WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.240 - I want to welcome everyone to our legislative wrap-up panel this is part 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:09.440 - of our get to know your government our get to know your government and 00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:16.800 - community leaders series and also I want to remind our legislators that if your 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.880 - microphone starts sounds like it's crackling just move a little farther back 00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:26.120 - from it and we should be fine with that we want to have give a big thank you to 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:31.320 - Ellisville Town Hall for allowing us to use this wonderful space we're grateful 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:35.580 - to our presenting sponsors our presenting sponsor Bloomington Board of 00:00:35.580 --> 00:00:40.940 - Realtors for their support and in just a moment I'll invite Alex Everett to 00:00:40.940 --> 00:00:45.600 - introduce our moderator and our panelists we also want to recognize our 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:51.320 - gold sponsors of today's event Indiana University office of the vice president 00:00:51.320 --> 00:00:56.640 - for University Relations and Monroe County Farm Bureau incorporated we truly 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:01.560 - appreciate your support we also want to thank our premium partners these are 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:05.280 - members who support the chamber at the highest level and you'll see their logos 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:11.200 - on our slideshow please mark your calendars for our ribbon cutting next 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:18.840 - Wednesday at easy clean laundry that's on July 11th at 11 a.m. on June 20th we 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:23.160 - have our power your business luncheon featuring crane and that is sponsored by 00:01:23.160 --> 00:01:28.760 - First Financial Bank on July 23rd the town of Ellisville will have a ribbon 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:33.240 - cutting and grand opening at the new Department of Public Works building 00:01:33.240 --> 00:01:40.360 - that's right over here our picnic in the park is sponsored by the niece agency 00:01:40.360 --> 00:01:45.160 - and Dan Ray real estate and that will be on Friday July 11th you can find out 00:01:45.160 --> 00:01:49.140 - more information about all of these events on our website and now I am 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:52.560 - pleased to welcome Alex Everett from Bloomington Board of Realtors to the 00:01:52.560 --> 00:02:06.920 - podium good morning thank you the moderator for this event is going to be 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.960 - Gretchen Gutman a veteran in legislative and government policy is the vice 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:16.280 - president of the public policy for cook group incorporated before joining cook 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:21.640 - Gretchen served as the AVP of government relations at Ball State University she 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:26.680 - was also a partner at the law firm of TAF the tennis and Hollister LLP in 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:32.000 - Indianapolis please forgive me if I do not pronounce names correctly Gretchen 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.640 - also spent eight years as the chief fiscal adviser to the Senate Finance 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:41.000 - Committee of the Indiana General Assembly during her time on staff she 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.200 - worked on a number of public policy issues most notably property tax reform 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:50.800 - charter school legislation pension reform gaming legislation and the state's 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:55.320 - biannual budget and school funding formula Gretchen received a bachelor's 00:02:55.320 --> 00:02:59.200 - degree in history an MPA from Indiana University and a law degree from the 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:03.960 - Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis round of 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:14.760 - applause the first panelist I'd like to introduce is representative Peggy 00:03:14.760 --> 00:03:23.880 - Mayfield sir is she here good timing serves Indiana House district 60 which 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:28.440 - covers portions of Johnson Morgan and Monroe counties representative Mayfield 00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:33.480 - was first elected to district 60 in 2012 she is vice chair of the House public 00:03:33.480 --> 00:03:37.140 - policy committee and serves on the House Insurance Committee and the House Ways 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:46.400 - and Means Committee round of applause for Peggy representative Matt Pierce 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:51.400 - serves Indiana House district 61 which covers parts of county representative 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:56.440 - Pierce has held the district 61 seat since 2002 he is assistant Democratic 00:03:56.440 --> 00:04:00.040 - floor leader and is the ranking minority member of the Indiana House utilities 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:04.600 - energy and telecommunications committee he also serves on the following 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:08.520 - committees courts and criminal code elections appointment rules and 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:17.160 - legislative procedures and the statutory committee of ethics round of applause 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:23.280 - representative Dave Hall serves Indiana House district 62 which includes all of 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:27.520 - Brown County and portions of Monroe and Jackson counties representative Hall was 00:04:27.520 --> 00:04:33.040 - first elected to the Indiana House district 62 seat in 2022 representative 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:37.840 - Hall serves as assistant majority whip vice chair of the utilities energy and 00:04:37.840 --> 00:04:41.720 - telecommunications committee and as a member of the local government committee 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:45.640 - and natural resources committee 00:04:45.640 --> 00:04:53.320 - senator Shelley Yoder represents district 40 which includes the majority of Monroe 00:04:53.320 --> 00:04:57.760 - County she serves as the Senate minority leader ranking minority member of the 00:04:57.760 --> 00:05:01.120 - environmental affairs committee and minority member on the following 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:05.680 - committees appropriations education and career development health and provider 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:10.640 - services joint rules rules and legislative procedure and the school 00:05:10.640 --> 00:05:19.880 - funding subcommittee and last but not least representative Bob Heaton 00:05:19.880 --> 00:05:25.400 - represents district 46 first elected to house in 2010 representative Heaton 00:05:25.400 --> 00:05:29.680 - serves as majority whip and on the ways and means committee higher education 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:34.440 - subcommittee chair and financial institutions committee representative 00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:39.160 - Heaton represents all of Owen County and portions of clay Monroe and Vigo 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:41.640 - counties 00:05:41.720 --> 00:06:03.480 - good morning everyone it's great to be with you good morning to our 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:08.920 - distinguished panels it's wonderful to be with you all since everyone got up 00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:15.760 - early this morning and is here to listen to legislative a legislative wrap-up I 00:06:15.760 --> 00:06:19.240 - thought it would be fun to start our morning out with some fun facts because 00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:24.560 - who doesn't love fun facts on a Tuesday so as you all know this session was our 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:29.640 - long session which means that the General Assembly met from January to the end of 00:06:29.640 --> 00:06:35.400 - April so I thought I would share with you some of the statistics around the 00:06:35.400 --> 00:06:40.760 - number of bills that were introduced in the end product so the number of 00:06:40.760 --> 00:06:45.760 - introduced bills that the General Assembly dealt with in introduction this 00:06:45.760 --> 00:06:53.600 - year from the Senate was 483 bills the house introduced 683 for a total of 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.080 - one thousand one hundred and sixty six bills bills that got out of committee in 00:06:59.080 --> 00:07:06.600 - the first house that in the House of Representatives was 296 in the Senate 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:16.120 - was 271 so at in the in the dealing with second reading amendments they were 00:07:16.120 --> 00:07:23.120 - dealing with between the two chambers 567 bills out of the second chamber the 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:33.560 - house passed out 231 the Senate 160 160 for a total of 391 you see the funnel 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:38.680 - so the as you can see the committees really are the workhorse of the General 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:42.760 - Assembly that's where all of the work gets done bills that actually crossed 00:07:42.760 --> 00:07:51.520 - the finish line out of the total number of 1166 was 243 bills so basically the 00:07:51.520 --> 00:07:56.080 - 80/20 principle does apply to the General Assembly so lots to talk about 00:07:56.080 --> 00:07:59.720 - given the number of bills that winner were introduced and number of bills that 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:04.640 - work through the process so let's turn to our experts and let's listen to the 00:08:04.640 --> 00:08:10.920 - less the session wrap up so my first question is and I'm gonna start with you 00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:15.600 - representative Heaton and we're gonna go that way can you give us an overview of 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:22.220 - how your priority bills fared in the 2025 Indiana General Assembly well 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:28.280 - thanks for that question Gretchen and thank you all for being here I when it 00:08:28.280 --> 00:08:33.480 - comes to bills and you know the number sometimes I remember one time the Senate 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:40.080 - they it was almost unlimited what you can file and I remember at the time at 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:47.000 - that time is Senator State Senator Jim Banks and he had 40 bills that he filed 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:52.800 - and I asked him about one bill about that I was really curious about and he 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:58.040 - wasn't sure about that bill because once you have 40 bills like wow how do you 00:08:58.040 --> 00:09:03.520 - focus on that and I had about had about two or three bills really but I suppose 00:09:03.520 --> 00:09:07.880 - on a local level in Terre Haute and Beagle County we had a bill I think it 00:09:07.880 --> 00:09:14.840 - was 15 House Bill 1543 and that pertained to getting a magistrate there 00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:21.800 - in Beagle County and they've been after that for a number of years and and I 00:09:21.800 --> 00:09:28.880 - added representative Tanya Path on that bill with me since she really service 00:09:28.880 --> 00:09:35.160 - her district is just about all of Terre Haute and and that was a bill that had a 00:09:35.160 --> 00:09:41.200 - fiscal of it was two hundred thirteen thousand dollars and but it passed out a 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:45.880 - committee I think ten to zero and and it went to ways and means because of the 00:09:45.880 --> 00:09:55.600 - fiscal and I was able to amend that bill in House Bill 1144 authored by Chris 00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:04.000 - Jeter and that started the process and it ended up in and went over to the 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.020 - Senate and so forth and the conference committee and work things out and bottom 00:10:08.020 --> 00:10:14.040 - line is we were able to get that bill but but we had in committee judge Sarah 00:10:14.040 --> 00:10:18.840 - Mulligan over there and Judge Dan Kelly and they testified and and explained the 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:24.520 - need that we had to have a magistrate over there and it just worked out well 00:10:24.520 --> 00:10:29.720 - and I'm glad we were able to get that done so but anyway it's a it's a process 00:10:29.720 --> 00:10:35.320 - and sometimes we have to be patient to the very end and that's when it it passed 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:38.960 - out of the conference committee reports and we were able to get it done so that 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:46.480 - was probably my I guess big priority bill that I got to see through. Senator 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:54.040 - Yoder. Thank you so much Gretchen. I came here so many weeks ago and had some 00:10:54.040 --> 00:10:59.840 - priority bills and as Gretchen so masterfully explained you know that 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:08.680 - funnel is real and I came away with some exciting wins though for somebody who 00:11:08.680 --> 00:11:15.760 - serves as a minority member there is a handout in the back and it's so pretty 00:11:15.760 --> 00:11:21.400 - grab it on your way out on one side it has wins that I can that I worked on on 00:11:21.400 --> 00:11:26.400 - one side and then there are some challenges that finished our session 00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:33.360 - and some things to look out for for the coming next session but I or at least 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:37.660 - the coming year changes that are going to be made some of the wins when I came 00:11:37.660 --> 00:11:44.680 - in I think it was January I spoke of three different bills that I was working 00:11:44.680 --> 00:11:51.000 - on and one in particular was Senate bill 176 and at the time I came here it was 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:55.620 - scheduled for its first committee hearing and I'm so happy to say that it 00:11:55.620 --> 00:12:00.440 - will it was signed by the governor and it's one of those 243 bills that made 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:06.240 - it all the way through and what Senate bill or Senate enrolled act 176 does is 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:12.680 - it was the direct byproduct of last summer making my way through some of our 00:12:12.680 --> 00:12:19.680 - skilled nursing facilities from rehabilitation all the way to full-time 00:12:19.680 --> 00:12:24.480 - or nurse your traditional nursing home facility and what I kept hearing again 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:30.120 - and again was our how our nursing shortage is really being a challenge for 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:34.860 - many of our skilled nursing facilities but we see this and we hear that the 00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:41.320 - nursing challenge is real at every intersection in our health care industry 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:46.100 - right now so based on that I came back to our legislative agency our 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:53.160 - legislative services agency and asked what can we do I had one one executive 00:12:53.160 --> 00:13:01.720 - say to me if we could just somehow harness our young adults who are in high 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:08.020 - school right now interested in the field are taking coursework in this area to 00:13:08.020 --> 00:13:12.800 - enter into the nursing field or into the health care field but once they 00:13:12.800 --> 00:13:17.400 - graduate the way our code is written currently they have to retake those 00:13:17.400 --> 00:13:25.160 - exact same course courses again to count toward their LPN license and I thought 00:13:25.160 --> 00:13:30.200 - this is a win for both our young people our students our high school students 00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:35.760 - graduating and for the health care shortage in nursing so we work together 00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:40.720 - and that bill will allow those courses that students are taking in high school 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:46.480 - to count towards their LPN which is a substitute which is a great win which is 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:53.560 - exciting because as I was revisiting those facilities I in the last couple of 00:13:53.560 --> 00:13:58.720 - weeks I put together this skilled nursing tour and at one of the places I 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:07.280 - was asking what do you need and the director of the facility said well we 00:14:07.280 --> 00:14:13.400 - actually need more solutions like there was this one bill I think it was 176 I 00:14:13.400 --> 00:14:17.760 - was like oh my goodness that was the bill we worked on together and it made 00:14:17.760 --> 00:14:23.360 - it and it was really exciting to hear how they were they knew about it and how 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:27.560 - it was going to directly impact them so that was a priority for me another 00:14:27.560 --> 00:14:32.840 - priority for me was a bill that I filed that really addressed crimes against 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:41.040 - children and it would change every every place in Indiana code in talking about 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:51.680 - the phrase child pornography to a child sex abuse material and the reason why 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:57.560 - that change is so significant is it too came out of a conversation I had at a 00:14:57.560 --> 00:15:03.320 - town hall last summer and the town hall was really about the diploma changes 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:08.120 - that we were seeing and getting feedback from constituents but there was a 00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:13.540 - retired Indiana State police officer there and he waited until after and he 00:15:13.540 --> 00:15:18.480 - came to me and he said is there anything we could do I worked in the sex crimes 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:25.280 - unit and that phrase is so antiquated and actually retraumatizes people who 00:15:25.280 --> 00:15:31.320 - read it and upon hearing it you think oh my goodness of course because there is 00:15:31.320 --> 00:15:39.680 - some consent implied in the word pornography and so we worked while my 00:15:39.680 --> 00:15:45.400 - bill that I filed that bill didn't make it I used that language applied it to 00:15:45.400 --> 00:15:50.000 - another bill it made it through the Senate and then that bill didn't get 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.280 - heard in the house so I had to find another home for that bill in the house 00:15:54.280 --> 00:15:58.080 - that was going to be heard and eventually it made its way through and 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:03.920 - it was signed so it didn't start out how I wanted but it still made its way 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:09.000 - through and now is going to do good for the state of Indiana and then the other 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:14.360 - area was child care there there definitely is a shortage in child care 00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:21.240 - in accessing and in affordability and we worked on Senate bill 463 that made it 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:25.320 - all the way through I wasn't the author of that bill but I was a co-author with 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:31.320 - senator Charbonneau and I'm grateful for those relationships that I have in you 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:36.960 - know in across the aisle and in my own party to to find ways of making good 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:43.200 - change for residents of Indiana so those were three priorities that I started 00:16:43.200 --> 00:16:50.040 - with they looked different upon its upon the conclusion of the session but in the 00:16:50.040 --> 00:16:55.800 - end it didn't really matter how it made its way through it still ended up being 00:16:55.800 --> 00:17:00.560 - good policy and an enacted policy for the state of Indiana so thank you I 00:17:00.560 --> 00:17:06.000 - heard from so many of you after that meeting and it really did help inform 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:12.320 - the way that I was able to legislate throughout the whole session so thank 00:17:12.320 --> 00:17:17.640 - you to the eligible chamber and to all of you for staying connected with me 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:23.820 - representative Mayfield so I apologize if I look like I'm about to fall out of my 00:17:23.820 --> 00:17:29.600 - chair I've been dealing with vertigo for three days so I have episodes of like a 00:17:29.600 --> 00:17:35.360 - drunken sailor so out of the bills that I filed I really learned a lesson in 00:17:35.360 --> 00:17:39.320 - pride of authorship this year because not a one of them went through with me 00:17:39.320 --> 00:17:45.360 - as the primary author however the language of at least three of my bills 00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:50.160 - did make it across the finish line using representative Hall's method of amend it 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:55.840 - into someone else's bill and let them do all the work so one of them was you know 00:17:55.840 --> 00:17:59.560 - the Ellits bill food and beverage tax which took a totally different look by 00:17:59.560 --> 00:18:06.680 - the time it was over the finish line but it was a version that passed aviation 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:12.120 - public works got put into another public works bill and actually there is a 00:18:12.120 --> 00:18:16.680 - ceremonial signing with the governor on Thursday afternoon for that bill 00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:22.040 - collaborative distilling which you know this is all boring alcohol stuff but 00:18:22.040 --> 00:18:26.800 - there are aspects of our alcohol code that needed to be addressed of in this 00:18:26.800 --> 00:18:32.600 - particular bill my focus my language was when you do collaborative distilling 00:18:32.600 --> 00:18:36.600 - you're allowed to have a certain percentage from one origin and a certain 00:18:36.600 --> 00:18:40.480 - percentage from another origin in the same bottle well once it's in the bottle 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:44.840 - you have no way to determine how much came from one guy or the other guy so 00:18:44.840 --> 00:18:49.880 - the ATC even said we we can't enforce this so that was the basis of the 00:18:49.880 --> 00:18:55.960 - language my part of the language in collaborative distilling and then I'm 00:18:55.960 --> 00:19:02.640 - trying to think if there was another one you know I get these of the end there 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:07.560 - was a bill that passed the Senate and I had a I was a sponsor and I had a sister 00:19:07.560 --> 00:19:13.760 - bill in the house about discrimination against living donors but they couldn't 00:19:13.760 --> 00:19:17.440 - even though it passed the house I mean the Senate when it came over to the 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:22.920 - house when we were looking at it more deeply so the the the argument was I 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:28.920 - have donated a kidney or a liver those are really the only two items that you 00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:35.000 - give as a living donor now I go back for life insurance and because they know 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:41.820 - that I've donated one of my organs my rates are higher than it was before the 00:19:41.820 --> 00:19:49.400 - donation we couldn't find in the industry enough of that to determine 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:54.280 - that it is a discriminatory policy now you may have one company who says we 00:19:54.280 --> 00:19:58.120 - don't want to write that that's different than being discriminated 00:19:58.120 --> 00:20:03.520 - against across the board so you know a problem for one person is not a problem 00:20:03.520 --> 00:20:09.000 - for all people so that that did not make it across the finish line once it got to 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:13.920 - the house if we have more incidents or more cases of that we may reconsider 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:18.840 - that and then I was working on the indemnification of parks for obstacle 00:20:18.840 --> 00:20:25.240 - courses this is very popular throughout the state the the ropes the tires you 00:20:25.240 --> 00:20:33.120 - know that that type of obstacle course in a public park except the the insurance 00:20:33.120 --> 00:20:40.080 - industry doesn't want to insure it because we can't define it Atterbury has 00:20:40.080 --> 00:20:44.040 - it Johnson County has one there's one up in the northern part around Huntington 00:20:44.040 --> 00:20:49.060 - County they have one so I was trying to include the definition of an obstacle 00:20:49.060 --> 00:20:57.480 - course into we have a oh there is a definition that already exists about not 00:20:57.480 --> 00:21:04.960 - high risk but my words are failing me like skateboard yeah extreme sports and 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:08.960 - what I was trying to get it into that and that would indemnify them so let's 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:15.560 - say you're climbing the ropes and you fall and break your arm or even now 00:21:15.560 --> 00:21:21.280 - currently if you trip over roots on a trail you you could potentially be 00:21:21.280 --> 00:21:26.720 - exposed for some liability so we're just trying to wrap that up however we have a 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:34.600 - lot of trial lawyers who don't like immunity from anything so I'll just have 00:21:34.600 --> 00:21:38.680 - to keep working on that I think that there's a way to get there but again 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:44.080 - when you're when you're dealing with this as Senator Yoder said you see you 00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:48.640 - know how the funnel works you have to be willing to make those compromises what 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:54.200 - comes out at the end might not be what went into the beginning but there were 00:21:54.200 --> 00:22:01.320 - there are aspects and and it's the the benefit are you still getting a benefit 00:22:01.320 --> 00:22:08.480 - or do you just want to give up and start over another time a lot of times in the 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:15.120 - process when you are an author of a bill you still have some control over whether 00:22:15.120 --> 00:22:21.200 - that bill moves forward so in the case of getting amended into another bill you 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:27.380 - sort of lose that control so even when it you know you legislative process 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:31.280 - strategy-wise I'm thinking okay if they change it over in the Senate when it 00:22:31.280 --> 00:22:36.520 - comes back to the house I made dissent I might make some changes when they amend 00:22:36.520 --> 00:22:41.000 - it into another bill that's under another author you don't have that kind 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:45.580 - of control anymore so you really there are so many you know we call the 00:22:45.580 --> 00:22:50.480 - multi-level chess game that you learn over the course of a legislative career 00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:58.360 - I'm still learning some of those moves thank you represent appears yeah I think 00:22:58.360 --> 00:23:03.760 - that some of the examples you've heard heard here just shows that a good 00:23:03.760 --> 00:23:07.760 - legislator will just focus on getting the policy enacted and try to avoid the 00:23:07.760 --> 00:23:11.400 - personality clashes or work around them because believe it or not there are 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:16.480 - occasionally personality clashes in the General Assembly which might shock you 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:22.560 - so I had a bill that came out of a summer study committee of courts and 00:23:22.560 --> 00:23:27.880 - corrections where we got testimony from the Vanderbilt County sheriff that some 00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:32.120 - people showed up in their community were committing burglaries and they had 00:23:32.120 --> 00:23:37.600 - something called a signal jamming device with them and this is kind of a little 00:23:37.600 --> 00:23:42.000 - transmitter you can carry around with yourself and it will basically block out 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:46.640 - cell phones you know any wireless door cameras will get you know basically 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:51.960 - disabled the police show up they try to use their you know radios to talk to 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:57.680 - dispatch it can interfere with that and those devices are completely illegal 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:02.120 - under federal law but as you can imagine trying to get the Federal 00:24:02.120 --> 00:24:05.720 - Communications Commission which has the job of enforcing that to be paying 00:24:05.720 --> 00:24:08.840 - attention to all these cases across the country and then they got to get the 00:24:08.840 --> 00:24:13.640 - Justice Department move on it and so we kind of concluded that we needed to have 00:24:13.640 --> 00:24:18.360 - some state law that would mirror the federal law so that local prosecutors 00:24:18.360 --> 00:24:22.280 - could go ahead and prosecute that and and maybe more importantly seize the 00:24:22.280 --> 00:24:30.520 - equipment from the bad actors they're not able to jam things up so some of 00:24:30.520 --> 00:24:34.360 - you might know that one of my hobbies is amateur radio I'm one of those geeky 00:24:34.360 --> 00:24:38.320 - radio people and so all things radio frequency really fascinating to me so I 00:24:38.320 --> 00:24:42.320 - started spouting off in the committee about all this jamming stuff and the 00:24:42.320 --> 00:24:46.160 - chair of the House committee basically said why don't you just carry this bill 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:51.040 - since you seem to know all about it so we had a bill that essentially would 00:24:51.040 --> 00:24:55.480 - mirror the federal law in the state law passed through the house no problem got 00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:59.720 - over the Senate they also had a bill that came out of the Senate which had 00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:04.720 - the same policy goal but was had some significant differences which I thought 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:11.440 - were problematic and so we took as often it happens we well first we thought the 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:15.360 - Senate would just hear my bill over in the house but the author over there on 00:25:15.360 --> 00:25:20.920 - the Senate side really felt that his bill had to be the one so we decided in 00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:25.000 - the courts committee we would move the Senate bill but we basically put my 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.960 - provisions into it so it basically became the house bill so then it went 00:25:29.960 --> 00:25:34.600 - over to conference committee a little bit of haggling about a few minor 00:25:34.600 --> 00:25:38.160 - provisions got that straightened out and the conference committee report was 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:43.440 - signed and voted into law so now the local prosecutors have the ability to do 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:47.640 - something about these signal jammers without having to ask the feds to try to 00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:53.880 - come in and do it and so that's just an example of how if you get really hung up 00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:58.120 - on like my name's got to be on this I want to have the glory of you know going 00:25:58.120 --> 00:26:03.200 - back home and saying I did this a lot of times you won't get stuff done but this 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:06.560 - idea which is another one I use often is just get your stuff in somebody else's 00:26:06.560 --> 00:26:10.320 - bill and then sit back and be very quiet about it and let the other guy do all 00:26:10.320 --> 00:26:16.760 - the work that's also a very good approach representative Paul yeah thank 00:26:16.760 --> 00:26:21.600 - you so they've talked a lot about me sitting back and letting other people do 00:26:21.600 --> 00:26:28.920 - the work so I'll explain that I had a bill Brown County has 15,000 residents in 00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:32.800 - the county they get well over a million visitors every year and that puts a 00:26:32.800 --> 00:26:37.600 - strain on their resources locally and they struggle to kind of keep up with 00:26:37.600 --> 00:26:42.880 - the the maintenance of like the of a deer run park they're wanting to do some 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:49.280 - advancements there they got the log jail that's there in town I can't remember 00:26:49.280 --> 00:26:51.920 - the name of the other place but the fairgrounds like they're trying to make 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:54.660 - investments there in the county that when you have the visitors come in they 00:26:54.660 --> 00:26:57.600 - see something nice they get to use it you know and everybody gets to enjoy it 00:26:57.600 --> 00:27:02.660 - so they had a five percent innkeepers tax and they wanted to you know increase 00:27:02.660 --> 00:27:06.680 - that and give them the capacity to move that up to eight percent so I thought 00:27:06.680 --> 00:27:10.760 - about authoring a bill on that and then I had this idea like I could just put 00:27:10.760 --> 00:27:15.760 - that in someone else's bill and let them do it so Peggy or representative Mayfield 00:27:15.760 --> 00:27:19.840 - was the lucky recipient of my language when I took it to the Ways and Means 00:27:19.840 --> 00:27:23.920 - office I said can you help me find a home for this and her bill was the home 00:27:23.920 --> 00:27:28.880 - for that and then as the process played out the language that she was caring to 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:33.880 - benefit Ellisville and the rural transit ended up coming out of her bill and my 00:27:33.880 --> 00:27:39.040 - language survived and then her bill got morphed into another bill and my 00:27:39.040 --> 00:27:43.560 - language survived in that so it was really I mean I'm gonna my aim is to do 00:27:43.560 --> 00:27:47.400 - that as often as possible because if I can just get the language through and 00:27:47.400 --> 00:27:52.920 - not have to do all because it's work to get just to get a committee chair to hear 00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:56.320 - your bill and then to get the bill out of the committee and then to get the 00:27:56.320 --> 00:28:00.000 - bill through the second reading amendments and out of the house and then 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:05.320 - get it into the Senate is an entirely different problem so this year I had a 00:28:05.320 --> 00:28:11.000 - bill or it was a resolution to require term limits for members of Congress and 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:16.560 - I tried that last year and ran into some trouble in the Senate and the Judiciary 00:28:16.560 --> 00:28:23.480 - Committee and it failed in the Judiciary Committee so this this year we had the 00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:27.360 - Senate pass it out first and then I sponsored it in the house so it made it 00:28:27.360 --> 00:28:30.760 - out of the Senate this year and we got it through the house so that we signed 00:28:30.760 --> 00:28:36.440 - that resolution I was in April March or April so Indiana was the 11th state to 00:28:36.440 --> 00:28:42.480 - join 10 other states to call for members of term or members of Congress to term 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:47.760 - limit themselves it calls for an Article 5 convention that takes 34 states to 00:28:47.760 --> 00:28:52.720 - actually trigger a convention historically that's not happened because 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:57.320 - once you get close to having enough states to trigger a convention the 00:28:57.320 --> 00:29:01.280 - Congress just acts themselves because they don't want the states deciding 00:29:01.280 --> 00:29:05.240 - their term limits or that you know any issues so they they usually preempt that 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:10.840 - so that made it through that was my only win other than the one that representative 00:29:10.840 --> 00:29:13.680 - Mayfield got through for me but I have several other several other bills that 00:29:13.680 --> 00:29:17.540 - I've worked on representative Pierce and I and I think Senator Yoder has been 00:29:17.540 --> 00:29:22.680 - involved in this there's a bill that would allow counties to enact a gate 00:29:22.680 --> 00:29:26.760 - fee at the state parks to help them with public safety and infrastructure 00:29:26.760 --> 00:29:32.880 - improvements and I struggled to get a hearing for that the last two sessions 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:37.520 - and then this session got a hearing passed out unanimously passed out of the 00:29:37.520 --> 00:29:42.080 - house with just a handful of no votes went to the Senate got it through the 00:29:42.080 --> 00:29:49.680 - Senate natural resources committee and then it got sent to appropriations and 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:54.920 - when stuff gets sent to appropriations sometimes that's because it needs to be 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:58.880 - and sometimes it's just going there to die so that bill just went there to die 00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:03.800 - so I took that bill language and I got it inserted into another bill because it 00:30:03.800 --> 00:30:06.480 - was successful with representative Mayfield so I thought well maybe I 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:10.840 - could do that again and I did not have the same luck with that second time 00:30:10.840 --> 00:30:16.520 - around so I'm still like when I got there some of the best advice I heard 00:30:16.520 --> 00:30:20.900 - there was a another legislator that had been there for several years and he told 00:30:20.900 --> 00:30:25.320 - me he said Dave just remember this place is not Burger King you don't always get 00:30:25.320 --> 00:30:30.360 - to have it your way and that has been like the best advice because we have a 00:30:30.360 --> 00:30:34.080 - hundred and fifty people up there and you may have a great idea but everybody 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:38.480 - wants to get their hands on it or insert their language into it so you just kind 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:43.280 - of you learn and you like you don't give up you just come back the next year and 00:30:43.280 --> 00:30:46.600 - you just kind of revise it and try to get something through that looks like what 00:30:46.600 --> 00:30:51.480 - you want so take the smaller wins but I had another bill that made it out of the 00:30:51.480 --> 00:30:55.680 - house it was a it would require research facilities to adopt out animals once 00:30:55.680 --> 00:31:00.780 - they're done doing testing on them pretty bipartisan issue I mean everybody 00:31:00.780 --> 00:31:04.880 - loves dogs and cats and this is it doesn't have anything to do with mice or 00:31:04.880 --> 00:31:09.960 - rats so if you hate them this was not included in my bill that got out of the 00:31:09.960 --> 00:31:14.080 - house I think I had like four no votes on that got in the Senate and I couldn't 00:31:14.080 --> 00:31:18.680 - get a hearing in the Senate so I'm working on that this summer I think Trump 00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:23.040 - had a the NIH they shut down their animal testing facilities they had some 00:31:23.040 --> 00:31:26.520 - beagle testing facilities they shut those down so I'm hoping there's some 00:31:26.520 --> 00:31:31.800 - like recognition that this is not like a it's not a far left you know it's it's 00:31:31.800 --> 00:31:35.840 - just a just a common sense if you know these dogs and cats have served our 00:31:35.840 --> 00:31:42.600 - humanity by being tested on you know for these these drugs and to give them a life 00:31:42.600 --> 00:31:46.440 - where they can you know rather than just euthanize them to just let them live out 00:31:46.440 --> 00:31:49.480 - the rest of their life in a home with people that love them I it just seems 00:31:49.480 --> 00:31:53.040 - like a no-brainer to me so I'm gonna work on that again next session and then I 00:31:53.040 --> 00:31:57.340 - had an annexation bill and this one caused me some I have three teenage 00:31:57.340 --> 00:32:02.880 - daughters and running for this office I had black hair when I started and I had 00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:07.140 - mostly a black beard so I don't know which has contributed more to my hair 00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:14.440 - falling out and my gray beard but this annexation bill it's we have involuntary 00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:17.640 - annexation you guys are all familiar with this and else feels kind of unique 00:32:17.640 --> 00:32:22.400 - because Ellisville people want to be annexed into Ellisville to get relief 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:29.360 - from the the burdensome zoning and regulations that are in the county so 00:32:29.360 --> 00:32:32.680 - it's not every communities like that Bloomington did their involuntary 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:37.480 - annexation or has attempted it and the problem with that is when you you do an 00:32:37.480 --> 00:32:41.440 - involuntary annexation the people that are being annexed they didn't ask for it 00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:46.480 - they just got drawn into this map and the city wins by default if those people do 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:50.960 - nothing so then it forces those folks that didn't ask to be annexed forces 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:53.520 - them to go out and do work they have to mobilize they have to get signatures 00:32:53.520 --> 00:32:57.160 - they have to raise money so the city has spent millions of dollars trying to 00:32:57.160 --> 00:33:01.240 - annex these folks that didn't ask to be annexed and they've had to spend I think 00:33:01.240 --> 00:33:05.160 - it's 250 to 300 thousand dollars that they've spent you know that they've had 00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:10.720 - to raise on their own to fight the city so I think there should be a the burden 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:14.760 - should be on the city if the city wants to annex it should not be we're gonna 00:33:14.760 --> 00:33:18.360 - annex you now you need to go do work to fight it it should be the city saying 00:33:18.360 --> 00:33:21.280 - hey we want to annex you and here's why you should want to be annexed here's our 00:33:21.280 --> 00:33:25.760 - here's what we're gonna do for you and it should be a voluntary thing so I 00:33:25.760 --> 00:33:30.160 - worked on that bill and that took a lot of like I met with representative Pierce 00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:33.360 - and I said hey here's what I'm trying to do and and I think his words were I 00:33:33.360 --> 00:33:36.320 - appreciate that you're trying to thread this needle but this is gonna be 00:33:36.320 --> 00:33:41.720 - difficult to do and it was it was not wrong but we got we got to a really good 00:33:41.720 --> 00:33:47.600 - place I think I think there's a chance that I can maybe not have that language 00:33:47.600 --> 00:33:53.600 - in a standalone bill in the next session or future sessions but to incorporate 00:33:53.600 --> 00:33:58.560 - that into some if I can get it into a House Republican agenda bill that would 00:33:58.560 --> 00:34:03.000 - be ideal in some like government reform bill so I'm gonna try and work on that 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:07.440 - to get that into a because it's just you know right now there's nothing I can do 00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:11.000 - for the folks that are being annexed or you know attempting to be annexed by the 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:15.920 - city but once that's done if the city is not successful there's a four-year 00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:19.440 - cooling-off period and they could go through all of this all over again and I 00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:22.400 - just I just you know talking to these folks I knock on a lot of doors and I 00:34:22.400 --> 00:34:27.800 - get to visit with them and it's just you know that's a it's a stress it's a it's 00:34:27.800 --> 00:34:31.780 - just something that they don't need and you know I'm a huge advocate for land 00:34:31.780 --> 00:34:36.200 - owner rights and this is just this is just something that I've it's been a 00:34:36.200 --> 00:34:41.080 - tough you know the Senate has passed a similar bill I think like nine times now 00:34:41.080 --> 00:34:45.200 - but the house just have it has a different filter for this so I've got to 00:34:45.200 --> 00:34:49.040 - find this sweet spot where I can run it through so that's that's definitely gonna 00:34:49.040 --> 00:34:52.000 - be high on my list for next time I've got some other bills but none of them 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:55.520 - were successful either so I won't talk about all those well thank you very much 00:34:55.520 --> 00:35:02.640 - I think it's it's interesting even though the question was talk about your 00:35:02.640 --> 00:35:08.800 - priority bills and the successes each of you indicated that it was if you didn't 00:35:08.800 --> 00:35:12.320 - have pride of authorship you could be very effective in getting things done 00:35:12.320 --> 00:35:17.120 - working with your colleagues as representative Hall mentioned talking 00:35:17.120 --> 00:35:21.440 - with representative Pierce different parties but certainly colleagues so I 00:35:21.440 --> 00:35:26.600 - think that that my takeaway from that first question is there's an awful lot 00:35:26.600 --> 00:35:31.160 - of collegiality within the General Assembly even though maybe what's what's 00:35:31.160 --> 00:35:34.880 - out in the the media doesn't always reflect that you all work very hard 00:35:34.880 --> 00:35:39.240 - together for your for the betterment of your communities so appreciate that very 00:35:39.240 --> 00:35:48.880 - much okay so as the moderator I'm gonna use my moderator opportunity and call 00:35:48.880 --> 00:35:55.840 - an audible so I'd like to hear I'd like to ask what issues did you hear most 00:35:55.840 --> 00:35:59.640 - from your constituents maybe they weren't they weren't legislation but what are 00:35:59.640 --> 00:36:04.480 - your constituents talking about I'm gonna go with you representative Hall 00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:08.600 - since you were the last one on your first up so I have a very interesting 00:36:08.600 --> 00:36:16.840 - district I'm about 50% Democrat almost 50% Republican so just about every vote 00:36:16.840 --> 00:36:22.640 - that I take irritates half my district so I I've talked to representative Pierce 00:36:22.640 --> 00:36:27.520 - about this and there used to be quite a few of us in that chamber that sweated 00:36:27.520 --> 00:36:31.040 - you know most of the votes that we had to take and now there's just I mean 00:36:31.040 --> 00:36:35.480 - there's very few that have to do that I mean there's nothing it just depended on 00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:39.600 - what week it was really I mean that Senate bill one I got a lot of feedback 00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:47.120 - on that from local elected officials and then just homeowners like that was just 00:36:47.120 --> 00:36:50.560 - I mean I know we're gonna talk a lot more about that one later on but you know 00:36:50.560 --> 00:36:55.320 - that some of these bills I think people think when you when you vote yes or you 00:36:55.320 --> 00:37:01.400 - vote no that you're 100% yes or 100% no well these these bills are you know 00:37:01.400 --> 00:37:05.640 - sometimes they have multiple facets and some of the bills cover just just a lot 00:37:05.640 --> 00:37:09.840 - of different you know similar topics but a lot of things in there so you may only 00:37:09.840 --> 00:37:14.520 - be 51% in favor of it and that's you know those are the things I try to like 00:37:14.520 --> 00:37:18.680 - explain that to people when they reach out to my office is like you know they 00:37:18.680 --> 00:37:22.720 - think that I I hate or love you know whatever I've and sometimes it's just you 00:37:22.720 --> 00:37:27.240 - know you may be 55% yes at that moment with the information that you have so 00:37:27.240 --> 00:37:31.680 - you you know you vote yes and sometimes you're a no for the same same reasons 00:37:31.680 --> 00:37:37.000 - and it's just a difficult to get people like because you know and I'm guilty of 00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:41.280 - this - we have hundreds of bills coming through there and when people reach out 00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:45.120 - they're usually really passionate about like one thing and it's hard to be in 00:37:45.120 --> 00:37:49.840 - that same headspace that they're in about that one issue you know that that's 00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:55.640 - when you're passing out you know 30 bills that day so I try desperately to 00:37:55.640 --> 00:37:59.440 - reply and if somebody calls in and wants me to call them back I try to give them 00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:03.600 - a call back you know as quickly as I can but it was yeah it was a hodgepodge of 00:38:03.600 --> 00:38:08.960 - things and but Senate Bill 1 was probably I mean by far the most contacts 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:14.040 - I got this session. Representative Pierce. Yeah for me there are two main issues that I got the 00:38:14.040 --> 00:38:18.400 - most mail on during the session one were utility issues and concerns about bills 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:22.800 - about small modular reactors promoting those how that might impact rates and 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:27.240 - you know how you were going to balance kind of the risk of moving to this 00:38:27.240 --> 00:38:30.720 - energy transition so I heard a lot from my constituents about the various 00:38:30.720 --> 00:38:35.100 - utility bills that were moving through and then also a lot about education 00:38:35.100 --> 00:38:38.480 - particularly from teachers just concerned about school funding overall 00:38:38.480 --> 00:38:43.260 - and then you know also what role vouchers and charter schools might have 00:38:43.260 --> 00:38:47.720 - on impacting funding streams for traditional public schools and then what 00:38:47.720 --> 00:38:54.560 - will be you know the role of teachers in having a say in how their schools are 00:38:54.560 --> 00:38:58.080 - operating how they run and so those those issues were common things I would 00:38:58.080 --> 00:39:03.880 - hear about throughout the session obviously property tax was a big thing 00:39:03.880 --> 00:39:11.120 - but it wasn't as big as I thought I actually went through and counted out of 00:39:11.120 --> 00:39:16.920 - 700 responses to my pre-legislative survey I went through and counted and 00:39:16.920 --> 00:39:23.360 - only 34 said anything about property tax I was also in another chamber style of 00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:28.160 - legislative forum where we use the little red and green cards and when we 00:39:28.160 --> 00:39:33.640 - asked the audience how many want property tax reform out of an audience 00:39:33.640 --> 00:39:39.200 - of roughly 90 people how many do you think raised the green card and said we 00:39:39.200 --> 00:39:48.280 - we really desperately need property tax reform any ideas two two out of 90 now 00:39:48.280 --> 00:39:51.680 - it's a different audience you had a lot of elected officials you have a lot of 00:39:51.680 --> 00:39:55.300 - business people who appreciate the fact that you have to have a vibrant 00:39:55.300 --> 00:40:00.320 - community to attract people and on the other side of the coin when I'm speaking 00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:05.200 - to constituents who legitimately I had one township establish a fire territory 00:40:05.200 --> 00:40:10.000 - they raised the rate 600% so anything that the state did that would save you 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:16.960 - $300 was offset by the $500 increase you had just from a township that doesn't 00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:23.200 - include your schools in your county and so forth so it was so complex but the 00:40:23.200 --> 00:40:29.680 - general public unless you were going to tell them you're getting a refund or your 00:40:29.680 --> 00:40:34.480 - property taxes are going down they did not want to hear anything you had to say 00:40:34.480 --> 00:40:38.840 - so that really cut off that conversation there wasn't a lot of give-and-take there 00:40:38.840 --> 00:40:43.760 - wasn't an opportunity to say this is this is what we're doing we're trying to 00:40:43.760 --> 00:40:50.040 - fix the the you know the infrastructure of the the the formula so that on the 00:40:50.040 --> 00:40:55.640 - long run it's going to benefit you this was the third major rewrite of property 00:40:55.640 --> 00:41:01.640 - taxes in 30 years the third time so it is so hard to tweak one area of that 00:41:01.640 --> 00:41:05.520 - without affecting another because there are so many factors involved so even 00:41:05.520 --> 00:41:10.240 - though we heard a lot about it it depends on who it was coming from whether 00:41:10.240 --> 00:41:17.880 - they wanted the reform or whether they wanted more money and it was it was a 00:41:17.880 --> 00:41:27.200 - challenging discussion to have thank you I just want to comment because I actually 00:41:27.200 --> 00:41:34.400 - asked those I work with the staff I said would you please comb through all of the 00:41:34.400 --> 00:41:42.680 - voicemail emails I have my own tally and can you come up with the top ten bills 00:41:42.680 --> 00:41:51.760 - that caused the most consternation concern reaction from constituents and 00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:56.640 - eight of them I put eight of them on this the challenges side because they 00:41:56.640 --> 00:42:05.120 - were challenges and it's property taxes our Medicaid changes that really got 00:42:05.120 --> 00:42:11.680 - people engaged and concerned so that was Senate bill 2 we also heard making our 00:42:11.680 --> 00:42:18.760 - school board race as partisan heard so much from you on those matters these are 00:42:18.760 --> 00:42:23.680 - all bills that actually ended up passing so I didn't you know some things you 00:42:23.680 --> 00:42:28.240 - were successful working together with your with me and other legislators to 00:42:28.240 --> 00:42:32.800 - get those things changed amended out of bills but these are bills that did make 00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:38.200 - it through the session on this the other one would be Senate bill 289 that 00:42:38.200 --> 00:42:44.360 - started out as that anti DEI bill and now is non-discrimination in employment 00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:54.200 - education heard a lot from businesses to our educators about that bill and of 00:42:54.200 --> 00:43:00.360 - course what we didn't hear about but definitely heard about it since was the 00:43:00.360 --> 00:43:07.400 - changes to House bill 1001 which is the budget we didn't hear about how the 00:43:07.400 --> 00:43:15.820 - governor is going to be able to redact and take back those IU elected alumni 00:43:15.820 --> 00:43:23.240 - trustees we did not hear that because it was put in right at the very end and so 00:43:23.240 --> 00:43:29.360 - Hoosiers didn't have a chance to even have input but we I certainly have 00:43:29.360 --> 00:43:37.400 - received many many many emails texts calls since then so that was in House 00:43:37.400 --> 00:43:45.440 - bill 1001 and then other education matters one of the changes in how we in 00:43:45.440 --> 00:43:51.360 - our in how we are funding education there have been changed we are now a 00:43:51.360 --> 00:43:59.120 - universal choice voucher state we also made changes in sharing of referendum 00:43:59.120 --> 00:44:05.200 - dollars and property taxes with charter schools that happened in this session 00:44:05.200 --> 00:44:15.440 - and that caused some serious reaction from constituents but another area that 00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:25.560 - I don't know if that really was of concern was in the last biennium budget 00:44:25.560 --> 00:44:34.240 - the decision was made to offer relief to parents in funding curriculum materials 00:44:34.240 --> 00:44:40.920 - textbooks I'm a mom of three it was about close to $200 for each of my 00:44:40.920 --> 00:44:48.160 - children that I would have to pay for those curriculum fees and we tried 00:44:48.160 --> 00:44:54.480 - unsuccessfully for years to get those put into the budget and in 2023 we were 00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:59.760 - successful and there was a line item that there would be relief for parents 00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:06.160 - in covering textbook and curriculum fees this session what happened those dollars 00:45:06.160 --> 00:45:14.600 - that was erased and they the the majority putting the budget together said 00:45:14.600 --> 00:45:19.580 - they're going to fold it into the overall funding formula in in the 00:45:19.580 --> 00:45:26.960 - general fund we will cover those in the way that we fund schools so when you see 00:45:26.960 --> 00:45:33.680 - that number of how our schools are funded the curriculum fees are folded 00:45:33.680 --> 00:45:40.760 - into that which shows a very miniscule for some schools not even an increase 00:45:40.760 --> 00:45:47.600 - for our school corporations our school districts but that includes a line item 00:45:47.600 --> 00:45:54.280 - that was rolled into how our schools are going to be funded and there was there 00:45:54.280 --> 00:46:00.360 - is very much serious concern because of Senate bill 1 property taxes because of 00:46:00.360 --> 00:46:05.800 - the sharing of referendum referendum dollars and then that the textbook fees 00:46:05.800 --> 00:46:14.000 - have to be covered in in that in those dollars that is that is concerning our 00:46:14.000 --> 00:46:16.840 - school districts and how they're going to make ends meet and we're already 00:46:16.840 --> 00:46:22.660 - seeing sort of some of that fallout so I heard those bills feedback on those 00:46:22.660 --> 00:46:27.560 - bills the most from you and and I appreciate every single outreach that I 00:46:27.560 --> 00:46:31.880 - did receive so thank you very much thank you representor Yoder 00:46:31.880 --> 00:46:37.520 - representative Heaton yes okay well I kind of when you talk about this the 00:46:37.520 --> 00:46:43.840 - property tax issue Senate bill 1 I didn't hear a lot about it until after 00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:48.880 - March 17th when they had that big rally on st. Patrick's Day up at the State 00:46:48.880 --> 00:46:54.200 - House a lot of people wearing green t-shirts and so and then that kind of 00:46:54.200 --> 00:46:59.400 - got things worked up a little bit and then of course about six weeks ago we 00:46:59.400 --> 00:47:06.320 - got our statement from local government and saw where well my taxes there in 00:47:06.320 --> 00:47:10.080 - Vigo County has been just doing this over the last few years and my assessed 00:47:10.080 --> 00:47:16.960 - valuation for next year is up $146,000 so I'm here not only hearing about it but 00:47:16.960 --> 00:47:22.440 - I'm gonna have other people hear about it from me about that issue but but it's 00:47:22.440 --> 00:47:28.120 - kind of it's all over the place but I I think probably early on was the the 00:47:28.120 --> 00:47:34.840 - partisan school board bill that I heard and and locally in Terre Haute I met with 00:47:34.840 --> 00:47:41.000 - Marie Thies who's the ISTA teachers union rep and I like Marie and we have a 00:47:41.000 --> 00:47:48.000 - great relationship we talk over coffee about it and and another teacher there 00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:55.720 - also but and JD Prescott represent Prescott from the east side of the state 00:47:55.720 --> 00:48:02.600 - he had that bill in the house and Senator Gary Byrne I think had had it in 00:48:02.600 --> 00:48:08.480 - the Senate and they the Senate passed it and then we we looked at it and changed 00:48:08.480 --> 00:48:13.440 - it around and so forth and as that turned out I believe you know you can you 00:48:13.440 --> 00:48:17.120 - can put down if you want to and this deals with a general election you can 00:48:17.120 --> 00:48:21.720 - put down whether you're Republican Democrat independent or just leave it 00:48:21.720 --> 00:48:29.880 - blank and so I heard some loud voices on the right that says we need that we need 00:48:29.880 --> 00:48:36.360 - that and so so anyway we give we gave more options and so forth as far as that 00:48:36.360 --> 00:48:41.520 - bill goes but sometimes you know you scratch your head and think you know you 00:48:41.520 --> 00:48:46.880 - know why are we doing this but but anyway it's just the way it turned out 00:48:46.880 --> 00:48:53.200 - but it's and I can go on and on speaking of schools and it and the funding I've 00:48:53.200 --> 00:48:58.420 - got the school runs for Richland Bean Blossom School Corporation as well as 00:48:58.420 --> 00:49:03.560 - Monroe County Community School Corporation so that was you know I think 00:49:03.560 --> 00:49:08.680 - there's always concern about you know hey you know funding for our schools you 00:49:08.680 --> 00:49:13.080 - know traditional public schools as well as charter schools and and so forth but 00:49:13.080 --> 00:49:18.940 - but that's and that was something that didn't get cut and in as far as the 00:49:18.940 --> 00:49:23.040 - funding goes for the schools it's 2% first year and then the second year of 00:49:23.040 --> 00:49:28.040 - the biennium so when you think about it it was a 5% increase because 2% the 00:49:28.040 --> 00:49:34.460 - second year of that first year increase it really comes to 3% instead of 2% but 00:49:34.460 --> 00:49:41.960 - so that was something that is so you know very important but when you look at 00:49:41.960 --> 00:49:49.320 - our at the budget you know what we had to look at too was a Medicaid funding and 00:49:49.320 --> 00:49:55.220 - it has just gone up and up and up over the last few years and so we tried to 00:49:55.220 --> 00:50:00.800 - get a handle on that as well and that came through House Enrolled Act 1001 so 00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:06.760 - but there's there's a lot of things that we're looking at but as far as 00:50:06.760 --> 00:50:12.160 - Representative Pierce mentioned as far as I think it was House Enrolled Act 1007 00:50:12.160 --> 00:50:21.440 - deals with nuclear energy you know important thing also is you know you 00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:29.200 - look at health care reform and I happen to be with Chairman Bradford Barrett 00:50:29.200 --> 00:50:34.960 - yesterday for about five hours in a golf cart in Noblesville we talked to a 00:50:34.960 --> 00:50:40.360 - little bit about that but I said well Brad were you happy with the final 00:50:40.360 --> 00:50:46.960 - results he says well we really had to give and take towards the end and so he 00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:50.680 - was happy but he wasn't happy and so forth but it's but that's something that 00:50:50.680 --> 00:50:55.640 - here in Indiana we got to look at and we look at you know that gets into the 00:50:55.640 --> 00:51:00.640 - pharmacy benefit managers and so forth it's a it's a discussion in and of 00:51:00.640 --> 00:51:05.520 - itself but but that's something that we got to keep looking at and tweaking it 00:51:05.520 --> 00:51:10.200 - and see what the future holds with that so but it's very important with 00:51:10.200 --> 00:51:15.600 - businesses and those employers who are who has those group health benefits for 00:51:15.600 --> 00:51:19.880 - their employees and I think they're going to be seeing a decrease in those 00:51:19.880 --> 00:51:25.240 - premiums in the next few years to come well I appreciate that thank you very 00:51:25.240 --> 00:51:32.320 - much oh I'm sorry the challenges of property taxes he mentioned that his 00:51:32.320 --> 00:51:38.760 - assessed value went up significantly mine went down a little bit my net assessed 00:51:38.760 --> 00:51:43.840 - value still went up a little bit and my taxes went up you know I couldn't write 00:51:43.840 --> 00:51:48.200 - that check fast enough before they changed it so that is the challenge of 00:51:48.200 --> 00:51:54.400 - trying to make a statewide policy for a property tax formula because every 00:51:54.400 --> 00:52:00.520 - single unit of government it you know takes a role in that and it's so hard to 00:52:00.520 --> 00:52:06.440 - try and benefit everybody no that's that's a good good summary of kind of 00:52:06.440 --> 00:52:12.160 - the process certainly I've made a career out of property taxes so as a life 00:52:12.160 --> 00:52:15.480 - learner I'm really happy that we've completely changed the system I've got 00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:21.120 - something new to learn so let's um let's put 2025 in the rearview mirror and and 00:52:21.120 --> 00:52:27.200 - kind of let's turn to Senate bill one you all have kind of mentioned it so my 00:52:27.200 --> 00:52:33.440 - question is okay who do we think who's the winner who's the biggest winner out 00:52:33.440 --> 00:52:38.640 - of Senate bill one this this is the lightning round representative Heaton 00:52:38.640 --> 00:52:43.160 - you'll go first okay so short answer then right right because I want to make 00:52:43.160 --> 00:52:47.200 - sure that there's Q&A so there may be other people that I would I would have 00:52:47.200 --> 00:52:56.000 - to say you know the taxpayers and so bottom line but so and and it seems like 00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:02.960 - once you pass that then it seemed like the week before the our our spring and 00:53:02.960 --> 00:53:09.120 - fall statements came out and so people saw you know in case I myself I saw mine 00:53:09.120 --> 00:53:16.080 - went up this way but but we're looking at as far as the future as far as 2026 00:53:16.080 --> 00:53:23.600 - payable for the 2025 year but so it had I'd say the taxpayers great senator 00:53:23.600 --> 00:53:30.080 - Yoder well we're at a chamber event I will speak to a winner would be 1.2 00:53:30.080 --> 00:53:37.080 - billion dollars in tax relief for businesses and that I think probably is 00:53:37.080 --> 00:53:44.400 - one of you know those are some of the winners in Senate bill 1 it's anyone who 00:53:44.400 --> 00:53:49.240 - pays property tax not because it's such it was such a great fix-all bill but 00:53:49.240 --> 00:53:53.760 - because it adds a transparency so now you're more aware of how you they came 00:53:53.760 --> 00:53:59.240 - to that figure and we controlled the growth so that ninety percent of the 00:53:59.240 --> 00:54:03.960 - people will not will pay less than what they would have without that bill and 00:54:03.960 --> 00:54:11.200 - about 60% will pay less than they did I think the market itself will sort of 00:54:11.200 --> 00:54:16.160 - iron itself out over time so what it wasn't the ticker tape parade type of 00:54:16.160 --> 00:54:22.400 - bill but it did address the underlying problems so I think it's difficult to 00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:26.360 - know because the bill is pretty complicated and I've seen different runs 00:54:26.360 --> 00:54:30.440 - we had a very short period of time like three hours to try to figure out what the 00:54:30.440 --> 00:54:34.440 - bill is doing because it was basically written as a second reading amendment but 00:54:34.440 --> 00:54:38.440 - I think that for those who have the more valuable homes I think they will get the 00:54:38.440 --> 00:54:42.080 - bulk of the relief so my understanding is that ten percent up to three hundred 00:54:42.080 --> 00:54:48.720 - dollars of a cut and I've seen some data that suggests that if you're in a very 00:54:48.720 --> 00:54:51.960 - modest home like a hundred and twenty five hundred fifty thousand dollars you 00:54:51.960 --> 00:54:55.560 - may actually end up paying a little more just range and then the other kind of 00:54:55.560 --> 00:55:00.720 - group of people who got left out were renters you know my district I have lots 00:55:00.720 --> 00:55:04.480 - around I basically have the city of Bloomington nor northern two-thirds is 00:55:04.480 --> 00:55:08.280 - basically my district and a lot of renters in there and the renters are 00:55:08.280 --> 00:55:12.480 - paying that property tax through their rent as the landlord then takes the the 00:55:12.480 --> 00:55:19.080 - rental money and uses that to pay the property taxes and the House Democrats we 00:55:19.080 --> 00:55:22.760 - tried to get some relief for renters in there because they're not going to 00:55:22.760 --> 00:55:28.680 - benefit from SB 1 but they're going to continue to pay that rent and so it 00:55:28.680 --> 00:55:32.000 - would have been nice to have something right now there's a there's a deduction 00:55:32.000 --> 00:55:34.840 - that you have on your income tax if you're a renter that you can take that 00:55:34.840 --> 00:55:40.760 - really hasn't been changed significantly for a very long time so it to me it 00:55:40.760 --> 00:55:43.920 - remains to be seen how it's all going to play out I think it's interesting that 00:55:43.920 --> 00:55:46.760 - I've talked to some local government officials and they're all hiring 00:55:46.760 --> 00:55:51.040 - consultants to come in and try to explain to them what their revenue is 00:55:51.040 --> 00:55:53.880 - actually going to be so they can begin to think about their budget and that's 00:55:53.880 --> 00:55:57.720 - you know you know you got a complicated bill when the consultant class will be 00:55:57.720 --> 00:56:02.080 - working overtime to help local officials understand what exactly they're gonna 00:56:02.080 --> 00:56:07.560 - have to work with so we're just gonna have to see what happens so I'll touch 00:56:07.560 --> 00:56:11.920 - on a different angle Senate bill one like obviously had property tax relief 00:56:11.920 --> 00:56:16.720 - but then there were just accountability and your elected officials so one of the 00:56:16.720 --> 00:56:22.120 - things that it did it it decoupled your local income tax rate from your share of 00:56:22.120 --> 00:56:27.440 - the levy so now every year of county councils I saw a few members in here 00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:33.120 - they have to vote to affirm the rate that they want for the following year so 00:56:33.120 --> 00:56:36.520 - when I was on the county council in Jackson County for almost six years and 00:56:36.520 --> 00:56:43.120 - I got the benefit of the 2016 council that voted for a lit public safety tax 00:56:43.120 --> 00:56:48.480 - that I never had to vote for every year it was just automatically reinstated well 00:56:48.480 --> 00:56:52.480 - now you have to say hey we need that money this year and we're going to take 00:56:52.480 --> 00:56:57.880 - an affirmative vote to keep that rate at I think Monroe County's 2.1% so this 00:56:57.880 --> 00:57:04.200 - will kind of it'll put it silos that local income tax also so that right now 00:57:04.200 --> 00:57:08.800 - you Monroe County has a local income tax council so the Bloomington City of 00:57:08.800 --> 00:57:12.280 - Bloomington eight of the nine members of the City Council could vote to increase 00:57:12.280 --> 00:57:16.320 - the local income tax for everyone in the county and we've talked about this I 00:57:16.320 --> 00:57:21.440 - think here before they did that in 22 and they raised it like 54% well there 00:57:21.440 --> 00:57:24.160 - were people outside the City of Bloomington that were very upset and they 00:57:24.160 --> 00:57:26.880 - said hey we we don't even live in the City of Bloomington but somehow these 00:57:26.880 --> 00:57:30.520 - City Council members could raise our tax and you know it's unfair for them 00:57:30.520 --> 00:57:33.480 - because they don't have a they don't have an option to vote for or against 00:57:33.480 --> 00:57:38.960 - that that body so this eliminates that now so that the County Council will have 00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:43.320 - a vote for income tax for every county taxpayer and then the City of 00:57:43.320 --> 00:57:46.440 - Bloomington will have one that just goes on the City of Bloomington so you'll see 00:57:46.440 --> 00:57:49.960 - different rates for people depending on where they live which is honestly the 00:57:49.960 --> 00:57:53.200 - way it should be if you're living in the city and you want to pay for those you 00:57:53.200 --> 00:57:57.960 - know added services then you'll get to do that now another thing that it did 00:57:57.960 --> 00:58:06.040 - with bonds there's a one-year cooling off period now so if you had like in 00:58:06.040 --> 00:58:09.960 - Jackson County I'll use them for example again we had a before I got on the 00:58:09.960 --> 00:58:13.720 - council they had a jail and that jail bond was falling off and that when that 00:58:13.720 --> 00:58:16.880 - bond was falling off they thought hey we need to make sure we keep our rate flat 00:58:16.880 --> 00:58:19.720 - because if we ever need that money in the future we want to make sure we don't 00:58:19.720 --> 00:58:22.960 - have to come back and take a bad vote to get that you know to build that rate 00:58:22.960 --> 00:58:27.480 - back up so they would just build another building so we built a judicial center 00:58:27.480 --> 00:58:32.720 - a really nice one so I think it was like 15 or 20 million dollars and so this 00:58:32.720 --> 00:58:38.760 - this will give you more accountability so it's not just this like ride the the 00:58:38.760 --> 00:58:42.200 - votes of other people before you now you're gonna have to explain your votes 00:58:42.200 --> 00:58:46.360 - why you wanted the money why you needed the money why you needed that project so 00:58:46.360 --> 00:58:50.400 - I think that's a huge for me that was a big deal to eliminate that local income 00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:55.440 - tax counsel put that burden back on your local elected officials to say this is 00:58:55.440 --> 00:58:58.720 - we need it and here's why or we don't need it so we're gonna lower your rate 00:58:58.720 --> 00:59:05.320 - so I think that was a huge win in Senate bill one also it's under Yoder just to 00:59:05.320 --> 00:59:10.720 - sort of add a nuance the concern is for those communities who do need a new 00:59:10.720 --> 00:59:16.080 - project there has to be bonding and if that income tax is going to be revisited 00:59:16.080 --> 00:59:21.400 - every year there will be a concern we will need to look at how can communities 00:59:21.400 --> 00:59:28.040 - like ours that is looking to build a new jail how will they be able to get a bond 00:59:28.040 --> 00:59:33.200 - for a tax that is going to have to be revisited every year there isn't that 00:59:33.200 --> 00:59:38.360 - certainty there and we didn't plan for that with the the way it was written in 00:59:38.360 --> 00:59:42.760 - Senate bill 1 so I think there is going to need to be some revisiting of that 00:59:42.760 --> 00:59:48.320 - language to ensure that communities can still make these investments and that 00:59:48.320 --> 00:59:52.900 - they will be able to receive a bond for those for those new projects well the 00:59:52.900 --> 00:59:57.760 - good news is we've been fixing property taxes since 1973 so I'm confident that 00:59:57.760 --> 01:00:02.720 - there will be more fixes along the lines I want to make sure that there's time 01:00:02.720 --> 01:00:07.240 - for the audience if anybody has any questions if you don't that not not a big 01:00:07.240 --> 01:00:10.160 - deal I've got a couple more but is there anybody that would like to ask a 01:00:10.160 --> 01:00:19.200 - question of our panel members having served for over 30 years in public health 01:00:19.200 --> 01:00:24.600 - that's always my kind of take first I want to say thank you all for showing up 01:00:24.600 --> 01:00:31.040 - today and sharing with us so with the budget cuts and being in a state who 01:00:31.040 --> 01:00:36.840 - clearly has not valued public health over the years but a few years ago 01:00:36.840 --> 01:00:43.560 - decided to put some funding into that but yet it's being pulled back I think 01:00:43.560 --> 01:00:48.320 - everybody would say we don't really like taxes we don't like property taxes but 01:00:48.320 --> 01:00:55.720 - we do like services and even with changes with the mobile the statewide mobile 01:00:55.720 --> 01:01:03.560 - food that takes money away from local government so my question is what do you 01:01:03.560 --> 01:01:11.960 - say to our local officials about how they're supposed to fund services say 01:01:11.960 --> 01:01:18.680 - like public health but other services that people expect and need with fewer 01:01:18.680 --> 01:01:29.600 - resources and less funding please I think that you're gonna have local 01:01:29.600 --> 01:01:36.440 - officials look with greater detail at needs versus wants versus luxuries I 01:01:36.440 --> 01:01:41.800 - mean you're literally gonna be breaking it down and needing to justify to their 01:01:41.800 --> 01:01:46.120 - immediate constituents how they're going to accomplish that it will be challenging 01:01:46.120 --> 01:01:51.460 - on the public health I prefer to think of that because I know we cut it back 01:01:51.460 --> 01:01:58.160 - significantly that isn't I don't believe that is because we don't like public 01:01:58.160 --> 01:02:02.640 - health funding I think that was a combination of we put all this money out 01:02:02.640 --> 01:02:08.920 - there counties are still ramping up their programs to get where they can 01:02:08.920 --> 01:02:14.000 - utilize that and at this point and under these financial circumstances we went 01:02:14.000 --> 01:02:20.320 - with the figure that was spent you you had you know the statewide the counties 01:02:20.320 --> 01:02:25.960 - had spent X amount of dollars and there were there were monies that were yet to 01:02:25.960 --> 01:02:30.200 - be committed because they were still in the thought process granted they will 01:02:30.200 --> 01:02:36.320 - probably be I would hope reinstated in the future just not right now so you've 01:02:36.320 --> 01:02:43.120 - got to work with what you created over the last two years and then as the 01:02:43.120 --> 01:02:46.680 - economy changes we'll have to see where that goes and hopefully we will be 01:02:46.680 --> 01:02:50.720 - reinstating those funds so I don't want to say we've cut that health first 01:02:50.720 --> 01:02:54.760 - program because I don't believe we have and I don't think that's our intent we 01:02:54.760 --> 01:02:58.400 - just had to work within the framework the biggest surprise I know is one of 01:02:58.400 --> 01:03:02.640 - the things is when we got down to the very end of the budget cycle when we 01:03:02.640 --> 01:03:07.320 - knew that it was going to be a tight budget year or tight budget cycle and it 01:03:07.320 --> 01:03:13.840 - was even worse than we anticipated so we had to make those adjustments and 01:03:13.840 --> 01:03:18.880 - hopefully in the next budget cycle we'll be able to you know start adjusting 01:03:18.880 --> 01:03:26.400 - those in the upward numbers great thank you any anybody else representative 01:03:26.400 --> 01:03:31.440 - Hall yeah so I I think you know in 2023 we we appropriate I think it was 225 01:03:31.440 --> 01:03:34.960 - million I could be off on that number for that health first Indiana fund and I 01:03:34.960 --> 01:03:38.640 - voted for that because I knew that there was I think it was like it was either a 01:03:38.640 --> 01:03:42.880 - dollar turns into $7 and benefit or like $14 I could be off on that but it was 01:03:42.880 --> 01:03:47.560 - substantial and we were we had a lot of room to improve so we would probably see 01:03:47.560 --> 01:03:52.480 - the the higher end of that range and you know just like I think part of your 01:03:52.480 --> 01:03:55.120 - question was how do these local governments deal with the reduced 01:03:55.120 --> 01:04:01.240 - funding same way we did you know we had a we had a budget that from the 01:04:01.240 --> 01:04:04.480 - December forecast that looked like we were going to be able to do a lot of the 01:04:04.480 --> 01:04:08.880 - things that we really wanted to do and when you see a revenue forecast in April 01:04:08.880 --> 01:04:12.800 - that shows two billion less than what you had in December you have to make 01:04:12.800 --> 01:04:17.680 - those decisions like what do we really need and what are the wants and you know 01:04:17.680 --> 01:04:24.720 - funding schools funding public safety I mean we did 80 million dollars in the 01:04:24.720 --> 01:04:30.440 - health first Indiana fund which is a reduction you know from 20 25 or 23 01:04:30.440 --> 01:04:36.320 - numbers but that was new money in 2023 so it's still I mean it's not a like that 01:04:36.320 --> 01:04:39.000 - wasn't there for 30 years then all of a sudden it's just gone so it's there's 01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:43.160 - still an investment there it's just not as substantial as what we would have done 01:04:43.160 --> 01:04:47.560 - had we had that that budget forecast that we were hoping for but I still think 01:04:47.560 --> 01:04:52.240 - there's opportunity you know that the economy I think we were at like a when 01:04:52.240 --> 01:04:55.400 - we got the first budget or first forecast I think it was like a in 01:04:55.400 --> 01:05:00.720 - December was like a 15% chance of recession and and in 20 or in April it 01:05:00.720 --> 01:05:06.440 - was like a 60% chance of recession and I not like looking at my own retirement 01:05:06.440 --> 01:05:10.840 - account it seems like things are moving in the right direction again now and so 01:05:10.840 --> 01:05:16.480 - I'm hoping that we see some some daylight I guess in the future here and 01:05:16.480 --> 01:05:19.640 - we can come back and revisit that because I think that is important and 01:05:19.640 --> 01:05:23.480 - there you know there's obviously there's things we can improve but public health 01:05:23.480 --> 01:05:27.440 - is definitely one that's still I mean I think a really important thing for our 01:05:27.440 --> 01:05:32.560 - state house and caucus both but it's under thank you represent a pulse under 01:05:32.560 --> 01:05:40.060 - yoder so just to put a number on it the new biennium budget has a 60% decrease 01:05:40.060 --> 01:05:45.400 - in public health funding we're not talking just shaving 60% cut in funding 01:05:45.400 --> 01:05:53.400 - and we had not invested in public health any increase for 20 years so we gave 01:05:53.400 --> 01:06:05.400 - our public health departments one year to ramp up and to fix this gap and a 01:06:05.400 --> 01:06:14.640 - department our local health departments that had learned how to just get by 01:06:14.640 --> 01:06:21.720 - learned how to be conservative learned how to do more with less then we may 01:06:21.720 --> 01:06:26.080 - make this big plea to them saying we have not made this investment and for the 01:06:26.080 --> 01:06:32.000 - first time Hoosiers life expectancy has dropped so we are going to make this 01:06:32.000 --> 01:06:37.360 - investment finally in public health and in one year one year later we're going 01:06:37.360 --> 01:06:43.320 - to take that away because based on that we didn't see them spending enough in 01:06:43.320 --> 01:06:49.840 - that first year that's just unreasonable I would say I would say thank you to our 01:06:49.840 --> 01:06:56.200 - local public health departments for not just irresponsibly spending all the 01:06:56.200 --> 01:06:59.600 - money they were given that they were trying to roll this out in a 01:06:59.600 --> 01:07:07.120 - responsible way and it does seem that this the forecast of the two point four 01:07:07.120 --> 01:07:12.520 - billion dollar shortfall much of that we asked again our public health 01:07:12.520 --> 01:07:18.360 - departments to really take the brunt of that hit so I just I you know this 01:07:18.360 --> 01:07:25.800 - wasn't just asking our public health departments to do you know to step up 01:07:25.800 --> 01:07:29.580 - and do more with less we had already been asking them to do that and then we 01:07:29.580 --> 01:07:33.760 - finally made the investment and in a year later sort of pulling that rug out 01:07:33.760 --> 01:07:39.000 - and saying oops sorry we're gonna have to now ask you to go back and make those 01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:44.280 - adjustments so I appreciate that question and wanted to put sort of some 01:07:44.280 --> 01:07:50.400 - numbers thank you representative he yeah thank you please for that question and 01:07:50.400 --> 01:07:58.400 - towards that those last day or so when we're negotiating the budget to know one 01:07:58.400 --> 01:08:07.760 - we did put in a two dollar cigarette tax increase okay and to my premium cigar 01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:13.640 - smokers they didn't like the three dollar cigar tax increase but but that 01:08:13.640 --> 01:08:18.680 - was something our caucus we talked about for several months and it was almost 01:08:18.680 --> 01:08:25.880 - like that last hour okay we got to do it and we did and and so there's I think I 01:08:25.880 --> 01:08:33.680 - I read Senator Bray mentioned like you know there is a fine line there as far 01:08:33.680 --> 01:08:38.440 - as you know if you if you raise it high enough then maybe that 16 year old 17 01:08:38.440 --> 01:08:44.760 - year old may say hey heck with the angle smoke cigarettes and on the other hand 01:08:44.760 --> 01:08:50.400 - the older generation they may say well hey I'm I love these things I'm gonna 01:08:50.400 --> 01:08:54.240 - continue to smoke but but you know we did that and I don't know how many 01:08:54.240 --> 01:08:59.320 - hundreds of millions that we're gonna that's gonna help but as far as that 01:08:59.320 --> 01:09:02.920 - would go to Medicaid and so forth but but that's something to the last hour 01:09:02.920 --> 01:09:07.520 - the last minute we put that in there in the budget so well I appreciate the 01:09:07.520 --> 01:09:11.380 - question appreciate the panel's candor I think one of the things that one of the 01:09:11.380 --> 01:09:16.320 - takeaways that I hear is it's it's an important issue and the General 01:09:16.320 --> 01:09:20.080 - Assembly will continue to revisit it which I think is very positive so I 01:09:20.080 --> 01:09:25.400 - understand not the the right outcome that we all were hoping for but it's not 01:09:25.400 --> 01:09:30.440 - something that at least you all have indicated you don't see value and in 01:09:30.440 --> 01:09:35.140 - continuing to be supportive of so appreciate that anybody else from yes 01:09:35.140 --> 01:09:44.480 - sir get some clarity on public education so we and the record shortfall that 01:09:44.480 --> 01:09:51.120 - you'll mention with the forecast so expansion of school choice as it's 01:09:51.120 --> 01:09:56.000 - called by some will be a four hundred million dollar in the second by in the 01:09:56.000 --> 01:10:00.960 - second year the biennium that's the number I've seen that expanding vouchers 01:10:00.960 --> 01:10:05.200 - will cost four hundred million dollars in the second year representative you 01:10:05.200 --> 01:10:09.160 - said you have the school runs with you for traditional public schools and you're 01:10:09.160 --> 01:10:14.120 - saying you're getting a 2% increase is that is that what you said yes so so 01:10:14.120 --> 01:10:18.400 - traditional public schools are getting a 2% increase each year to buy anything 01:10:18.400 --> 01:10:25.400 - that also includes textbooks so help us square then the sort of articles we're 01:10:25.400 --> 01:10:29.000 - seeing where Monroe County schools are projected to lose 18 million dollars 01:10:29.000 --> 01:10:33.440 - Brown County schools I think were one to two million dollars I don't know what our 01:10:33.440 --> 01:10:39.500 - BB is I'm just having trouble kind of squaring up numbers here and take us 01:10:39.500 --> 01:10:45.280 - through that choice of a four hundred million dollar increase for vouchers 01:10:45.280 --> 01:10:50.360 - when we see a two point four million dollar shortfall projected to forecast 01:10:50.360 --> 01:10:57.040 - that's a pretty big decision when we're looking at education it's there's a lot 01:10:57.040 --> 01:11:01.760 - of discussion between K through 12 education but not bifurcating it talking 01:11:01.760 --> 01:11:06.400 - about traditional public schools versus charters and vouchers so I'm trying to get your message on 01:11:06.400 --> 01:11:12.480 - that because it's something we talked about a lot here in Monroe County and trying to be a little 01:11:12.480 --> 01:11:16.380 - more informed so thanks well I'll 01:11:16.380 --> 01:11:24.000 - start the debate yeah so the funny form of the thing that we've talked about 01:11:24.000 --> 01:11:30.000 - is these curricular materials which used to call textbooks is now instead of 01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:33.840 - being a separate line item appropriation is now within the funding formula so when 01:11:33.840 --> 01:11:38.460 - you say you're getting 2% this year 2% next year that includes money that 01:11:38.460 --> 01:11:42.200 - normally would not have been in the formula so if you were to back out that 01:11:42.200 --> 01:11:47.000 - textbook money and make it a separate line item again that 2% would go down so 01:11:47.000 --> 01:11:51.240 - you have to so understanding the runs and their practical effect is can be a 01:11:51.240 --> 01:11:56.280 - little bit challenging sometimes so in a time when the state was challenged with 01:11:56.280 --> 01:12:03.060 - revenues and wanting to do well for public schools that this it's a little 01:12:03.060 --> 01:12:07.320 - bit perplexing to me that the decision was made to go ahead and essentially 01:12:07.320 --> 01:12:12.840 - make the vouchers universal by including that last percentage of the wealthiest 01:12:12.840 --> 01:12:18.960 - families in the state because as a policymaker that money buys us 01:12:18.960 --> 01:12:25.800 - absolutely zero nothing there is no benefit to that expenditure because the 01:12:25.800 --> 01:12:30.000 - wealthiest people can already afford to send their kids to private school they've 01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:34.520 - made that decision they can afford it they're doing it the only change will be 01:12:34.520 --> 01:12:39.040 - they will now be subsidized they will receive I guess seven thousand dollars 01:12:39.040 --> 01:12:44.320 - or some some amount off of their tuition which by the way you know if your 01:12:44.320 --> 01:12:49.320 - private school tuition is say 14,000 a year it's nice to get seven but if you're 01:12:49.320 --> 01:12:53.200 - a lower-income family that seven is not going to get you to whatever their 01:12:53.200 --> 01:12:58.760 - prevailing private school tuition is so so at a time when you have to make 01:12:58.760 --> 01:13:03.480 - difficult decisions about your budget and where your resources are going to go 01:13:03.480 --> 01:13:08.720 - to me it was not a good decision to divert a significant amount of money to 01:13:08.720 --> 01:13:12.960 - the wealthiest families who I think could probably get by okay without that 01:13:12.960 --> 01:13:18.280 - subsidy and that would have freed up some other millions of dollars for us to help 01:13:18.280 --> 01:13:25.080 - traditional public schools so I think that's where the debate is anybody else 01:13:25.080 --> 01:13:29.880 - like to respond well other than disagreeing with parts of representative 01:13:29.880 --> 01:13:36.160 - period I I ran I got data on Monroe County because it was brought up your 01:13:36.160 --> 01:13:43.080 - student count is way down wait you've lost 600 kids in the last decade so I 01:13:43.080 --> 01:13:47.240 - don't know the causes for that I'm not saying that you know it's it's anything I 01:13:47.240 --> 01:13:52.960 - think that somebody needs to flesh out some of these underlying numbers because 01:13:52.960 --> 01:13:59.800 - you're you're you're down you were at ten thousand six hundred and fifty nine or 01:13:59.800 --> 01:14:07.360 - sixty nine and now you're down to ten thousand sixty nine a decade later that's a lot of money in 01:14:07.360 --> 01:14:15.560 - addition to but but your funding has continued to increase so I'm not your you 01:14:15.560 --> 01:14:21.040 - know you're you're you're CFO for that school system but I think that a very 01:14:21.040 --> 01:14:25.360 - critical set of eyes needs to be put on these budgets because you also have 01:14:25.360 --> 01:14:30.680 - referendums for teacher pay now if you have to pass a referendum every seven 01:14:30.680 --> 01:14:37.960 - years to keep your your payroll going that's not sustainable in my eyes so I 01:14:37.960 --> 01:14:44.440 - don't have a direct question I mean direct answer to your question but I'm 01:14:44.440 --> 01:14:49.360 - not so sure that the the school choice program has much to do with it the 01:14:49.360 --> 01:14:53.040 - school choice program you know the families who received that get less than 01:14:53.040 --> 01:14:57.080 - what they would have gotten if they'd gone to public school they're going to 01:14:57.080 --> 01:15:00.280 - get money to go to school and that is the whole basis is the money follows a 01:15:00.280 --> 01:15:03.360 - child you get more if you go to public school you get less if you go to a 01:15:03.360 --> 01:15:10.320 - private school as far as the the lower income can't afford to go to private 01:15:10.320 --> 01:15:15.000 - school anyway they have so many programs I've yet to find a family who could not 01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:18.840 - go to a private school based on the program at that school offers to offset 01:15:18.840 --> 01:15:23.620 - those costs I've never seen a child refused because they couldn't pay that 01:15:23.620 --> 01:15:27.480 - has not come to my attention because they find a way these organizations find 01:15:27.480 --> 01:15:32.160 - a way for these kids to attend the school of their choice but this is a 01:15:32.160 --> 01:15:38.640 - little concerning when you see that precipitous drop of ADM even as the 01:15:38.640 --> 01:15:45.120 - funding continues to go up I don't have an answer for you I just Monroe County 01:15:45.120 --> 01:15:50.520 - seems to be in a worse situation than almost every other school system that 01:15:50.520 --> 01:15:56.240 - I've looked at thank you representative Hall so I've got more to say but just 01:15:56.240 --> 01:16:03.520 - add on to Rhett Mayfield Monroe County schools in 2020 were collecting 42 01:16:03.520 --> 01:16:09.360 - million dollars from property taxes and after two referendums in 2025 they're 01:16:09.360 --> 01:16:15.040 - collecting over 70 million dollars with the same reduction in kids so I've talked 01:16:15.040 --> 01:16:17.760 - to folks at the State House this year and they were there you know talking 01:16:17.760 --> 01:16:20.680 - about Senate Bill 1 and the effects it would have on the school and I pointed 01:16:20.680 --> 01:16:24.720 - that out that they are collecting you know I think it was like 67 percent 68 01:16:24.720 --> 01:16:30.120 - percent more than they were in 2020 and that you know before I got to the State 01:16:30.120 --> 01:16:35.860 - House the General Assembly had made a decision to fund students and not just 01:16:35.860 --> 01:16:40.480 - systems and when you hear the stories you know there's there's no public 01:16:40.480 --> 01:16:44.960 - charter school in Brown County and you know there's my my kids go to the 01:16:44.960 --> 01:16:49.280 - same traditional public school that I went to and it's a fantastic choice for 01:16:49.280 --> 01:16:51.800 - our family and I love it and I'm thankful that I have a good school to 01:16:51.800 --> 01:16:55.400 - send them to not every family has a great traditional public school to send 01:16:55.400 --> 01:16:58.680 - their kids to so when you hear the stories from them and you you know you 01:16:58.680 --> 01:17:03.120 - hear that hey this was not a good fit for my child they love the fact that they 01:17:03.120 --> 01:17:09.000 - have a choice as a family and as that student to find a school that best suits 01:17:09.000 --> 01:17:13.200 - them rather than just be locked into this school because of what their zip 01:17:13.200 --> 01:17:17.160 - code is or because of what their income is now they have a choice to go 01:17:17.160 --> 01:17:20.920 - somewhere else and you know that individual student you know it's I think 01:17:20.920 --> 01:17:25.440 - it's important to like see these kids that if they're if they're in a school 01:17:25.440 --> 01:17:30.960 - system that they're failing in that they have an option to go somewhere where 01:17:30.960 --> 01:17:34.480 - they can succeed and I I just I mean I think there's value in that and 01:17:34.480 --> 01:17:38.400 - obviously there's this struggle over you know who gets the most money or who gets 01:17:38.400 --> 01:17:42.600 - the biggest increase and I'm looking at these stories from people whose kids 01:17:42.600 --> 01:17:46.280 - are doing better because we have these options for them so that that's important 01:17:46.280 --> 01:17:53.800 - to me I want to just sort of champion MCCFC for it I don't want to end on a 01:17:53.800 --> 01:18:01.040 - note of disparaging MCCFC this local community our community made the 01:18:01.040 --> 01:18:05.280 - decision based on the argument that they made to pass the referendum those were 01:18:05.280 --> 01:18:13.280 - decisions made by voters knowing what was at stake and for for state 01:18:13.280 --> 01:18:20.920 - legislators to say hmm no that's too much that is an overreach voters here 01:18:20.920 --> 01:18:28.600 - voted on that we know that the state's cap before this year was paying for 01:18:28.600 --> 01:18:35.640 - teacher pay was $40,000 a year and this community decided we're go or MCCFC 01:18:35.640 --> 01:18:42.040 - voters decided we want to attract and keep the best and we're going to pass a 01:18:42.040 --> 01:18:51.440 - referendum to support higher pay for our teachers and that's what happened and it 01:18:51.440 --> 01:18:59.880 - was a source I will say pride when we came this year to address teacher pay 01:18:59.880 --> 01:19:07.460 - and in Monroe County the average for Monroe County those individual they 01:19:07.460 --> 01:19:12.440 - showed us how many teachers would be impacted if we moved salaries for 01:19:12.440 --> 01:19:17.360 - teachers from $40,000 a year to $45,000 year well that was the bill that we were 01:19:17.360 --> 01:19:22.240 - looking at this year and actually we did increase it to $45,000 a year but they 01:19:22.240 --> 01:19:27.960 - let us see by County how many teachers that was going to impact to be able to 01:19:27.960 --> 01:19:36.400 - say this is going to be a good thing one one teacher in our County made less than 01:19:36.400 --> 01:19:43.720 - $45,000 a year because they made more because our voters said we want our 01:19:43.720 --> 01:19:48.680 - teachers making more we want to make an investment and that was a source of 01:19:48.680 --> 01:19:53.020 - source of pride because we had some there 800 teachers and 500 teachers but 01:19:53.020 --> 01:19:56.600 - this community said no we're going to teach our treat our teachers better I 01:19:56.600 --> 01:20:00.920 - want to say thank you thank you for making that that decision because it is 01:20:00.920 --> 01:20:07.740 - an investment that's worth it so to our RBB administration teachers and staff 01:20:07.740 --> 01:20:13.520 - thank you to our MCC SC administration teachers and staff thank you thank you 01:20:13.520 --> 01:20:19.320 - for working so hard every day thank you appreciate that representative yeah hey 01:20:19.320 --> 01:20:23.880 - friend I'll share these numbers with you afterwards and I appreciate that one 01:20:23.880 --> 01:20:29.240 - thing I want to say as far as they're in Terre Haute and Beagle County we've seen 01:20:29.240 --> 01:20:36.320 - a decrease in the student count over the last several years and and Clay County 01:20:36.320 --> 01:20:43.320 - just over to the east of there they've had a slight increase and I know several 01:20:43.320 --> 01:20:50.040 - families are sending their kids over to Northview North Clay my my grandkids 01:20:50.040 --> 01:20:53.160 - they're all in traditional public schools now but you know Alice and my 01:20:53.160 --> 01:20:58.640 - daughter she she went to home school Daniel and Elise and Seth but the other 01:20:58.640 --> 01:21:02.800 - two they went right into Staunton Elementary and so it was but it was 01:21:02.800 --> 01:21:08.360 - their their choice to do and they're they're getting fabulous you know when 01:21:08.360 --> 01:21:13.120 - it comes to education and and just all the other activities and you know track 01:21:13.120 --> 01:21:18.800 - and sports and so forth that type of thing but but it's and then getting into 01:21:18.800 --> 01:21:23.200 - the property taxes to a little bit change the subject here but you know 01:21:23.200 --> 01:21:27.200 - Beagle County your taxes are going up but you come over to Clay County they're 01:21:27.200 --> 01:21:33.720 - low very low and and type therapist people gonna vote with their feet and 01:21:33.720 --> 01:21:38.720 - they're they're moving out of the county and going over to Clay County so anyway 01:21:38.720 --> 01:21:43.840 - but it's a you know like we've said earlier the money follows a child and and 01:21:43.840 --> 01:21:49.000 - it does and so we'll see how it goes this upcoming year and a half two years 01:21:49.000 --> 01:21:54.320 - great thank you thank you to the audio okay what work we're wrapping we're six 01:21:54.320 --> 01:21:57.560 - minutes away from deadline so 01:21:57.560 --> 01:22:02.760 - as a retired teacher I'm always glad to hear the system is being addressed and 01:22:02.760 --> 01:22:09.080 - particularly the salaries I doubt that much is being done at the non teacher 01:22:09.080 --> 01:22:14.720 - level that could be made more streamlined and more productive what I was 01:22:14.720 --> 01:22:19.260 - questioning his painting was she was talking about Monroe County when and the 01:22:19.260 --> 01:22:25.680 - 10,000 students is that Monroe County community schools or is that Monroe 01:22:25.680 --> 01:22:30.360 - County schools overall that's Monroe County school district okay so we're not 01:22:30.360 --> 01:22:37.000 - addressing our private schools nor the RVB system correct okay thank you Jen you 01:22:37.000 --> 01:22:41.400 - thank you so much first of all thank you for everything that you've done this is 01:22:41.400 --> 01:22:45.760 - not an easy session I think one of the messages that I'm hearing is there's 01:22:45.760 --> 01:22:49.640 - things that need to be adjusted moving forward sometimes the news coming out 01:22:49.640 --> 01:22:53.920 - from the state makes it feel like well the locals will have to figure it out 01:22:53.920 --> 01:22:58.140 - you'll have to do more with less but knowing each one of you I know that you 01:22:58.140 --> 01:23:03.320 - all are very accessible and always willing to partner and help so as we are 01:23:03.320 --> 01:23:09.440 - trying to figure out a way forward in some challenging transitional times how 01:23:09.440 --> 01:23:14.280 - would you like us to do it and specifically are there certain timelines 01:23:14.280 --> 01:23:18.840 - this summer as you're in you know summer committees how would you like 01:23:18.840 --> 01:23:22.680 - information from us how can we best partner with you to figure out the best 01:23:22.680 --> 01:23:30.960 - ways forward I think you're not likely to see much focus from the legislature on 01:23:30.960 --> 01:23:34.920 - fixing things until we get through the local government budget cycle so I think 01:23:34.920 --> 01:23:39.000 - by the end of this fall we'll kind of see where things are settling out and 01:23:39.000 --> 01:23:43.960 - then the legislature is going to make some assessment about whether or not 01:23:43.960 --> 01:23:48.160 - local units have the resources they need and it worked out or whether somebody 01:23:48.160 --> 01:23:52.560 - needs a correction so I think that's the practical thing is just seeing how 01:23:52.560 --> 01:23:57.680 - the actual numbers play out over this next local government budgeting cycle so 01:23:57.680 --> 01:24:01.400 - when we get into that fall when those final votes are taken you know what are 01:24:01.400 --> 01:24:04.520 - the tax burdens look like what are the resources look like I think that's going 01:24:04.520 --> 01:24:07.920 - to be the the main thing and I would just say overall whether it's the state 01:24:07.920 --> 01:24:13.280 - budget or the local budget there's kind of two competing narratives or kind of 01:24:13.280 --> 01:24:17.120 - approaches to this thing right so the governor likes to essentially say you 01:24:17.120 --> 01:24:20.920 - know he's a business guy he can cut five percent you know with blindfold his 01:24:20.920 --> 01:24:24.960 - hands tied behind his back that's easy stuff to do and so you'd say okay well 01:24:24.960 --> 01:24:28.880 - that makes sense and now we're gonna have a five percent more efficient state 01:24:28.880 --> 01:24:32.000 - government they will do the same things they've always done they'll just do it 01:24:32.000 --> 01:24:36.280 - more efficiently because someone's like being more of a disciplinarian for them 01:24:36.280 --> 01:24:39.400 - and that's great if that can happen but I think that actually what's probably 01:24:39.400 --> 01:24:44.320 - happening is five percent less will get done and maybe people won't miss that 01:24:44.320 --> 01:24:47.480 - five percent maybe it won't be a big deal but for other people it might be 01:24:47.480 --> 01:24:51.720 - important and I think that's the same kind of discussion or the prism through 01:24:51.720 --> 01:24:56.880 - which people works will local units of government find a way to be even more 01:24:56.880 --> 01:25:02.240 - frugal more efficient deliver those same services with less revenue which would 01:25:02.240 --> 01:25:06.840 - be a good thing for taxpayers or will just less get done and I think that's 01:25:06.840 --> 01:25:10.280 - what the legislature is gonna have to make an assessment about you know 01:25:10.280 --> 01:25:15.400 - through the local budgeting cycle and into the next session I also think that 01:25:15.400 --> 01:25:18.880 - there's a lot of one-offs that will need to be addressed so I'm going to use 01:25:18.880 --> 01:25:23.760 - Morgan County I have almost the entire county and I hate getting into the weeds 01:25:23.760 --> 01:25:28.800 - but on property taxes you know you have property tax replacement credits PTRC 01:25:28.800 --> 01:25:33.880 - counties and you had some counties that were levy freeze this goes back a long 01:25:33.880 --> 01:25:38.040 - time and as we're moving through my county calls me and they said this is 01:25:38.040 --> 01:25:41.640 - going to affect us by this much I'm like no it's not you you just have to do this 01:25:41.640 --> 01:25:47.640 - and this well there are about a dozen there are I don't know 20 some that 01:25:47.640 --> 01:25:54.200 - counties that use PTRC there are maybe a dozen that use levy freeze my county is 01:25:54.200 --> 01:25:59.460 - one of like four that use both and I was not aware of that so then they do have 01:25:59.460 --> 01:26:04.920 - further limitations and I we couldn't fix it before the end but I do have the 01:26:04.920 --> 01:26:08.360 - commitment from the chair of ways and means we need to find a way to fix that 01:26:08.360 --> 01:26:15.240 - because that has a an incredible in impact on how the new formula will affect 01:26:15.240 --> 01:26:19.040 - this particular county and I think we're going to find that as these budget 01:26:19.040 --> 01:26:25.400 - sessions for local governments come around where we need to make tweaks now 01:26:25.400 --> 01:26:29.600 - luckily because it's not an appropriation it can be done in an on 01:26:29.600 --> 01:26:34.000 - budget session I think that we are actually going to be looking at some of 01:26:34.000 --> 01:26:40.320 - these as early as August in trying to approach the the fixes for that and 01:26:40.320 --> 01:26:45.280 - you're on both sides of it you have local government funding and you have 01:26:45.280 --> 01:26:49.080 - your business members who are very concerned and you know business personal 01:26:49.080 --> 01:26:55.000 - property tax is on both sides of that that two million dollar threshold sounds 01:26:55.000 --> 01:27:01.160 - like a lot but most of the big manufacturing you know industries 01:27:01.160 --> 01:27:05.400 - they're way beyond that so that two million catches all the little guys who 01:27:05.400 --> 01:27:09.560 - have to pay their accountant you know $400 to figure out that they don't owe 01:27:09.560 --> 01:27:14.360 - anything that's that's what's going to get caught or wrapped up into that under 01:27:14.360 --> 01:27:17.360 - the two million dollar threshold of business personal property tax so that 01:27:17.360 --> 01:27:24.000 - was that will help small businesses great anybody else well I just want to 01:27:24.000 --> 01:27:28.400 - express my appreciation to the panel members for coming today and sharing 01:27:28.400 --> 01:27:31.280 - your thought oh I'm sorry representative he didn't know I was just going to make 01:27:31.280 --> 01:27:36.200 - one comment about my good friend down here on the far right talked about gray 01:27:36.200 --> 01:27:40.960 - hair and gray facial hair he can just shave that beard off and he looked much 01:27:40.960 --> 01:27:45.160 - younger so he don't have we don't have to you know there you go always a good 01:27:45.160 --> 01:27:56.120 - suggestion well let's give a round of applause to our panelists thank you thank 01:27:56.120 --> 01:27:59.640 - you very much I think one thing that I've taken away it well there are two 01:27:59.640 --> 01:28:03.480 - things one we're going to continue to mess around with property taxes which is 01:28:03.480 --> 01:28:10.080 - great for me second thing is you you'll will need the short session because 01:28:10.080 --> 01:28:15.600 - obviously we've got more work to do in the state of Indiana but I I want to 01:28:15.600 --> 01:28:20.520 - express my appreciation to all of you for your public service it's time away 01:28:20.520 --> 01:28:27.440 - from your families your business and your communities and it's not easy you've 01:28:27.440 --> 01:28:30.640 - got to respond to constituents you got to respond to people who are not your 01:28:30.640 --> 01:28:35.960 - constituents and all of you are are exemplary public services service 01:28:35.960 --> 01:28:40.720 - members so I greatly appreciate it I'd also like to express my appreciation to 01:28:40.720 --> 01:28:44.320 - the Ellisville chamber for allowing me the opportunity to moderate it's been 01:28:44.320 --> 01:28:47.640 - wonderful and without further ado I'm going to turn it over to you thank you 01:28:47.640 --> 01:28:57.240 - have a great Tuesday I want to express our gratitude to our amazing panelists 01:28:57.240 --> 01:29:00.920 - we don't take it lightly that you're here we really appreciate you taking your 01:29:00.920 --> 01:29:05.920 - time to be with us today I also want to thank our moderator for being for 01:29:05.920 --> 01:29:13.640 - moderating today Gretchen just you did a wonderful job thank you so much special 01:29:13.640 --> 01:29:18.640 - thanks to our presenting sponsor Bloomington Board of Realtors for their 01:29:18.640 --> 01:29:23.480 - generous support and we want to thank our gold sponsors Monroe County Farm Bureau 01:29:23.480 --> 01:29:29.040 - and Indiana University office of the vice president of university relations 01:29:29.040 --> 01:29:33.000 - for making this event possible we appreciate all of you being here today 01:29:33.000 --> 01:29:38.800 - and taking your time and also remember to check out our website and look at 01:29:38.800 --> 01:29:43.840 - those events that I mentioned earlier thank you so much for being here today 01:30:13.840 --> 01:30:16.760 - (orchestral music) 01:30:16.760 --> 01:30:19.680 - 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