Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city and the county seat of Vanderburgh County, United States. The population was 117,429 at the 2010 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in Southern Indiana, the 232nd-most populous city in the United States, it is the commercial and cultural hub of Southwestern Indiana and the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky tri-state area, home to over 911,000 people. The 38th parallel crosses the north side of the city and is marked on Interstate 69. Situated on an oxbow in the Ohio River, the city is referred to as the "Crescent Valley" or "River City"; as a testament to the Ohio's grandeur, early French explorers named it La Belle Rivière. The area has been inhabited by various indigenous cultures for millennia, dating back at least 10,000 years. Angel Mounds was a permanent settlement of the Mississippian culture from 1000 AD to around 1400 AD; the European-American city was founded in 1812. Four NYSE companies are headquartered in Evansville, along with the global operations center for NYSE company Mead Johnson.
Three other companies traded on the NASDAQ are headquartered in Evansville. The city is home to public and private enterprise in many areas, as Evansville serves as the region's economic hub. A tourist destination, Evansville is home to the state's first casino; the city has several educational institutions. The University of Evansville is a small private school on the city's east side, while the University of Southern Indiana is a larger public institution just outside the city's westside limits; the Indiana University School of Medicine maintains a campus in Evansville. Other local educational institutions include the nationally ranked Signature School and the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library. In 2008, Evansville was voted the best city in the country in which "to live and play" by the readers of Kiplinger, in 2009 as the 11th best. See main article: History of Evansville, Indiana. There was a continuous human presence in the area that became Evansville from at least 8,000 BC by Paleo-Indians.
Archaeologists have identified several archaic and ancient sites in and near Evansville, with the most complex at Angel Mounds. This was built and occupied from about 900 A. D. to about 1600 A. D. just before the arrival of Europeans to North America. Following the abandonment of Angel Mounds between the years 1400 and 1450, tribes of the historic Miami, Piankeshaw, Wyandot and other Native American peoples were known to be in the area. French hunters and trappers were among the first Europeans to come to the area, using Vincennes as a base of operations for fur trading; the land encompassing Evansville was formally relinquished by the Delaware in 1805 to General William Henry Harrison governor of the Indiana Territory. On March 27, 1812, Hugh McGary Jr. purchased about 441 acres and named it "McGary's Landing". In 1814, to attract more people, McGary renamed his village "Evansville" in honor of Colonel Robert Morgan Evans. Evansville incorporated in 1817 and was designated as the county seat on January 7, 1818.
The county was named for Henry Vanderburgh, a deceased chief judge of the Indiana Territorial Supreme Court. Evansville became a thriving commercial town with a river trade, the town began to expand outside of its original footprint. Evansville's west side was for many years cut off from the city's main part by Pigeon Creek and the factories that developed along it, making the creek an industrial corridor; the land comprising the former town of Lamasco was platted in 1837 and was annexed in 1870. Evansville's economy received a boost in the early 1830s when Indiana unveiled plans to build the longest canal in the world, a 400-mile ditch to connect the Great Lakes at Toledo, Ohio with the inland rivers at Evansville; the project was intended to open Indiana to commerce and improve transportation from New Orleans to New York City. The project was so poorly engineered that it would not hold water. By the time the Wabash and Erie Canal was finished in 1853, Evansville's first railroad, Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad, was opened to Terre Haute.
The expansion of railroads in this territory had made the canal obsolete. Only two flat barges made the entire trip; the canal basin at Fifth and Court street in downtown Evansville became the site of a new courthouse in 1891. The era of Evansville's greatest growth occurred in the second half of the 19th century, following the disruptions of the Civil War; the city was a major stop for steamboats along the Ohio River, it was the home port for a number of companies engaged in trade via the river. Coal mining and hardwood lumber was a major source of economic activity. By 1900 Evansville was one of the world's largest hardwood furniture centers, with 41 factories employing 2,000 workers. Railroads became more important and in 1887 the L&N Railroad constructed a bridge across the Ohio River. Along with a major rail yard southwest of Evansville in Howell, annexed in 1916 and completed the city's counterclockwise march around the horseshoe bend. Throughout this period Evansville's main ethnic groups consisted of Protestant Scotch-Irish from the South, Catholic Irish coming for canal or railroad work, New England businessmen, Germans fleeing Europe after the 1848 revolutions, freedmen from Western Kentucky.
By the U. S. census of 1890 Evansville ranked as the 56th-largest urban area in the United States, but it was surpassed in population by other cities
Political party
A political party is an organized group of people with common views, who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the collective good or furthering their supporters' interests. While there is some international commonality in the way political parties are recognized and in how they operate, there are many differences, some are significant. Many political parties have an ideological core, but some do not, many represent ideologies different from their ideology at the time the party was founded. Many countries, such as Germany and India, have several significant political parties, some nations have one-party systems, such as China and Cuba; the United States is in practice a two-party system but with many smaller parties participating and a high degree of autonomy for individual candidates. Political factions have existed in democratic societies since ancient times. Plato writes in his Republic on the formation of political cliques in Classical Athens, the tendency of Athenian citizens to vote according to factional loyalty rather than for the public good.
In the Roman Republic, Polybius coined the term ochlocracy to describe the tendency of politicians to mobilise popular factionalist sentiment against their political rivals. Factional politics remained a part of Roman political life through the Imperial period and beyond, the poet Juvenal coined the phrase "bread and circuses" to describe the political class pandering to the citizenry through diversionary entertainments rather than through arguments about policy. "Bread and circuses" survived as part of Byzantine political life - for example, the Nika revolt during the reign of Justinian was a riot between the "Blues" and the "Greens"—two chariot racing factions at the Hippodrome, who received patronage from different Senatorial factions and religious sects. The patricians who sponsored the Blues and the Greens competed with each other to hold grander games and public entertainments during electoral campaigns, in order to appeal to the citizenry of Constantinople; the first modern political factions, can be said to have originated in early modern Britain.
The first political factions, cohering around a basic, if fluid, set of principles, emerged from the Exclusion Crisis and Glorious Revolution in late 17th century England. The Whigs supported Protestant constitutional monarchy against absolute rule, they were interested in the citizens of United Kingdom being free from the aristocracy and opposed to any tyranny, however they supported the constitutional aristocracy and does not consider the British nobility abusive because of its limits; the leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government in the period 1721–1742. As the century wore on, the factions began to adopt more coherent political tendencies as the interests of their power bases began to diverge; the Whig party's initial base of support from the great aristocratic families widened to include the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants. As well as championing constitutional monarchy with strict limits on the monarch's power, the Whigs adamantly opposed a Catholic king as a threat to liberty, believed in extending toleration to nonconformist Protestants, or dissenters.
A major influence on the Whigs were the liberal political ideas of John Locke, the concepts of universal rights employed by Locke and Algernon Sidney. Although the Tories were out of office for half a century, for most of this period the Tories retained party cohesion, with occasional hopes of regaining office at the accession of George II and the downfall of the ministry of Sir Robert Walpole in 1742, they acted as a united, though unavailing, opposition to Whig corruption and scandals. At times they cooperated with the "Opposition Whigs", Whigs who were in opposition to the Whig government, they regained power with the accession of George III in 1760 under Lord Bute. When they lost power, the old Whig leadership dissolved into a decade of factional chaos with distinct "Grenvillite", "Bedfordite", "Rockinghamite", "Chathamite" factions successively in power, all referring to themselves as "Whigs". Out of this chaos, the first distinctive parties emerged; the first such party was the Rockingham Whigs under the leadership of Charles Watson-Wentworth and the intellectual guidance of the political philosopher Edmund Burke.
Burke laid out a philosophy that described the basic framework of the political party as "a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed". As opposed to the instability of the earlier factions, which were tied to a particular leader and could disintegrate if removed from power, the party was centred around a set of core principles and remained out of power as a united opposition to government. A coalition including the Rockingham Whigs, led by the Earl of She
Recorder of deeds
Recorder of deeds or Deeds registry is a government office tasked with maintaining public records and documents records relating to real estate ownership that provide persons other than the owner of a property with real rights over that property. The offices with similar duties include registrar general, register of deeds, registrar of deeds, registrar of titles; the office of such an official may be referred to as the deeds registry or deeds office. In the United States, the recorder of deeds is an elected county office and is called the county recorder. In some U. S. states, the functions of a recorder of deeds are a responsibility of the county clerk, the official may be called a clerk-recorder or recorder-clerk. The recorder of deeds provides a single location in which records of real property rights are recorded and may be researched by interested parties; the record of deeds maintains documents recorded by the recorder of deeds, including deeds, mechanic's liens and plats, among others.
To allow full access to deeds recorded throughout the office history, several indexes may be maintained, which include grantor–grantee indexes, tract indexes, plat maps. Storage methods to record registry entries include paper and computer; the principles of statutory and common law are given effect by the recorder of deeds, insofar as it relates to vested ownership in land and other real rights. Because estate in land can be held in so many complex ways, a single deeds registry provides some clarity though it cannot "guarantee" those real property rights; the legal certainty provided by a title deed issued under the registration of the recorder of deeds is of great significance to all parties who hold, or wish to acquire rights in real property. Certainty of title is the basis for the investment of massive amounts of money in real estate development for residential, commercial and agricultural use each year; this is why the meticulous recording of registration information by the recorder of deeds is so important.
Each document recorded against title to real estate can be examined and the portion of the bundle of rights that it includes can be determined. These records can assist interested parties in researching the history of land and the chain of title for any property and purpose; the Registry of Deeds exists in all cities and municipalities in the Philippines and it has a primary duty of registering and keeping all documents pertaining to transfer of real property and issuance of certificates of land title, whether original, transfer or condominium as well as chattel mortgage papers. The said agency is under the supervision of Department of Justice; the South African system of deeds registry is unique in. When conveyancers transfer title, they are expected to follow rigid procedures which involve ensuring the title and the property comply with all the relevant legislation and regulations, leading to a high degree of certainty and accuracy. Recent concerns about the standard of legal education in South Africa, has raised concerns about whether this is still the case.
The South African Registrar of Deeds is responsible for the national system of deeds offices which, through a juristic foundation and long-standing practices and procedures, has the effect of “guaranteeing” title. The Deeds Registries Act and Sectional Titles Act are applied to regulate the deeds registry system, form the foundation of land registration in South Africa. In the U. S. most recorders of deeds are elected officials who serve the area of a county or equivalent jurisdiction. In some states, the recorder of deeds may act as a public posting place for documents that are not directly related to estates in land, such as corporate charters, military discharges, Uniform Commercial Code records, applications for marriage licenses, judgments. Deeds in a few states of the U. S. are maintained under some limited implementation of it. Other U. S. states maintain their deeds under common law. Frederick Douglass: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, May, 1881–August, 1886 James Campbell Matthews: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, August 1886–March, 1887 James M. Trotter: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, March, 1887-February 1890 Blanche Kelso Bruce: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, 1891–93 C. H. J. Taylor: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, 1894-1896 Henry Plummer Cheatham: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, 1897-1901 John C.
Dancy: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, 1901-1910 Henry Lincoln Johnson: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, 1910 William J. Thompkins: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, March 1934 – 1944 Marshall L. Shepard: Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia, 1944 – 1951 Joseph Montgomery: Recorder of Deeds and Register of Wills, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, 1785–94 Samuel P. Morrill: Register of Deeds for Franklin County, Maine, 1857–67 Hugh McLaughlin, Register of Deeds for Kings County, New York, for three consecutive terms from 1861 Charles E. Townsend: Register of Deeds for Jackson County, Michigan, 1886–97 William S. Vare: Recorder of Deeds for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1902–12 Edward Boland: Register of Deeds for Hampden County, Massachusetts, 1941–52 Carol Moseley Braun: Recorder of Deeds for Cook County, Illinois, 1988–92 Jesse White: Recorder of Deeds for Cook County, Illinois, 1993–99 Ry
Indiana Government Center North
Indiana Government Center North is a high rise in Indianapolis, Indiana. It has 14 floors, it is used for office spaces for the government of Indiana. It underwent a facade change in the late 1990s. List of tallest buildings in Indianapolis Indiana Government Center North at Skyscraper Page Indiana Government Center North at Emporis
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which had expanded slavery into U. S. territories. The party subscribed to classical liberalism and took ideological stands that were anti-slavery and pro-economic reform. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president in the history of the United States; the Party was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System and Fourth Party System. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. After the 1912 election, many Roosevelt supporters left the Party, the Party underwent an ideological shift to the right; the liberal Republican element in the GOP was overwhelmed by a conservative surge begun by Barry Goldwater in 1964 that continued during the Reagan Era in the 1980s. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.
White voters identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party made opposition to abortion a key plank of its national party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. By 2000, the Republican Party was aligned with Christian conservatism; the Party's core support since the 1990s comes chiefly from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States and rural areas in the North. The 21st century Republican Party ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats' liberal platform and progressive wing; the GOP supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights and restrictions on labor unions. The GOP was committed to protectionism and tariffs from its founding until the 1930s when it was based in the industrial Northeast and Midwest, but has grown more supportive of free trade since 1952. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Republican Party is conservative.
Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the popular Know Nothing Party. The party grew out of opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states; the Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party, was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin; the name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. At the 1856 Republican National Convention, the party adopted a national platform emphasizing opposition to the expansion of slavery into U. S. territories. While Republican candidate John C.
Frémont lost the 1856 United States presidential election to James Buchanan, he did win 11 of the 16 northern states. The Republican Party first came to power in the elections of 1860 when it won control of both houses of Congress and its candidate, former congressman Abraham Lincoln, was elected President. In the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. Under Republican congressional leadership, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution—which banned slavery in the United States—passed the Senate in 1864 and the House in 1865; the party's success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s. Those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished, was continued to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant, ran Horace Greeley for the presidency; the Stalwart faction defended Grant and the spoils system, whereas the Half-Breeds pushed for reform of the civil service. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1883.
The Republican Party supported hard money, high tariffs to promote economic growth, high wages and high profits, generous pensions for Union veterans, the annexation of Hawaii. The Republicans had strong support from pietistic Protestants, but they resisted demands for Prohibition; as the Northern postwar economy boomed with heavy and light industry, mines, fast-growing cities, prosperous agriculture, the Republicans took credit and promoted policies to sustain the fast growth. The GOP was dominant over the Democrats during the Third Party System. However, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers; the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 hurt the party and the Democrats swept to a landslide in the off-year elections defeating McKinley himself. The Democrats elected Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; the election of William McKinley in 1896 was marked by a resurgence of Republican dominance that lasted until 1932.
McKinley promised that high tariffs would end the severe hardship caused by the Pa
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in the U. S. state of Indiana and the seat of Allen County, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is 18 miles west of the Ohio border and 50 miles south of the Michigan border. With a population of 253,691 in the 2010 census, it is the second-most populous city in Indiana after Indianapolis, the 75th-most populous city in the United States, it is the principal city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen and Whitley counties, a combined population of 419,453 as of 2011. Fort Wayne is the economic center of northeastern Indiana; the city is within a 300-mile radius of major population centers, including Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Louisville and Milwaukee. In addition to the three core counties, the combined statistical area includes Adams, DeKalb, Huntington and Steuben counties, with an estimated population of 615,077. Fort Wayne was built in 1794 by the United States Army under the direction of American Revolutionary War general Anthony Wayne, the last in a series of forts built near the Miami village of Kekionga.
Named in Wayne's honor, the European-American settlement developed at the confluence of the St. Joseph, St. Marys, Maumee rivers as a trading post for pioneers; the village was platted in 1823 and underwent tremendous growth after completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal and advent of the railroad. Once a booming manufacturing town located in what became known as the Rust Belt, Fort Wayne's economy in the 21st century is based upon distribution and logistics, healthcare and business services and hospitality, financial services; the city is a center for the defense industry. There are many jobs through local healthcare providers Parkview Health and Lutheran Health Network. Fort Wayne was an All-America City Award recipient in 1982, 1998, 2009; the city received an Outstanding Achievement City Livability Award by the U. S. Conference of Mayors in 1999; this area at the confluence of rivers was long occupied by successive cultures of indigenous peoples. The Miami tribe established its settlement of Kekionga at the confluence of the Maumee, St. Joseph, St. Marys rivers.
It was the capital of related Algonquian tribes. In 1696, Comte de Frontenac appointed Jean Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes as commander of the outpost; the French built Fort Miami in 1697 as part of a group of forts and trading posts built between Quebec and St. Louis. In 1721, a few years after Bissot's death, Fort Miami was replaced by Fort St. Philippe des Miamis; the first census in 1744 recorded a population of 40 Frenchmen and 1,000 Miami. Increasing tension between France and Great Britain developed over control of the territory. In 1760, France ceded the area to Britain after its forces in North America surrendered during the Seven Years' War, known on the North American front as the French and Indian War. In 1763, various Native American nations rebelled against British rule and retook the fort as part of Pontiac's Rebellion; the Miami regained control of Kekionga. In 1790, after the United States achieved independence, President George Washington ordered the United States Army to secure Indiana Territory.
Three battles were fought at Kekionga against the Miami Confederacy. Miami warriors defeated U. S. forces in the first two battles. General Anthony Wayne led a third expedition resulting in the destruction of Kekionga and the start of peace negotiations between Little Turtle and the U. S. After General Wayne refused to negotiate, tribal forces advanced to Fallen Timbers, where they were defeated on August 20, 1794. On October 22, 1794, U. S. forces captured the Wabash–Erie portage from the Miami Confederacy and built Fort Wayne, named in honor of the general. The first settlement started in 1815. In 1819, the military garrison moved to Detroit. In 1822, a federal land office opened to sell land ceded by local Native Americans by the Treaty of St. Mary's in 1818. Platted in 1823 at the Ewing Tavern, the village became an important frontier outpost, was incorporated as the Town of Fort Wayne in 1829, with a population of 300; the Wabash and Erie Canal's opening improved travel conditions to the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, exposing Fort Wayne to expanded economic opportunities.
The population topped 2,000 when the town was incorporated as the City of Fort Wayne on February 22, 1840. Pioneer newspaperman George W. Wood was elected the city's first mayor. Fort Wayne's "Summit City" nickname dates from this period, referring to the city's position at the highest elevation along the canal's route; as influential as the canal was to the city's earliest development, it became obsolete after competing with the city's first railroad, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway, completed in 1854. At the turn of the 20th century, the city's population reached nearly 50,000, attributed to a large influx of German and Irish immigrants. Fort Wayne's "urban working class" thrived in railroad-related jobs; the city's economy was based on manufacturing, ushering in an era of innovation with several notable inventions and developments coming out of the city over the years, such as gasoline pumps, the refrigerator, in 1972, the first home video game console. A 1913 flood caused seven deaths, left 15,000 homeless, damaged over 5,500 buildings in the worst natural disaster in the city's history.
As the automobile's prevalence grew, Fort Wayne became a fixture on the Lincoln Highway. Aviation arrived in 1919 with the opening of Smith Field; the airport se
Indiana General Assembly
The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, an upper house, the Indiana Senate; the General Assembly meets annually at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis. Members of the General Assembly are elected from districts. Representatives serve terms of senators serve terms of four years. Both houses can create bills, but bills must pass both houses before it can be submitted to the governor and enacted into law; the Republican Party holds supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly. Republicans outnumber Democrats in the Senate by a 40–10 margin, in the House of Representatives by a 67–33 margin; the Indiana General Assembly is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Indiana has a part-time legislature; the General Assembly convenes on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January. During odd-numbered years the legislature meets for 61 days and must be adjourned by April 30.
During even-numbered years the legislature meets for 30 days and must be adjourned by March 15. The General Assembly may not adjourn for more than three days without a resolution approving adjournment being passed in both houses; the governor has the authority to call on the General Assembly to convene a special session if legislators are unable to complete necessary work within the time allotted by the regular sessions. Special sessions of the General Assembly were called in the state's early history, but have become more commonplace in modern times; the General Assembly delegates are elected from districts. Every ten years the districts are realigned by the General Assembly using information from the U. S. Census Bureau to ensure that each district is equal in population; the districting is maintained to comply with the United States Supreme Court ruling in Reynolds v. Sims; the Indiana Senate and House of Representatives each have several committees that are charged with overseeing certain areas of the state.
Committees vary from three to eleven members. The committees are chaired by senior members of the majority party. Senators and representatives can be members of multiple committees. Most legislation begins within the committees who have responsibility for the area that the bill will affect. Once approved by a committee, a bill can be entered into the agenda for debate and vote in the full chamber. Although not common, bills can be voted on by the full house without going through the committee process. Indiana legislators make a base annual salary of $22,616, plus $155 for each day in session or at a committee hearing and $62 in expense pay every other day. Article 4, Section 7, of the Indiana Constitution states the qualifications to become a Senator or Representative; the candidate must have been a U. S. citizen for a minimum of two years prior to his candidacy and must have been resident of the district that he seeks to represent for one year. Senators must be at least twenty-five years of age and representatives must be twenty-one when sworn into office.
The candidate cannot hold any other public office in the state or federal government during their term. The candidate must be a registered voter within the district they seek to represent. Candidates are required to file papers stating their economic interests. Article 4, Section 3, of the state constitution places several limitations on the size and composition of the General Assembly; the Senate can contain no more than fifty members, the senators serve for a term of four years. The House of Representatives can contain no more than one hundred members, the representatives serve terms of two years. There is no limit to how many terms a state representative may serve. There are several checks and balances built into the state constitution that limit the power of the General Assembly. Other clauses allow the General Assembly to balance and limit the authority of the other branches of the government. Among these checks and balances is the governor's authority to veto any bill passed by the General Assembly.
The General Assembly may, in turn, override his veto by simple majority vote in both houses. Bills passed by a supermajority automatically become law without requiring the signature of the governor. Once the bill is made law, it can be challenged in the state courts which may rule the law to be unconstitutional repealing the law; the General Assembly could override the court's decision by amending the state constitution to include the law. The General Assembly has been the most powerful branch of the state government, dominating a weak governor's office. Although the governor's office has gained more power since the 1970s, the General Assembly still retains the power to remove much of that authority; the authority and powers of the Indiana General Assembly are established in the state constitution. The General Assembly has sole legislative power within the state government; each house can initiate legislation, with the exception that the Senate is not permitted to initiate legislation that will affect revenue.
Bills are debated and passed separately in each house, but must be passed by both houses before they can submit to the governor. Each law passed by the General Assembly must be applied uniformly to the entire state; the General Assembly is empowered to regulate the state's judiciary system by setting the size of the courts and the bounds of their districts. The body has the authority to monitor the activities of t
