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Objectives
- Meet with lawmakers in key Standing Committees (Technology, Economic Development, Homeland Security, Budget/Finance, etc.) to promote the benefits of GIS and the IndianaMap.
- Educate statewide organizations, Indiana universities, and others to support and include IGIC's GIS initiatives in their legislative platforms.
- Advocate permanent funding for the IndianaMap Portal
- Advocate permanent funding for an ongoing Orthophotography Program as part of the IndianaMap.
- Advocate changes to language to the existing Indiana Code.
Minutes
September 18, 2009
August 28, 2009
July 31, 2009
June 26, 2009
April 13, 2009
January 12, 2009
November 19, 2008
Documents
Indiana Codes - research on codes related to utilities (zip file)
The IndianaMap Needs You - draft version 2.0
IndianaMap Law (May 2007)
Template Letter for House Cosponsors
Informal Inquiry 09-INF-5 regarding electronic maps
Comparison 2008 to 2009 FLAIR
Key US House Democrats for Cosponsorship
More documents available on the Advocacy pages
Activities
Activities are updated after IGIC board meetings, roughly once per quarter. If you'd like more information about a specific project or initiative in the interim, feel free to contact the committee chair or the IGIC Offices.
October 20, 2011
A small number of committee members met on October 14th. Tami Martin, Grant County Assessor called in to get an update on our proposed legislation. Tami was also very interested is discussing potential topics IGIC could address in a GIS workshop for Assessors:
Tami will get with her Board of Directors and discuss dates/times for these events.
We met with Representative Robert Behning, House District 91, R earlier this year to discuss GIS funding for Indiana. We shared with him our draft language to amend the current Indiana Code to collect funds through additional "Sales Disclosure Fees" & "MS4 Fees". He agreed to ask Legislative Services to review our draft language and give us their feedback on it. Results of that review have not yet been completed, but we hope to hear back soon.
The committee still needs to…
April 28, 2011
The Committee met on March 18th and is working on finalizing the SurveyMonkey poll of local government, and making final edits to the IndianaMap Guide for the State Legislature. A rewrite of the section on Height Modernization was finalized by working with the IGIC/ISPLS Geodetic Control Workgroup. A new release of the booklet is planned for May, as well as the Local Government SurveyMonkey poll.
February 28, 2011
The Legislative Committee continues to look for solutions to help fund GIS for Indiana. The Committee will discuss Version 8 of draft legislation with the IGIC Board after the February 28th Board Meeting.
At this time the Legislative Committee will also present a new version of our booklet the IndianaMap Guide for the State Legislature, Winter 2011. This booklet, along with other support materials will be used to support the "Talking to our local elected officials" program that was outlined at the Annual Board Meeting last February.
The "Talking to our local elected officials" program will begin with IGIC Board Members having initial discussions with their own local elected officials and state representatives to help educate them on GIS and to gain support for funding ideas. Going through this process the Committee also hopes to identify potential House and Senate sponsors / champions for this proposed legislation.
February 22, 2011
A joint County Surveyors Association and IGIC Legislative Committee meeting was held on December 4th in the Senate Majority Caucus Room at the Indiana Statehouse. Senator Ed Charbonneau from Valparaiso hosted and we had the opportunity to introduce IGIC, the GIO and the IndianaMap to the Senator. With the county surveyors, we discussed our current GIS Data Sharing Initiative between Local and State government and the need for permanent Local, State and Federal GIS funding. As a result, we all feel that we made a couple important first steps!
Since the meeting, Greg White has been working on amendment for the Indiana code section 19. It will be easier to write and to get support for an amendment rather than for a new bill. The amendment will ask for a recordation fee of $5 for every document with a legal description. Of that $3 will stay local, $1 will go to the recorder for administrative services and $1 will go to the State Office of Technology to fund the IndianaMap. The amendment will be written so county commissioners can extend or expand the fee for a year if there is a special project and revisit the following year. The amendment is now ready for open debate and there is more research being done on the fees as well. There will be more conversations on the amendment with Association of Indiana Counties, County Surveyors Association, and others to refine the language.
December 3, 2009
The Committee last met on October 30, 2009 at The Polis Center. The committee had two special guests attend the meeting: David Gaston, Hendricks County Surveyor and President of the County Surveyors Association and George Van Til, Lake County Surveyor. Both gentlemen shared with the Committee their thoughts about our organization's past relationship, and indicated their interest to work with IGIC on topics of common interest. We discussed a variety of topics, including:
- Sharing local data and how to pay for ongoing data maintenance
- How to work together to advocate State funding to support local GIS funding
- Phil Worrall outlined the Committee's "Talking to Your Local Elected Officials" program currently in development
- How to find new champions for Surveyors and for GIS in the State Legislature
- Phil outlined the ISPLS/IGIC Height Modernization plan and the Indiana County Surveyors offer to team up to talk to U.S. Senators about funding
- IGIC's annual Indiana GIS Conference - discussed ideas on how to include local and state elected officials in the proceedings
- Jim Sparks was invited to speak at the Road School, and IGIC to provide GIS education opportunities for surveyors at the Association of Indiana Counties (AIC) conference
- An initial draft MOU between the County Surveyors and IGIC
IGIC and Indiana County Surveyors are definitely interested in further discussing all of these topics, and they have scheduled a joint IGIC/Surveyor's Legislative Committee meeting for Friday, December 4th.
October 15, 2009
The Legislative Committee met on August 28th and September 18th. The Committee is working on the following:
- Writing a letter to new U.S. Census Bureau Director Dr. Robert Graves requesting a change in current policy to share point address data with states to support Broadband Mapping and other initiatives.
- Legislative Booklet materials:
- An update of the "The IndianaMap Needs You" story.
- An explanation for elected officials on why to invest and use the IndianaMap versus Google Maps/Earth and BING.
- A summary of IGS/UITS IndianaMap Portal initiatives and support
- How to talk to your legislator - Our current plan is to have a 30-45 minute training session at an upcoming Board meeting, and to offer a mini-workshop at the IGIC 2010 Conference in February.
Our goal is to have all current assignments completed by our next committee meeting on Friday, October 30, 2009.
August 20, 2009
The Committee met on July 31st at the IGIC Office and via call-in. Attendees included: Jim Stout, Jim Sparks, Stephanie Snider, John Milburn, Jason Tuck, Greg White, Steve Leatherman, and Phil Worrall
News, Announcements
1.Phil Worrall reported on a follow up to his email of July 17th regarding the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee of Energy and Minerals Resources. The subcommittee held two hearings looking into (1) streamlining national mapping efforts through the NSDI, and (2) formalizing the AmericaView remote sensing program support. Testimony in the NSDI hearing was provided by Karen Siderelis, GIO US DOI, Michael Byrne, GIO CA, John Palatiello, Executive Director MAPPS, and Susan Marlow, President Smart Digital Services.
2. Phil Worrall reported that NSGIC has formally requested that the U.S. Census Bureau share their address point GIS data with/for the ARRA Broadband Mapping program. Currently the U.S. Census Bureau does not share any of the point address data they collect for the census. This policy is based on their interpretation of Title 13 privacy information. Many feel their interpretation of this legislation is incorrect and that the basic point address data collected [minus any personal information] should be publicly available to support other applications. Jim Stout suggested that the IGIC Board send a formal letter of support for this position to the U.S. Census Bureau and to Indiana's elected officials. Phil will add this to the next board meeting agenda.
Unfinished Business
1.Status of HB1561 High speed Internet service initiative: Jim Sparks reported he is working on Indiana's proposal for ARRA State Broadband Mapping NOFA funding.
2.John Milburn reported on his and Jason Tuck's research of existing Indiana Code specific to the creation of administrative rules to establish fee-based program funding (e.g. IUPPS utility locate ticket fees). John Milburn will research and identify other likely fee/permit-based transactions in IC that could potentially include GIS funding (e.g. IDEM & INDNR).
3. Charline Avey’s suggestion regarding an IndianaMap support fee being attached to locate tickets (IC 8- 1-26) would be a good topic of discussion with the Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC). Jim Sparks has an existing relationship with both the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) and the Office of the Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC). We should prepare specific talking points/questions for an initial conversation with the OUCC.
4. “Meeting with Our Elected Officials Grass-Roots Initiative”
June 18, 2009
The Legislative Committee met on Monday, April 24th and May 29th via conference call and at the IGIC office. Dave Coats discovered an existing Federal GIS program (Palanterra - https://www1.nga.mil/NEWSROOM/PATHFINDER/0605/Pages/Palanterra.aspx ) focused on special national events (e.g. Presidential Inauguration, Super Bowls, etc). An interesting aspect is that Senator Richard Lugar was a sponsor of the original bill that created this program.
Other items discussed:
April 16, 2009
At its April 13th meeting, HB1561 High speed Internet service initiative, legislation which is being tracked by the Committee, was discussed. It currently has IGIC and the IndianaMap identified as a recipient of the broadband GIS mapping data layer created through this legislation. John Milburn is working on researching existing Indiana Code for all references to maps or mapping. Chair Phil Worrall received feedback from Representative Matt Pierce regarding holding a summer study session to help identify permanent IndianaMap funding mechanisms. Based on this feedback, the Committee decided to take a different approach to educating legislators. First, a section on funding will be added to the current IGIC Legislative Booklet to use when having a discussion with legislators and affiliate organizations.
Second, the Committee will research holding summer 2009 education session(s) to educate members of the State Legislature, Governor's Office and Lieutenant Governor's Office Staff, and affiliate organizations like the Association of County Surveyors, Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. The goal is to educate them on the benefits of the IndianaMap (both data and technology) to support economic development and economic stimulus dollar projects across Indiana.
At the April IGIC Board meeting, it was suggested that the Committee put together a “Meet With Your Legislators” program. All Board Members would contact and meet with their state representatives (or their legislative assistants) to discuss the IndianaMap Return on Investment and to advocate funding for the IndianaMap. NSGIC's (National States Geographic Information Council) national advocacy information will be used to prepare instructions for conducting these meetings; specifically, the Committee will review the NSGIC National Advocacy Request for support of HR 1520 – Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform.
It was also suggested that, because the current US Geological Survey (USGS) National Map funding paradigm is upside down, IGIC actively support and promote a National Map roll-up funding model for the IndianaMap. This roll-up model would spend money at the local government level to create and maintain the authoritative data, provide funds at the state level to aggregate, homogenize, and distribute the trusted data through the IndianaMap, and then have the USGS harvest the state-level data for the National Map at the Federal level. IGIC's current FGDC Data Sharing Initiative and other proposed USGS Partnership Fund projects Make Indiana a perfect model for promoting this as a nationwide strategy.
February 16, 2009
The Legislative Committee has already met twice this year to begin moving initiatives forward. It is too late to sponsor or even amend an existing bill to include any GIS initiatives for 2009, but there are still things to accomplish within this legislative session. A number of GIS framework data layer initiatives have been identified in the Federal Economic Stimulus package. The Committee intends to pursue these with both Federal and State agencies, and directly with the Governor's Office.
Jim Sparks has a new point of contact at the Governor’s Office, Jessica Norris (Legislative Liaison for the Governor’s Office). Jessica attended the February 6th Legislative Committee meeting along with David Pippen (Governor's Office Policy Director for Environmental and Natural Resources). This was a great opportunity to meet, and a lot of time was spent providing background information for them on existing IndianaMap IC, past IndianaMap projects, and the plans and funds necessary for future plans.
The Committee plans to submit a more formal list of projects and benefits to the Governor's Office, the Indiana Secretary of Commerce (Mitch Rood), the Indiana Economic Development Association (Mike Heaton / Dennis Maloy), and the Indiana Association of Regional Councils ( Anne Trobaugh & Lisa Gehlhausen).
John Milburn has researched the existing Indiana Code for any references to map/maps/mapping, GIS, spatial, etc. John identified 128 Indiana Codes with these keywords. He has entered them into a categorized spreadsheet with hyperlinks to the specific Indiana Code.
Action items for upcoming months include:
January 15, 2009
The Legislative Committee met on January 12th at The Polis Center. The Committee discussed making initial contacts with the State Legislature and within the Governor’s office to look for new GIS champions. Investigate opportunities for IndianaMap funding within existing Indiana Code.
Action items include:
The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 6th from 1:30 to 3:00pm at The Polis Center.
Committees
- Communications
- Conference
- Data Sharing
- Education & Outreach
- Elections
- Finance
- GIS Response Corps
- IndianaMap
- Legislative
- Membership
IndianaMap Workgroups
- Steering Committee
- Board on Geographic Names
- CAD-GIS Integration
- Cadastre, Boundaries & PLSS
- Data Integration
- Elevation
- Geodetic Control
- Orthophotography
- Streets & Addresses
- Waters
Committee Members
- Phil Worrall, Chair
- Dave Coats
- Andrew Harrison
- Bill Holder
- Steve Leatherman
- John Milburn
- Randy Smith
- Jim Sparks
- Jim Stout
- Anna Radue
- Sarah Rossier
- Jill Saligoe-Simmel
- John Steinmetz
- Jason Tuck