- I want to welcome everyone to our legislative wrap-up panel this is part
- of our get to know your government our get to know your government and
- community leaders series and also I want to remind our legislators that if your
- microphone starts sounds like it's crackling just move a little farther back
- from it and we should be fine with that we want to have give a big thank you to
- Ellisville Town Hall for allowing us to use this wonderful space we're grateful
- to our presenting sponsors our presenting sponsor Bloomington Board of
- Realtors for their support and in just a moment I'll invite Alex Everett to
- introduce our moderator and our panelists we also want to recognize our
- gold sponsors of today's event Indiana University office of the vice president
- for University Relations and Monroe County Farm Bureau incorporated we truly
- appreciate your support we also want to thank our premium partners these are
- members who support the chamber at the highest level and you'll see their logos
- on our slideshow please mark your calendars for our ribbon cutting next
- Wednesday at easy clean laundry that's on July 11th at 11 a.m. on June 20th we
- have our power your business luncheon featuring crane and that is sponsored by
- First Financial Bank on July 23rd the town of Ellisville will have a ribbon
- cutting and grand opening at the new Department of Public Works building
- that's right over here our picnic in the park is sponsored by the niece agency
- and Dan Ray real estate and that will be on Friday July 11th you can find out
- more information about all of these events on our website and now I am
- pleased to welcome Alex Everett from Bloomington Board of Realtors to the
- podium good morning thank you the moderator for this event is going to be
- Gretchen Gutman a veteran in legislative and government policy is the vice
- president of the public policy for cook group incorporated before joining cook
- Gretchen served as the AVP of government relations at Ball State University she
- was also a partner at the law firm of TAF the tennis and Hollister LLP in
- Indianapolis please forgive me if I do not pronounce names correctly Gretchen
- also spent eight years as the chief fiscal adviser to the Senate Finance
- Committee of the Indiana General Assembly during her time on staff she
- worked on a number of public policy issues most notably property tax reform
- charter school legislation pension reform gaming legislation and the state's
- biannual budget and school funding formula Gretchen received a bachelor's
- degree in history an MPA from Indiana University and a law degree from the
- Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis round of
- applause the first panelist I'd like to introduce is representative Peggy
- Mayfield sir is she here good timing serves Indiana House district 60 which
- covers portions of Johnson Morgan and Monroe counties representative Mayfield
- was first elected to district 60 in 2012 she is vice chair of the House public
- policy committee and serves on the House Insurance Committee and the House Ways
- and Means Committee round of applause for Peggy representative Matt Pierce
- serves Indiana House district 61 which covers parts of county representative
- Pierce has held the district 61 seat since 2002 he is assistant Democratic
- floor leader and is the ranking minority member of the Indiana House utilities
- energy and telecommunications committee he also serves on the following
- committees courts and criminal code elections appointment rules and
- legislative procedures and the statutory committee of ethics round of applause
- representative Dave Hall serves Indiana House district 62 which includes all of
- Brown County and portions of Monroe and Jackson counties representative Hall was
- first elected to the Indiana House district 62 seat in 2022 representative
- Hall serves as assistant majority whip vice chair of the utilities energy and
- telecommunications committee and as a member of the local government committee
- and natural resources committee
- senator Shelley Yoder represents district 40 which includes the majority of Monroe
- County she serves as the Senate minority leader ranking minority member of the
- environmental affairs committee and minority member on the following
- committees appropriations education and career development health and provider
- services joint rules rules and legislative procedure and the school
- funding subcommittee and last but not least representative Bob Heaton
- represents district 46 first elected to house in 2010 representative Heaton
- serves as majority whip and on the ways and means committee higher education
- subcommittee chair and financial institutions committee representative
- Heaton represents all of Owen County and portions of clay Monroe and Vigo
- counties
- good morning everyone it's great to be with you good morning to our
- distinguished panels it's wonderful to be with you all since everyone got up
- early this morning and is here to listen to legislative a legislative wrap-up I
- thought it would be fun to start our morning out with some fun facts because
- who doesn't love fun facts on a Tuesday so as you all know this session was our
- long session which means that the General Assembly met from January to the end of
- April so I thought I would share with you some of the statistics around the
- number of bills that were introduced in the end product so the number of
- introduced bills that the General Assembly dealt with in introduction this
- year from the Senate was 483 bills the house introduced 683 for a total of
- one thousand one hundred and sixty six bills bills that got out of committee in
- the first house that in the House of Representatives was 296 in the Senate
- was 271 so at in the in the dealing with second reading amendments they were
- dealing with between the two chambers 567 bills out of the second chamber the
- house passed out 231 the Senate 160 160 for a total of 391 you see the funnel
- so the as you can see the committees really are the workhorse of the General
- Assembly that's where all of the work gets done bills that actually crossed
- the finish line out of the total number of 1166 was 243 bills so basically the
- 80/20 principle does apply to the General Assembly so lots to talk about
- given the number of bills that winner were introduced and number of bills that
- work through the process so let's turn to our experts and let's listen to the
- less the session wrap up so my first question is and I'm gonna start with you
- representative Heaton and we're gonna go that way can you give us an overview of
- how your priority bills fared in the 2025 Indiana General Assembly well
- thanks for that question Gretchen and thank you all for being here I when it
- comes to bills and you know the number sometimes I remember one time the Senate
- they it was almost unlimited what you can file and I remember at the time at
- that time is Senator State Senator Jim Banks and he had 40 bills that he filed
- and I asked him about one bill about that I was really curious about and he
- wasn't sure about that bill because once you have 40 bills like wow how do you
- focus on that and I had about had about two or three bills really but I suppose
- on a local level in Terre Haute and Beagle County we had a bill I think it
- was 15 House Bill 1543 and that pertained to getting a magistrate there
- in Beagle County and they've been after that for a number of years and and I
- added representative Tanya Path on that bill with me since she really service
- her district is just about all of Terre Haute and and that was a bill that had a
- fiscal of it was two hundred thirteen thousand dollars and but it passed out a
- committee I think ten to zero and and it went to ways and means because of the
- fiscal and I was able to amend that bill in House Bill 1144 authored by Chris
- Jeter and that started the process and it ended up in and went over to the
- Senate and so forth and the conference committee and work things out and bottom
- line is we were able to get that bill but but we had in committee judge Sarah
- Mulligan over there and Judge Dan Kelly and they testified and and explained the
- need that we had to have a magistrate over there and it just worked out well
- and I'm glad we were able to get that done so but anyway it's a it's a process
- and sometimes we have to be patient to the very end and that's when it it passed
- out of the conference committee reports and we were able to get it done so that
- was probably my I guess big priority bill that I got to see through. Senator
- Yoder. Thank you so much Gretchen. I came here so many weeks ago and had some
- priority bills and as Gretchen so masterfully explained you know that
- funnel is real and I came away with some exciting wins though for somebody who
- serves as a minority member there is a handout in the back and it's so pretty
- grab it on your way out on one side it has wins that I can that I worked on on
- one side and then there are some challenges that finished our session
- and some things to look out for for the coming next session but I or at least
- the coming year changes that are going to be made some of the wins when I came
- in I think it was January I spoke of three different bills that I was working
- on and one in particular was Senate bill 176 and at the time I came here it was
- scheduled for its first committee hearing and I'm so happy to say that it
- will it was signed by the governor and it's one of those 243 bills that made
- it all the way through and what Senate bill or Senate enrolled act 176 does is
- it was the direct byproduct of last summer making my way through some of our
- skilled nursing facilities from rehabilitation all the way to full-time
- or nurse your traditional nursing home facility and what I kept hearing again
- and again was our how our nursing shortage is really being a challenge for
- many of our skilled nursing facilities but we see this and we hear that the
- nursing challenge is real at every intersection in our health care industry
- right now so based on that I came back to our legislative agency our
- legislative services agency and asked what can we do I had one one executive
- say to me if we could just somehow harness our young adults who are in high
- school right now interested in the field are taking coursework in this area to
- enter into the nursing field or into the health care field but once they
- graduate the way our code is written currently they have to retake those
- exact same course courses again to count toward their LPN license and I thought
- this is a win for both our young people our students our high school students
- graduating and for the health care shortage in nursing so we work together
- and that bill will allow those courses that students are taking in high school
- to count towards their LPN which is a substitute which is a great win which is
- exciting because as I was revisiting those facilities I in the last couple of
- weeks I put together this skilled nursing tour and at one of the places I
- was asking what do you need and the director of the facility said well we
- actually need more solutions like there was this one bill I think it was 176 I
- was like oh my goodness that was the bill we worked on together and it made
- it and it was really exciting to hear how they were they knew about it and how
- it was going to directly impact them so that was a priority for me another
- priority for me was a bill that I filed that really addressed crimes against
- children and it would change every every place in Indiana code in talking about
- the phrase child pornography to a child sex abuse material and the reason why
- that change is so significant is it too came out of a conversation I had at a
- town hall last summer and the town hall was really about the diploma changes
- that we were seeing and getting feedback from constituents but there was a
- retired Indiana State police officer there and he waited until after and he
- came to me and he said is there anything we could do I worked in the sex crimes
- unit and that phrase is so antiquated and actually retraumatizes people who
- read it and upon hearing it you think oh my goodness of course because there is
- some consent implied in the word pornography and so we worked while my
- bill that I filed that bill didn't make it I used that language applied it to
- another bill it made it through the Senate and then that bill didn't get
- heard in the house so I had to find another home for that bill in the house
- that was going to be heard and eventually it made its way through and
- it was signed so it didn't start out how I wanted but it still made its way
- through and now is going to do good for the state of Indiana and then the other
- area was child care there there definitely is a shortage in child care
- in accessing and in affordability and we worked on Senate bill 463 that made it
- all the way through I wasn't the author of that bill but I was a co-author with
- senator Charbonneau and I'm grateful for those relationships that I have in you
- know in across the aisle and in my own party to to find ways of making good
- change for residents of Indiana so those were three priorities that I started
- with they looked different upon its upon the conclusion of the session but in the
- end it didn't really matter how it made its way through it still ended up being
- good policy and an enacted policy for the state of Indiana so thank you I
- heard from so many of you after that meeting and it really did help inform
- the way that I was able to legislate throughout the whole session so thank
- you to the eligible chamber and to all of you for staying connected with me
- representative Mayfield so I apologize if I look like I'm about to fall out of my
- chair I've been dealing with vertigo for three days so I have episodes of like a
- drunken sailor so out of the bills that I filed I really learned a lesson in
- pride of authorship this year because not a one of them went through with me
- as the primary author however the language of at least three of my bills
- did make it across the finish line using representative Hall's method of amend it
- into someone else's bill and let them do all the work so one of them was you know
- the Ellits bill food and beverage tax which took a totally different look by
- the time it was over the finish line but it was a version that passed aviation
- public works got put into another public works bill and actually there is a
- ceremonial signing with the governor on Thursday afternoon for that bill
- collaborative distilling which you know this is all boring alcohol stuff but
- there are aspects of our alcohol code that needed to be addressed of in this
- particular bill my focus my language was when you do collaborative distilling
- you're allowed to have a certain percentage from one origin and a certain
- percentage from another origin in the same bottle well once it's in the bottle
- you have no way to determine how much came from one guy or the other guy so
- the ATC even said we we can't enforce this so that was the basis of the
- language my part of the language in collaborative distilling and then I'm
- trying to think if there was another one you know I get these of the end there
- was a bill that passed the Senate and I had a I was a sponsor and I had a sister
- bill in the house about discrimination against living donors but they couldn't
- even though it passed the house I mean the Senate when it came over to the
- house when we were looking at it more deeply so the the the argument was I
- have donated a kidney or a liver those are really the only two items that you
- give as a living donor now I go back for life insurance and because they know
- that I've donated one of my organs my rates are higher than it was before the
- donation we couldn't find in the industry enough of that to determine
- that it is a discriminatory policy now you may have one company who says we
- don't want to write that that's different than being discriminated
- against across the board so you know a problem for one person is not a problem
- for all people so that that did not make it across the finish line once it got to
- the house if we have more incidents or more cases of that we may reconsider
- that and then I was working on the indemnification of parks for obstacle
- courses this is very popular throughout the state the the ropes the tires you
- know that that type of obstacle course in a public park except the the insurance
- industry doesn't want to insure it because we can't define it Atterbury has
- it Johnson County has one there's one up in the northern part around Huntington
- County they have one so I was trying to include the definition of an obstacle
- course into we have a oh there is a definition that already exists about not
- high risk but my words are failing me like skateboard yeah extreme sports and
- what I was trying to get it into that and that would indemnify them so let's
- say you're climbing the ropes and you fall and break your arm or even now
- currently if you trip over roots on a trail you you could potentially be
- exposed for some liability so we're just trying to wrap that up however we have a
- lot of trial lawyers who don't like immunity from anything so I'll just have
- to keep working on that I think that there's a way to get there but again
- when you're when you're dealing with this as Senator Yoder said you see you
- know how the funnel works you have to be willing to make those compromises what
- comes out at the end might not be what went into the beginning but there were
- there are aspects and and it's the the benefit are you still getting a benefit
- or do you just want to give up and start over another time a lot of times in the
- process when you are an author of a bill you still have some control over whether
- that bill moves forward so in the case of getting amended into another bill you
- sort of lose that control so even when it you know you legislative process
- strategy-wise I'm thinking okay if they change it over in the Senate when it
- comes back to the house I made dissent I might make some changes when they amend
- it into another bill that's under another author you don't have that kind
- of control anymore so you really there are so many you know we call the
- multi-level chess game that you learn over the course of a legislative career
- I'm still learning some of those moves thank you represent appears yeah I think
- that some of the examples you've heard heard here just shows that a good
- legislator will just focus on getting the policy enacted and try to avoid the
- personality clashes or work around them because believe it or not there are
- occasionally personality clashes in the General Assembly which might shock you
- so I had a bill that came out of a summer study committee of courts and
- corrections where we got testimony from the Vanderbilt County sheriff that some
- people showed up in their community were committing burglaries and they had
- something called a signal jamming device with them and this is kind of a little
- transmitter you can carry around with yourself and it will basically block out
- cell phones you know any wireless door cameras will get you know basically
- disabled the police show up they try to use their you know radios to talk to
- dispatch it can interfere with that and those devices are completely illegal
- under federal law but as you can imagine trying to get the Federal
- Communications Commission which has the job of enforcing that to be paying
- attention to all these cases across the country and then they got to get the
- Justice Department move on it and so we kind of concluded that we needed to have
- some state law that would mirror the federal law so that local prosecutors
- could go ahead and prosecute that and and maybe more importantly seize the
- equipment from the bad actors they're not able to jam things up so some of
- you might know that one of my hobbies is amateur radio I'm one of those geeky
- radio people and so all things radio frequency really fascinating to me so I
- started spouting off in the committee about all this jamming stuff and the
- chair of the House committee basically said why don't you just carry this bill
- since you seem to know all about it so we had a bill that essentially would
- mirror the federal law in the state law passed through the house no problem got
- over the Senate they also had a bill that came out of the Senate which had
- the same policy goal but was had some significant differences which I thought
- were problematic and so we took as often it happens we well first we thought the
- Senate would just hear my bill over in the house but the author over there on
- the Senate side really felt that his bill had to be the one so we decided in
- the courts committee we would move the Senate bill but we basically put my
- provisions into it so it basically became the house bill so then it went
- over to conference committee a little bit of haggling about a few minor
- provisions got that straightened out and the conference committee report was
- signed and voted into law so now the local prosecutors have the ability to do
- something about these signal jammers without having to ask the feds to try to
- come in and do it and so that's just an example of how if you get really hung up
- on like my name's got to be on this I want to have the glory of you know going
- back home and saying I did this a lot of times you won't get stuff done but this
- idea which is another one I use often is just get your stuff in somebody else's
- bill and then sit back and be very quiet about it and let the other guy do all
- the work that's also a very good approach representative Paul yeah thank
- you so they've talked a lot about me sitting back and letting other people do
- the work so I'll explain that I had a bill Brown County has 15,000 residents in
- the county they get well over a million visitors every year and that puts a
- strain on their resources locally and they struggle to kind of keep up with
- the the maintenance of like the of a deer run park they're wanting to do some
- advancements there they got the log jail that's there in town I can't remember
- the name of the other place but the fairgrounds like they're trying to make
- investments there in the county that when you have the visitors come in they
- see something nice they get to use it you know and everybody gets to enjoy it
- so they had a five percent innkeepers tax and they wanted to you know increase
- that and give them the capacity to move that up to eight percent so I thought
- about authoring a bill on that and then I had this idea like I could just put
- that in someone else's bill and let them do it so Peggy or representative Mayfield
- was the lucky recipient of my language when I took it to the Ways and Means
- office I said can you help me find a home for this and her bill was the home
- for that and then as the process played out the language that she was caring to
- benefit Ellisville and the rural transit ended up coming out of her bill and my
- language survived and then her bill got morphed into another bill and my
- language survived in that so it was really I mean I'm gonna my aim is to do
- that as often as possible because if I can just get the language through and
- not have to do all because it's work to get just to get a committee chair to hear
- your bill and then to get the bill out of the committee and then to get the
- bill through the second reading amendments and out of the house and then
- get it into the Senate is an entirely different problem so this year I had a
- bill or it was a resolution to require term limits for members of Congress and
- I tried that last year and ran into some trouble in the Senate and the Judiciary
- Committee and it failed in the Judiciary Committee so this this year we had the
- Senate pass it out first and then I sponsored it in the house so it made it
- out of the Senate this year and we got it through the house so that we signed
- that resolution I was in April March or April so Indiana was the 11th state to
- join 10 other states to call for members of term or members of Congress to term
- limit themselves it calls for an Article 5 convention that takes 34 states to
- actually trigger a convention historically that's not happened because
- once you get close to having enough states to trigger a convention the
- Congress just acts themselves because they don't want the states deciding
- their term limits or that you know any issues so they they usually preempt that
- so that made it through that was my only win other than the one that representative
- Mayfield got through for me but I have several other several other bills that
- I've worked on representative Pierce and I and I think Senator Yoder has been
- involved in this there's a bill that would allow counties to enact a gate
- fee at the state parks to help them with public safety and infrastructure
- improvements and I struggled to get a hearing for that the last two sessions
- and then this session got a hearing passed out unanimously passed out of the
- house with just a handful of no votes went to the Senate got it through the
- Senate natural resources committee and then it got sent to appropriations and
- when stuff gets sent to appropriations sometimes that's because it needs to be
- and sometimes it's just going there to die so that bill just went there to die
- so I took that bill language and I got it inserted into another bill because it
- was successful with representative Mayfield so I thought well maybe I
- could do that again and I did not have the same luck with that second time
- around so I'm still like when I got there some of the best advice I heard
- there was a another legislator that had been there for several years and he told
- me he said Dave just remember this place is not Burger King you don't always get
- to have it your way and that has been like the best advice because we have a
- hundred and fifty people up there and you may have a great idea but everybody
- wants to get their hands on it or insert their language into it so you just kind
- of you learn and you like you don't give up you just come back the next year and
- you just kind of revise it and try to get something through that looks like what
- you want so take the smaller wins but I had another bill that made it out of the
- house it was a it would require research facilities to adopt out animals once
- they're done doing testing on them pretty bipartisan issue I mean everybody
- loves dogs and cats and this is it doesn't have anything to do with mice or
- rats so if you hate them this was not included in my bill that got out of the
- house I think I had like four no votes on that got in the Senate and I couldn't
- get a hearing in the Senate so I'm working on that this summer I think Trump
- had a the NIH they shut down their animal testing facilities they had some
- beagle testing facilities they shut those down so I'm hoping there's some
- like recognition that this is not like a it's not a far left you know it's it's
- just a just a common sense if you know these dogs and cats have served our
- humanity by being tested on you know for these these drugs and to give them a life
- where they can you know rather than just euthanize them to just let them live out
- the rest of their life in a home with people that love them I it just seems
- like a no-brainer to me so I'm gonna work on that again next session and then I
- had an annexation bill and this one caused me some I have three teenage
- daughters and running for this office I had black hair when I started and I had
- mostly a black beard so I don't know which has contributed more to my hair
- falling out and my gray beard but this annexation bill it's we have involuntary
- annexation you guys are all familiar with this and else feels kind of unique
- because Ellisville people want to be annexed into Ellisville to get relief
- from the the burdensome zoning and regulations that are in the county so
- it's not every communities like that Bloomington did their involuntary
- annexation or has attempted it and the problem with that is when you you do an
- involuntary annexation the people that are being annexed they didn't ask for it
- they just got drawn into this map and the city wins by default if those people do
- nothing so then it forces those folks that didn't ask to be annexed forces
- them to go out and do work they have to mobilize they have to get signatures
- they have to raise money so the city has spent millions of dollars trying to
- annex these folks that didn't ask to be annexed and they've had to spend I think
- it's 250 to 300 thousand dollars that they've spent you know that they've had
- to raise on their own to fight the city so I think there should be a the burden
- should be on the city if the city wants to annex it should not be we're gonna
- annex you now you need to go do work to fight it it should be the city saying
- hey we want to annex you and here's why you should want to be annexed here's our
- here's what we're gonna do for you and it should be a voluntary thing so I
- worked on that bill and that took a lot of like I met with representative Pierce
- and I said hey here's what I'm trying to do and and I think his words were I
- appreciate that you're trying to thread this needle but this is gonna be
- difficult to do and it was it was not wrong but we got we got to a really good
- place I think I think there's a chance that I can maybe not have that language
- in a standalone bill in the next session or future sessions but to incorporate
- that into some if I can get it into a House Republican agenda bill that would
- be ideal in some like government reform bill so I'm gonna try and work on that
- to get that into a because it's just you know right now there's nothing I can do
- for the folks that are being annexed or you know attempting to be annexed by the
- city but once that's done if the city is not successful there's a four-year
- cooling-off period and they could go through all of this all over again and I
- just I just you know talking to these folks I knock on a lot of doors and I
- get to visit with them and it's just you know that's a it's a stress it's a it's
- just something that they don't need and you know I'm a huge advocate for land
- owner rights and this is just this is just something that I've it's been a
- tough you know the Senate has passed a similar bill I think like nine times now
- but the house just have it has a different filter for this so I've got to
- find this sweet spot where I can run it through so that's that's definitely gonna
- be high on my list for next time I've got some other bills but none of them
- were successful either so I won't talk about all those well thank you very much
- I think it's it's interesting even though the question was talk about your
- priority bills and the successes each of you indicated that it was if you didn't
- have pride of authorship you could be very effective in getting things done
- working with your colleagues as representative Hall mentioned talking
- with representative Pierce different parties but certainly colleagues so I
- think that that my takeaway from that first question is there's an awful lot
- of collegiality within the General Assembly even though maybe what's what's
- out in the the media doesn't always reflect that you all work very hard
- together for your for the betterment of your communities so appreciate that very
- much okay so as the moderator I'm gonna use my moderator opportunity and call
- an audible so I'd like to hear I'd like to ask what issues did you hear most
- from your constituents maybe they weren't they weren't legislation but what are
- your constituents talking about I'm gonna go with you representative Hall
- since you were the last one on your first up so I have a very interesting
- district I'm about 50% Democrat almost 50% Republican so just about every vote
- that I take irritates half my district so I I've talked to representative Pierce
- about this and there used to be quite a few of us in that chamber that sweated
- you know most of the votes that we had to take and now there's just I mean
- there's very few that have to do that I mean there's nothing it just depended on
- what week it was really I mean that Senate bill one I got a lot of feedback
- on that from local elected officials and then just homeowners like that was just
- I mean I know we're gonna talk a lot more about that one later on but you know
- that some of these bills I think people think when you when you vote yes or you
- vote no that you're 100% yes or 100% no well these these bills are you know
- sometimes they have multiple facets and some of the bills cover just just a lot
- of different you know similar topics but a lot of things in there so you may only
- be 51% in favor of it and that's you know those are the things I try to like
- explain that to people when they reach out to my office is like you know they
- think that I I hate or love you know whatever I've and sometimes it's just you
- know you may be 55% yes at that moment with the information that you have so
- you you know you vote yes and sometimes you're a no for the same same reasons
- and it's just a difficult to get people like because you know and I'm guilty of
- this - we have hundreds of bills coming through there and when people reach out
- they're usually really passionate about like one thing and it's hard to be in
- that same headspace that they're in about that one issue you know that that's
- when you're passing out you know 30 bills that day so I try desperately to
- reply and if somebody calls in and wants me to call them back I try to give them
- a call back you know as quickly as I can but it was yeah it was a hodgepodge of
- things and but Senate Bill 1 was probably I mean by far the most contacts
- I got this session. Representative Pierce. Yeah for me there are two main issues that I got the
- most mail on during the session one were utility issues and concerns about bills
- about small modular reactors promoting those how that might impact rates and
- you know how you were going to balance kind of the risk of moving to this
- energy transition so I heard a lot from my constituents about the various
- utility bills that were moving through and then also a lot about education
- particularly from teachers just concerned about school funding overall
- and then you know also what role vouchers and charter schools might have
- on impacting funding streams for traditional public schools and then what
- will be you know the role of teachers in having a say in how their schools are
- operating how they run and so those those issues were common things I would
- hear about throughout the session obviously property tax was a big thing
- but it wasn't as big as I thought I actually went through and counted out of
- 700 responses to my pre-legislative survey I went through and counted and
- only 34 said anything about property tax I was also in another chamber style of
- legislative forum where we use the little red and green cards and when we
- asked the audience how many want property tax reform out of an audience
- of roughly 90 people how many do you think raised the green card and said we
- we really desperately need property tax reform any ideas two two out of 90 now
- it's a different audience you had a lot of elected officials you have a lot of
- business people who appreciate the fact that you have to have a vibrant
- community to attract people and on the other side of the coin when I'm speaking
- to constituents who legitimately I had one township establish a fire territory
- they raised the rate 600% so anything that the state did that would save you
- $300 was offset by the $500 increase you had just from a township that doesn't
- include your schools in your county and so forth so it was so complex but the
- general public unless you were going to tell them you're getting a refund or your
- property taxes are going down they did not want to hear anything you had to say
- so that really cut off that conversation there wasn't a lot of give-and-take there
- wasn't an opportunity to say this is this is what we're doing we're trying to
- fix the the you know the infrastructure of the the the formula so that on the
- long run it's going to benefit you this was the third major rewrite of property
- taxes in 30 years the third time so it is so hard to tweak one area of that
- without affecting another because there are so many factors involved so even
- though we heard a lot about it it depends on who it was coming from whether
- they wanted the reform or whether they wanted more money and it was it was a
- challenging discussion to have thank you I just want to comment because I actually
- asked those I work with the staff I said would you please comb through all of the
- voicemail emails I have my own tally and can you come up with the top ten bills
- that caused the most consternation concern reaction from constituents and
- eight of them I put eight of them on this the challenges side because they
- were challenges and it's property taxes our Medicaid changes that really got
- people engaged and concerned so that was Senate bill 2 we also heard making our
- school board race as partisan heard so much from you on those matters these are
- all bills that actually ended up passing so I didn't you know some things you
- were successful working together with your with me and other legislators to
- get those things changed amended out of bills but these are bills that did make
- it through the session on this the other one would be Senate bill 289 that
- started out as that anti DEI bill and now is non-discrimination in employment
- education heard a lot from businesses to our educators about that bill and of
- course what we didn't hear about but definitely heard about it since was the
- changes to House bill 1001 which is the budget we didn't hear about how the
- governor is going to be able to redact and take back those IU elected alumni
- trustees we did not hear that because it was put in right at the very end and so
- Hoosiers didn't have a chance to even have input but we I certainly have
- received many many many emails texts calls since then so that was in House
- bill 1001 and then other education matters one of the changes in how we in
- our in how we are funding education there have been changed we are now a
- universal choice voucher state we also made changes in sharing of referendum
- dollars and property taxes with charter schools that happened in this session
- and that caused some serious reaction from constituents but another area that
- I don't know if that really was of concern was in the last biennium budget
- the decision was made to offer relief to parents in funding curriculum materials
- textbooks I'm a mom of three it was about close to $200 for each of my
- children that I would have to pay for those curriculum fees and we tried
- unsuccessfully for years to get those put into the budget and in 2023 we were
- successful and there was a line item that there would be relief for parents
- in covering textbook and curriculum fees this session what happened those dollars
- that was erased and they the the majority putting the budget together said
- they're going to fold it into the overall funding formula in in the
- general fund we will cover those in the way that we fund schools so when you see
- that number of how our schools are funded the curriculum fees are folded
- into that which shows a very miniscule for some schools not even an increase
- for our school corporations our school districts but that includes a line item
- that was rolled into how our schools are going to be funded and there was there
- is very much serious concern because of Senate bill 1 property taxes because of
- the sharing of referendum referendum dollars and then that the textbook fees
- have to be covered in in that in those dollars that is that is concerning our
- school districts and how they're going to make ends meet and we're already
- seeing sort of some of that fallout so I heard those bills feedback on those
- bills the most from you and and I appreciate every single outreach that I
- did receive so thank you very much thank you representor Yoder
- representative Heaton yes okay well I kind of when you talk about this the
- property tax issue Senate bill 1 I didn't hear a lot about it until after
- March 17th when they had that big rally on st. Patrick's Day up at the State
- House a lot of people wearing green t-shirts and so and then that kind of
- got things worked up a little bit and then of course about six weeks ago we
- got our statement from local government and saw where well my taxes there in
- Vigo County has been just doing this over the last few years and my assessed
- valuation for next year is up $146,000 so I'm here not only hearing about it but
- I'm gonna have other people hear about it from me about that issue but but it's
- kind of it's all over the place but I I think probably early on was the the
- partisan school board bill that I heard and and locally in Terre Haute I met with
- Marie Thies who's the ISTA teachers union rep and I like Marie and we have a
- great relationship we talk over coffee about it and and another teacher there
- also but and JD Prescott represent Prescott from the east side of the state
- he had that bill in the house and Senator Gary Byrne I think had had it in
- the Senate and they the Senate passed it and then we we looked at it and changed
- it around and so forth and as that turned out I believe you know you can you
- can put down if you want to and this deals with a general election you can
- put down whether you're Republican Democrat independent or just leave it
- blank and so I heard some loud voices on the right that says we need that we need
- that and so so anyway we give we gave more options and so forth as far as that
- bill goes but sometimes you know you scratch your head and think you know you
- know why are we doing this but but anyway it's just the way it turned out
- but it's and I can go on and on speaking of schools and it and the funding I've
- got the school runs for Richland Bean Blossom School Corporation as well as
- Monroe County Community School Corporation so that was you know I think
- there's always concern about you know hey you know funding for our schools you
- know traditional public schools as well as charter schools and and so forth but
- but that's and that was something that didn't get cut and in as far as the
- funding goes for the schools it's 2% first year and then the second year of
- the biennium so when you think about it it was a 5% increase because 2% the
- second year of that first year increase it really comes to 3% instead of 2% but
- so that was something that is so you know very important but when you look at
- our at the budget you know what we had to look at too was a Medicaid funding and
- it has just gone up and up and up over the last few years and so we tried to
- get a handle on that as well and that came through House Enrolled Act 1001 so
- but there's there's a lot of things that we're looking at but as far as
- Representative Pierce mentioned as far as I think it was House Enrolled Act 1007
- deals with nuclear energy you know important thing also is you know you
- look at health care reform and I happen to be with Chairman Bradford Barrett
- yesterday for about five hours in a golf cart in Noblesville we talked to a
- little bit about that but I said well Brad were you happy with the final
- results he says well we really had to give and take towards the end and so he
- was happy but he wasn't happy and so forth but it's but that's something that
- here in Indiana we got to look at and we look at you know that gets into the
- pharmacy benefit managers and so forth it's a it's a discussion in and of
- itself but but that's something that we got to keep looking at and tweaking it
- and see what the future holds with that so but it's very important with
- businesses and those employers who are who has those group health benefits for
- their employees and I think they're going to be seeing a decrease in those
- premiums in the next few years to come well I appreciate that thank you very
- much oh I'm sorry the challenges of property taxes he mentioned that his
- assessed value went up significantly mine went down a little bit my net assessed
- value still went up a little bit and my taxes went up you know I couldn't write
- that check fast enough before they changed it so that is the challenge of
- trying to make a statewide policy for a property tax formula because every
- single unit of government it you know takes a role in that and it's so hard to
- try and benefit everybody no that's that's a good good summary of kind of
- the process certainly I've made a career out of property taxes so as a life
- learner I'm really happy that we've completely changed the system I've got
- something new to learn so let's um let's put 2025 in the rearview mirror and and
- kind of let's turn to Senate bill one you all have kind of mentioned it so my
- question is okay who do we think who's the winner who's the biggest winner out
- of Senate bill one this this is the lightning round representative Heaton
- you'll go first okay so short answer then right right because I want to make
- sure that there's Q&A so there may be other people that I would I would have
- to say you know the taxpayers and so bottom line but so and and it seems like
- once you pass that then it seemed like the week before the our our spring and
- fall statements came out and so people saw you know in case I myself I saw mine
- went up this way but but we're looking at as far as the future as far as 2026
- payable for the 2025 year but so it had I'd say the taxpayers great senator
- Yoder well we're at a chamber event I will speak to a winner would be 1.2
- billion dollars in tax relief for businesses and that I think probably is
- one of you know those are some of the winners in Senate bill 1 it's anyone who
- pays property tax not because it's such it was such a great fix-all bill but
- because it adds a transparency so now you're more aware of how you they came
- to that figure and we controlled the growth so that ninety percent of the
- people will not will pay less than what they would have without that bill and
- about 60% will pay less than they did I think the market itself will sort of
- iron itself out over time so what it wasn't the ticker tape parade type of
- bill but it did address the underlying problems so I think it's difficult to
- know because the bill is pretty complicated and I've seen different runs
- we had a very short period of time like three hours to try to figure out what the
- bill is doing because it was basically written as a second reading amendment but
- I think that for those who have the more valuable homes I think they will get the
- bulk of the relief so my understanding is that ten percent up to three hundred
- dollars of a cut and I've seen some data that suggests that if you're in a very
- modest home like a hundred and twenty five hundred fifty thousand dollars you
- may actually end up paying a little more just range and then the other kind of
- group of people who got left out were renters you know my district I have lots
- around I basically have the city of Bloomington nor northern two-thirds is
- basically my district and a lot of renters in there and the renters are
- paying that property tax through their rent as the landlord then takes the the
- rental money and uses that to pay the property taxes and the House Democrats we
- tried to get some relief for renters in there because they're not going to
- benefit from SB 1 but they're going to continue to pay that rent and so it
- would have been nice to have something right now there's a there's a deduction
- that you have on your income tax if you're a renter that you can take that
- really hasn't been changed significantly for a very long time so it to me it
- remains to be seen how it's all going to play out I think it's interesting that
- I've talked to some local government officials and they're all hiring
- consultants to come in and try to explain to them what their revenue is
- actually going to be so they can begin to think about their budget and that's
- you know you know you got a complicated bill when the consultant class will be
- working overtime to help local officials understand what exactly they're gonna
- have to work with so we're just gonna have to see what happens so I'll touch
- on a different angle Senate bill one like obviously had property tax relief
- but then there were just accountability and your elected officials so one of the
- things that it did it it decoupled your local income tax rate from your share of
- the levy so now every year of county councils I saw a few members in here
- they have to vote to affirm the rate that they want for the following year so
- when I was on the county council in Jackson County for almost six years and
- I got the benefit of the 2016 council that voted for a lit public safety tax
- that I never had to vote for every year it was just automatically reinstated well
- now you have to say hey we need that money this year and we're going to take
- an affirmative vote to keep that rate at I think Monroe County's 2.1% so this
- will kind of it'll put it silos that local income tax also so that right now
- you Monroe County has a local income tax council so the Bloomington City of
- Bloomington eight of the nine members of the City Council could vote to increase
- the local income tax for everyone in the county and we've talked about this I
- think here before they did that in 22 and they raised it like 54% well there
- were people outside the City of Bloomington that were very upset and they
- said hey we we don't even live in the City of Bloomington but somehow these
- City Council members could raise our tax and you know it's unfair for them
- because they don't have a they don't have an option to vote for or against
- that that body so this eliminates that now so that the County Council will have
- a vote for income tax for every county taxpayer and then the City of
- Bloomington will have one that just goes on the City of Bloomington so you'll see
- different rates for people depending on where they live which is honestly the
- way it should be if you're living in the city and you want to pay for those you
- know added services then you'll get to do that now another thing that it did
- with bonds there's a one-year cooling off period now so if you had like in
- Jackson County I'll use them for example again we had a before I got on the
- council they had a jail and that jail bond was falling off and that when that
- bond was falling off they thought hey we need to make sure we keep our rate flat
- because if we ever need that money in the future we want to make sure we don't
- have to come back and take a bad vote to get that you know to build that rate
- back up so they would just build another building so we built a judicial center
- a really nice one so I think it was like 15 or 20 million dollars and so this
- this will give you more accountability so it's not just this like ride the the
- votes of other people before you now you're gonna have to explain your votes
- why you wanted the money why you needed the money why you needed that project so
- I think that's a huge for me that was a big deal to eliminate that local income
- tax counsel put that burden back on your local elected officials to say this is
- we need it and here's why or we don't need it so we're gonna lower your rate
- so I think that was a huge win in Senate bill one also it's under Yoder just to
- sort of add a nuance the concern is for those communities who do need a new
- project there has to be bonding and if that income tax is going to be revisited
- every year there will be a concern we will need to look at how can communities
- like ours that is looking to build a new jail how will they be able to get a bond
- for a tax that is going to have to be revisited every year there isn't that
- certainty there and we didn't plan for that with the the way it was written in
- Senate bill 1 so I think there is going to need to be some revisiting of that
- language to ensure that communities can still make these investments and that
- they will be able to receive a bond for those for those new projects well the
- good news is we've been fixing property taxes since 1973 so I'm confident that
- there will be more fixes along the lines I want to make sure that there's time
- for the audience if anybody has any questions if you don't that not not a big
- deal I've got a couple more but is there anybody that would like to ask a
- question of our panel members having served for over 30 years in public health
- that's always my kind of take first I want to say thank you all for showing up
- today and sharing with us so with the budget cuts and being in a state who
- clearly has not valued public health over the years but a few years ago
- decided to put some funding into that but yet it's being pulled back I think
- everybody would say we don't really like taxes we don't like property taxes but
- we do like services and even with changes with the mobile the statewide mobile
- food that takes money away from local government so my question is what do you
- say to our local officials about how they're supposed to fund services say
- like public health but other services that people expect and need with fewer
- resources and less funding please I think that you're gonna have local
- officials look with greater detail at needs versus wants versus luxuries I
- mean you're literally gonna be breaking it down and needing to justify to their
- immediate constituents how they're going to accomplish that it will be challenging
- on the public health I prefer to think of that because I know we cut it back
- significantly that isn't I don't believe that is because we don't like public
- health funding I think that was a combination of we put all this money out
- there counties are still ramping up their programs to get where they can
- utilize that and at this point and under these financial circumstances we went
- with the figure that was spent you you had you know the statewide the counties
- had spent X amount of dollars and there were there were monies that were yet to
- be committed because they were still in the thought process granted they will
- probably be I would hope reinstated in the future just not right now so you've
- got to work with what you created over the last two years and then as the
- economy changes we'll have to see where that goes and hopefully we will be
- reinstating those funds so I don't want to say we've cut that health first
- program because I don't believe we have and I don't think that's our intent we
- just had to work within the framework the biggest surprise I know is one of
- the things is when we got down to the very end of the budget cycle when we
- knew that it was going to be a tight budget year or tight budget cycle and it
- was even worse than we anticipated so we had to make those adjustments and
- hopefully in the next budget cycle we'll be able to you know start adjusting
- those in the upward numbers great thank you any anybody else representative
- Hall yeah so I I think you know in 2023 we we appropriate I think it was 225
- million I could be off on that number for that health first Indiana fund and I
- voted for that because I knew that there was I think it was like it was either a
- dollar turns into $7 and benefit or like $14 I could be off on that but it was
- substantial and we were we had a lot of room to improve so we would probably see
- the the higher end of that range and you know just like I think part of your
- question was how do these local governments deal with the reduced
- funding same way we did you know we had a we had a budget that from the
- December forecast that looked like we were going to be able to do a lot of the
- things that we really wanted to do and when you see a revenue forecast in April
- that shows two billion less than what you had in December you have to make
- those decisions like what do we really need and what are the wants and you know
- funding schools funding public safety I mean we did 80 million dollars in the
- health first Indiana fund which is a reduction you know from 20 25 or 23
- numbers but that was new money in 2023 so it's still I mean it's not a like that
- wasn't there for 30 years then all of a sudden it's just gone so it's there's
- still an investment there it's just not as substantial as what we would have done
- had we had that that budget forecast that we were hoping for but I still think
- there's opportunity you know that the economy I think we were at like a when
- we got the first budget or first forecast I think it was like a in
- December was like a 15% chance of recession and and in 20 or in April it
- was like a 60% chance of recession and I not like looking at my own retirement
- account it seems like things are moving in the right direction again now and so
- I'm hoping that we see some some daylight I guess in the future here and
- we can come back and revisit that because I think that is important and
- there you know there's obviously there's things we can improve but public health
- is definitely one that's still I mean I think a really important thing for our
- state house and caucus both but it's under thank you represent a pulse under
- yoder so just to put a number on it the new biennium budget has a 60% decrease
- in public health funding we're not talking just shaving 60% cut in funding
- and we had not invested in public health any increase for 20 years so we gave
- our public health departments one year to ramp up and to fix this gap and a
- department our local health departments that had learned how to just get by
- learned how to be conservative learned how to do more with less then we may
- make this big plea to them saying we have not made this investment and for the
- first time Hoosiers life expectancy has dropped so we are going to make this
- investment finally in public health and in one year one year later we're going
- to take that away because based on that we didn't see them spending enough in
- that first year that's just unreasonable I would say I would say thank you to our
- local public health departments for not just irresponsibly spending all the
- money they were given that they were trying to roll this out in a
- responsible way and it does seem that this the forecast of the two point four
- billion dollar shortfall much of that we asked again our public health
- departments to really take the brunt of that hit so I just I you know this
- wasn't just asking our public health departments to do you know to step up
- and do more with less we had already been asking them to do that and then we
- finally made the investment and in a year later sort of pulling that rug out
- and saying oops sorry we're gonna have to now ask you to go back and make those
- adjustments so I appreciate that question and wanted to put sort of some
- numbers thank you representative he yeah thank you please for that question and
- towards that those last day or so when we're negotiating the budget to know one
- we did put in a two dollar cigarette tax increase okay and to my premium cigar
- smokers they didn't like the three dollar cigar tax increase but but that
- was something our caucus we talked about for several months and it was almost
- like that last hour okay we got to do it and we did and and so there's I think I
- I read Senator Bray mentioned like you know there is a fine line there as far
- as you know if you if you raise it high enough then maybe that 16 year old 17
- year old may say hey heck with the angle smoke cigarettes and on the other hand
- the older generation they may say well hey I'm I love these things I'm gonna
- continue to smoke but but you know we did that and I don't know how many
- hundreds of millions that we're gonna that's gonna help but as far as that
- would go to Medicaid and so forth but but that's something to the last hour
- the last minute we put that in there in the budget so well I appreciate the
- question appreciate the panel's candor I think one of the things that one of the
- takeaways that I hear is it's it's an important issue and the General
- Assembly will continue to revisit it which I think is very positive so I
- understand not the the right outcome that we all were hoping for but it's not
- something that at least you all have indicated you don't see value and in
- continuing to be supportive of so appreciate that anybody else from yes
- sir get some clarity on public education so we and the record shortfall that
- you'll mention with the forecast so expansion of school choice as it's
- called by some will be a four hundred million dollar in the second by in the
- second year the biennium that's the number I've seen that expanding vouchers
- will cost four hundred million dollars in the second year representative you
- said you have the school runs with you for traditional public schools and you're
- saying you're getting a 2% increase is that is that what you said yes so so
- traditional public schools are getting a 2% increase each year to buy anything
- that also includes textbooks so help us square then the sort of articles we're
- seeing where Monroe County schools are projected to lose 18 million dollars
- Brown County schools I think were one to two million dollars I don't know what our
- BB is I'm just having trouble kind of squaring up numbers here and take us
- through that choice of a four hundred million dollar increase for vouchers
- when we see a two point four million dollar shortfall projected to forecast
- that's a pretty big decision when we're looking at education it's there's a lot
- of discussion between K through 12 education but not bifurcating it talking
- about traditional public schools versus charters and vouchers so I'm trying to get your message on
- that because it's something we talked about a lot here in Monroe County and trying to be a little
- more informed so thanks well I'll
- start the debate yeah so the funny form of the thing that we've talked about
- is these curricular materials which used to call textbooks is now instead of
- being a separate line item appropriation is now within the funding formula so when
- you say you're getting 2% this year 2% next year that includes money that
- normally would not have been in the formula so if you were to back out that
- textbook money and make it a separate line item again that 2% would go down so
- you have to so understanding the runs and their practical effect is can be a
- little bit challenging sometimes so in a time when the state was challenged with
- revenues and wanting to do well for public schools that this it's a little
- bit perplexing to me that the decision was made to go ahead and essentially
- make the vouchers universal by including that last percentage of the wealthiest
- families in the state because as a policymaker that money buys us
- absolutely zero nothing there is no benefit to that expenditure because the
- wealthiest people can already afford to send their kids to private school they've
- made that decision they can afford it they're doing it the only change will be
- they will now be subsidized they will receive I guess seven thousand dollars
- or some some amount off of their tuition which by the way you know if your
- private school tuition is say 14,000 a year it's nice to get seven but if you're
- a lower-income family that seven is not going to get you to whatever their
- prevailing private school tuition is so so at a time when you have to make
- difficult decisions about your budget and where your resources are going to go
- to me it was not a good decision to divert a significant amount of money to
- the wealthiest families who I think could probably get by okay without that
- subsidy and that would have freed up some other millions of dollars for us to help
- traditional public schools so I think that's where the debate is anybody else
- like to respond well other than disagreeing with parts of representative
- period I I ran I got data on Monroe County because it was brought up your
- student count is way down wait you've lost 600 kids in the last decade so I
- don't know the causes for that I'm not saying that you know it's it's anything I
- think that somebody needs to flesh out some of these underlying numbers because
- you're you're you're down you were at ten thousand six hundred and fifty nine or
- sixty nine and now you're down to ten thousand sixty nine a decade later that's a lot of money in
- addition to but but your funding has continued to increase so I'm not your you
- know you're you're you're CFO for that school system but I think that a very
- critical set of eyes needs to be put on these budgets because you also have
- referendums for teacher pay now if you have to pass a referendum every seven
- years to keep your your payroll going that's not sustainable in my eyes so I
- don't have a direct question I mean direct answer to your question but I'm
- not so sure that the the school choice program has much to do with it the
- school choice program you know the families who received that get less than
- what they would have gotten if they'd gone to public school they're going to
- get money to go to school and that is the whole basis is the money follows a
- child you get more if you go to public school you get less if you go to a
- private school as far as the the lower income can't afford to go to private
- school anyway they have so many programs I've yet to find a family who could not
- go to a private school based on the program at that school offers to offset
- those costs I've never seen a child refused because they couldn't pay that
- has not come to my attention because they find a way these organizations find
- a way for these kids to attend the school of their choice but this is a
- little concerning when you see that precipitous drop of ADM even as the
- funding continues to go up I don't have an answer for you I just Monroe County
- seems to be in a worse situation than almost every other school system that
- I've looked at thank you representative Hall so I've got more to say but just
- add on to Rhett Mayfield Monroe County schools in 2020 were collecting 42
- million dollars from property taxes and after two referendums in 2025 they're
- collecting over 70 million dollars with the same reduction in kids so I've talked
- to folks at the State House this year and they were there you know talking
- about Senate Bill 1 and the effects it would have on the school and I pointed
- that out that they are collecting you know I think it was like 67 percent 68
- percent more than they were in 2020 and that you know before I got to the State
- House the General Assembly had made a decision to fund students and not just
- systems and when you hear the stories you know there's there's no public
- charter school in Brown County and you know there's my my kids go to the
- same traditional public school that I went to and it's a fantastic choice for
- our family and I love it and I'm thankful that I have a good school to
- send them to not every family has a great traditional public school to send
- their kids to so when you hear the stories from them and you you know you
- hear that hey this was not a good fit for my child they love the fact that they
- have a choice as a family and as that student to find a school that best suits
- them rather than just be locked into this school because of what their zip
- code is or because of what their income is now they have a choice to go
- somewhere else and you know that individual student you know it's I think
- it's important to like see these kids that if they're if they're in a school
- system that they're failing in that they have an option to go somewhere where
- they can succeed and I I just I mean I think there's value in that and
- obviously there's this struggle over you know who gets the most money or who gets
- the biggest increase and I'm looking at these stories from people whose kids
- are doing better because we have these options for them so that that's important
- to me I want to just sort of champion MCCFC for it I don't want to end on a
- note of disparaging MCCFC this local community our community made the
- decision based on the argument that they made to pass the referendum those were
- decisions made by voters knowing what was at stake and for for state
- legislators to say hmm no that's too much that is an overreach voters here
- voted on that we know that the state's cap before this year was paying for
- teacher pay was $40,000 a year and this community decided we're go or MCCFC
- voters decided we want to attract and keep the best and we're going to pass a
- referendum to support higher pay for our teachers and that's what happened and it
- was a source I will say pride when we came this year to address teacher pay
- and in Monroe County the average for Monroe County those individual they
- showed us how many teachers would be impacted if we moved salaries for
- teachers from $40,000 a year to $45,000 year well that was the bill that we were
- looking at this year and actually we did increase it to $45,000 a year but they
- let us see by County how many teachers that was going to impact to be able to
- say this is going to be a good thing one one teacher in our County made less than
- $45,000 a year because they made more because our voters said we want our
- teachers making more we want to make an investment and that was a source of
- source of pride because we had some there 800 teachers and 500 teachers but
- this community said no we're going to teach our treat our teachers better I
- want to say thank you thank you for making that that decision because it is
- an investment that's worth it so to our RBB administration teachers and staff
- thank you to our MCC SC administration teachers and staff thank you thank you
- for working so hard every day thank you appreciate that representative yeah hey
- friend I'll share these numbers with you afterwards and I appreciate that one
- thing I want to say as far as they're in Terre Haute and Beagle County we've seen
- a decrease in the student count over the last several years and and Clay County
- just over to the east of there they've had a slight increase and I know several
- families are sending their kids over to Northview North Clay my my grandkids
- they're all in traditional public schools now but you know Alice and my
- daughter she she went to home school Daniel and Elise and Seth but the other
- two they went right into Staunton Elementary and so it was but it was
- their their choice to do and they're they're getting fabulous you know when
- it comes to education and and just all the other activities and you know track
- and sports and so forth that type of thing but but it's and then getting into
- the property taxes to a little bit change the subject here but you know
- Beagle County your taxes are going up but you come over to Clay County they're
- low very low and and type therapist people gonna vote with their feet and
- they're they're moving out of the county and going over to Clay County so anyway
- but it's a you know like we've said earlier the money follows a child and and
- it does and so we'll see how it goes this upcoming year and a half two years
- great thank you thank you to the audio okay what work we're wrapping we're six
- minutes away from deadline so
- as a retired teacher I'm always glad to hear the system is being addressed and
- particularly the salaries I doubt that much is being done at the non teacher
- level that could be made more streamlined and more productive what I was
- questioning his painting was she was talking about Monroe County when and the
- 10,000 students is that Monroe County community schools or is that Monroe
- County schools overall that's Monroe County school district okay so we're not
- addressing our private schools nor the RVB system correct okay thank you Jen you
- thank you so much first of all thank you for everything that you've done this is
- not an easy session I think one of the messages that I'm hearing is there's
- things that need to be adjusted moving forward sometimes the news coming out
- from the state makes it feel like well the locals will have to figure it out
- you'll have to do more with less but knowing each one of you I know that you
- all are very accessible and always willing to partner and help so as we are
- trying to figure out a way forward in some challenging transitional times how
- would you like us to do it and specifically are there certain timelines
- this summer as you're in you know summer committees how would you like
- information from us how can we best partner with you to figure out the best
- ways forward I think you're not likely to see much focus from the legislature on
- fixing things until we get through the local government budget cycle so I think
- by the end of this fall we'll kind of see where things are settling out and
- then the legislature is going to make some assessment about whether or not
- local units have the resources they need and it worked out or whether somebody
- needs a correction so I think that's the practical thing is just seeing how
- the actual numbers play out over this next local government budgeting cycle so
- when we get into that fall when those final votes are taken you know what are
- the tax burdens look like what are the resources look like I think that's going
- to be the the main thing and I would just say overall whether it's the state
- budget or the local budget there's kind of two competing narratives or kind of
- approaches to this thing right so the governor likes to essentially say you
- know he's a business guy he can cut five percent you know with blindfold his
- hands tied behind his back that's easy stuff to do and so you'd say okay well
- that makes sense and now we're gonna have a five percent more efficient state
- government they will do the same things they've always done they'll just do it
- more efficiently because someone's like being more of a disciplinarian for them
- and that's great if that can happen but I think that actually what's probably
- happening is five percent less will get done and maybe people won't miss that
- five percent maybe it won't be a big deal but for other people it might be
- important and I think that's the same kind of discussion or the prism through
- which people works will local units of government find a way to be even more
- frugal more efficient deliver those same services with less revenue which would
- be a good thing for taxpayers or will just less get done and I think that's
- what the legislature is gonna have to make an assessment about you know
- through the local budgeting cycle and into the next session I also think that
- there's a lot of one-offs that will need to be addressed so I'm going to use
- Morgan County I have almost the entire county and I hate getting into the weeds
- but on property taxes you know you have property tax replacement credits PTRC
- counties and you had some counties that were levy freeze this goes back a long
- time and as we're moving through my county calls me and they said this is
- going to affect us by this much I'm like no it's not you you just have to do this
- and this well there are about a dozen there are I don't know 20 some that
- counties that use PTRC there are maybe a dozen that use levy freeze my county is
- one of like four that use both and I was not aware of that so then they do have
- further limitations and I we couldn't fix it before the end but I do have the
- commitment from the chair of ways and means we need to find a way to fix that
- because that has a an incredible in impact on how the new formula will affect
- this particular county and I think we're going to find that as these budget
- sessions for local governments come around where we need to make tweaks now
- luckily because it's not an appropriation it can be done in an on
- budget session I think that we are actually going to be looking at some of
- these as early as August in trying to approach the the fixes for that and
- you're on both sides of it you have local government funding and you have
- your business members who are very concerned and you know business personal
- property tax is on both sides of that that two million dollar threshold sounds
- like a lot but most of the big manufacturing you know industries
- they're way beyond that so that two million catches all the little guys who
- have to pay their accountant you know $400 to figure out that they don't owe
- anything that's that's what's going to get caught or wrapped up into that under
- the two million dollar threshold of business personal property tax so that
- was that will help small businesses great anybody else well I just want to
- express my appreciation to the panel members for coming today and sharing
- your thought oh I'm sorry representative he didn't know I was just going to make
- one comment about my good friend down here on the far right talked about gray
- hair and gray facial hair he can just shave that beard off and he looked much
- younger so he don't have we don't have to you know there you go always a good
- suggestion well let's give a round of applause to our panelists thank you thank
- you very much I think one thing that I've taken away it well there are two
- things one we're going to continue to mess around with property taxes which is
- great for me second thing is you you'll will need the short session because
- obviously we've got more work to do in the state of Indiana but I I want to
- express my appreciation to all of you for your public service it's time away
- from your families your business and your communities and it's not easy you've
- got to respond to constituents you got to respond to people who are not your
- constituents and all of you are are exemplary public services service
- members so I greatly appreciate it I'd also like to express my appreciation to
- the Ellisville chamber for allowing me the opportunity to moderate it's been
- wonderful and without further ado I'm going to turn it over to you thank you
- have a great Tuesday I want to express our gratitude to our amazing panelists
- we don't take it lightly that you're here we really appreciate you taking your
- time to be with us today I also want to thank our moderator for being for
- moderating today Gretchen just you did a wonderful job thank you so much special
- thanks to our presenting sponsor Bloomington Board of Realtors for their
- generous support and we want to thank our gold sponsors Monroe County Farm Bureau
- and Indiana University office of the vice president of university relations
- for making this event possible we appreciate all of you being here today
- and taking your time and also remember to check out our website and look at
- those events that I mentioned earlier thank you so much for being here today
- (orchestral music)