easier for schools to seek relief from state regulations, and to repeal an eight-month-old externship requirement fiercely opposed by Indiana’s teachers’ unions.

A couple of bills didn’t make the cut. The Senate refused to go along with a bill which could have ousted Attorney General Curtis Hill. The House had voted 83-13 to disqualify anyone whose law license has been suspended for more than a month from running for or serving as attorney general. Hill is awaiting a final judgment from the Supreme Court on a recommended two-month suspension for unwanted touching of a state representative and three legislative staffers at a post-adjournment party two years ago.

House Speaker Todd Huston calls the failure to pass the bill the biggest missed opportunity of the session. State law requires the attorney general to be a licensed attorney, and Huston and Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray agree there needs to be clarity about whether a suspension violates that requirement — especially if the Court follows a hearing officer’s recommendation to not make reinstatement automatic. But Bray says many Senate Republicans were uncomfortable with getting involved with Hill’s discipline still pending, especially with Hill up for reelection this year.

Minutes after the Senate adjourned without acting on the bill, the House yanked a bill backed by Senate Republicans which would have threatened the IndyGo bus system with funding cuts unless it met a requirement to get 10-percent of its funding from private donations. The Senate had already approved a bipartisan deal to phase in the requirement. Huston wouldn’t say directly whether the IndyGo and Hill issues were connected, saying only there were some problems with the bill. He says he believes IndyGo has gotten the message that legislators expect the bus system to meet the private funding commitment.

Huston and Bray both call it a productive session, noting legislators approved two significant bills weeks ago: granting schools a mulligan from penalties for their performance on the new ILEARN test, and using a 300-million-dollar surplus windfall to eliminate the need for bonds for a handful of university construction projects. Senate Minority Leader Tim Lanane says legislators should have acted to raise teacher pay, something Republicans were adamant about putting off till next year’s budget session. But Lanane credits legislators with a significant step forward on health costs with the surprise billing measure, and says legislators should also be proud of the ban on phone use while driving.

Legislators didn’t pass any bills related to the coronavirus pandemic. Huston and Bray both say Governor Holcomb assured them the state health department has all the authority and cash it needs to fight the outbreak. But they both say they’ll be watching the outbreak’s effect on the economy. They say Indiana’s strong reserves have the state well positioned to ride out a recession.