HANCOCK COUNTY — State Senator Mike Crider (R-Greenfield) and Representative Bob Cherry (R-Greenfield) shared with community members of Hancock County legislative progress at the state level during the Greenfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs & Issues Legislative Breakfast Tuesday morning.
Sen. Crider said, with this legislative session being a short session, the deadline for third reading on House Bills in the Senate was March 5, and there were approximately 17 bills left they had to consider Tuesday. Conference Committees start March 6, where bills can come back and be authored by another legislator.
During the first half of the session, Sen. Crider said that, out of the 297 bills that were introduced by the Senate, 110 were passed by the Senate and that 88% of bills received bipartisan support.
Some legislation that passed the Senate was also authored by Sen. Crider, which includes SB 45, SEA 109, SB 172 and SB 233.
“For me personally, my legislative work has continued to focus on access to mental health care and working to help with addiction issues,” Sen. Crider said.
SEA 109 deals with projecting Indiana’s endangered adults across the state and would allow the Family and Social Services Administration the flexibility to contact an outside entity besides the prosecutor if the prosecutor decides to decline or if they cannot provide the services to keep the adults projected.
Sen. Crider also said that while SEA 172 cleans up some language in legislation that passed previously, it will also look to expand the amount of people that will have access to Violent Crime Victims Compensation Fund and then allow up to two years to request services, such as mental health counseling opportunities.
A priority bill that Sen. Crider said rose to the top of the list was SB 2, dealing with increasing child care access and affordability. Senator Crider said that legislators felt child care had been becoming a limiting factor for work force participation and that the cost and number of providers of child care had held an impact as well. SB 2 would roll out new policies that help create more providers and cut certain regulations that drive up the cost of operating a child care facility.
Sen. Crider said they also continue to focus on environmental concerns, using SB 5 to address the issues being caused by old lead piping, and upgrading those lead water lines quicker and more efficiently to better help protect the peoples’ health.
“We’re doing as much as we can to try and improve policies,” Sen. Crider said. “At the end of the discussion that I am currently involved in, we’ll look at how we fund some of that activity and how we use Medicaid dollars to reimburse those services by doing what’s called a state plan amendment with FSSA to upgrade the way we pay for that kind of work that is necessary in a community.”
Sen. Crider said it’s been an honor to work alongside Rep. Cherry as he finishes his last year of 26 years in office.
Rep. Cherry said that he’s been blessed, and that “not every legislator can say that their person in the other chamber is cooperative and knowledgeable as what I’ve had.”
Rep. Cherry, touching on the fact that this year is a short session, said that the House had a five-bill limit, and introduced approximately 400 bills, with about 70 bills still alive. Rep. Cherry said while the last day to adjourn Sine Die is March 14, both House and Senate are aiming to adjourn earlier.
Priority bills in the House Chamber include HB 1001, 1002, 1003 and 1004 — and 1004 is authored by Rep. Cherry.
Rep. Cherry said that with HB 1001, they want to expand the use of the Frank O’Bannon Scholarship and the 21st Century Scholarship, which would include job training as an option along with the traditional college courses.
“If we can use it for vocational or training for these high-tech jobs, the scholarship money would be good for that too because not everyone needs to go to college but they do need to get further training,” Rep. Cherry said.
Rep. Cherry also said they are in support of boosting reading proficiency in the third graders across the state, where SB 1 will have students reading success rates at the forefront, committing to early detection and intervention with the possibility of retention for those who are not ready to move onto the fourth grade.
Sen. Crider answered a question about SB 1 and its retention, and said that schools like the bill except for the retention piece. Sen. Crider said that after visiting some schools, he left thinking that, even with all the intervention, if a child still couldn’t read, then there is something else that is happening.
“The question becomes what can we do to try to make sure that we’re doing everything possible to keep kids from getting in that position to start with,” Sen. Crider said. “From my perspective, I think we need to continue to focus on full-day, mandatory kindergarten, earlier high quality preschool — everything that we can do to give that student an equal opportunity to have success.”
Along with education, HB 1002 would aim to support Jewish communities both at home and on college campuses and K-12 classrooms. HB 1002 is authored by Rep. Chris Jeter (R-Fishers), who was unable to attend the Eggs & Issues Legislative Breakfast.
HB 1004 would provide a 13th check to an approximate 100,000 retired public servants across the state, utilizing existing, dedicated funds to make those one-time payments. Rep. Cherry said that, years ago, the Senate set up this fund for the pension, and that in a short session the check would not affect the budget since the money is already there and budgeted.
“We have more work to do in the Conference Committee on that, but hopefully we get that across the finish line,” Rep. Cherry said.
Lastly, HB 1003 aims to better support taxpayers and business owners that interact with state agencies and make a more efficient and balanced appeals process.
Rep. Cherry said that if there is one thing he is disappointed in during his time at the state it is that they haven’t cured the “thirst for property taxes.” Rep. Cherry said there are three ways to earn money; what is owned, what is spent and what is made — property tax, sales tax and income tax.
“We need to look at other alternatives to fund local government,” said Rep Cherry, using the Hancock County Public Library as an example, which is the only library in the state that is funded by income tax.
One of the final questions asked of Rep. Cherry was what he believed his greatest accomplishment was during his time serving as a representative, to which Rep. Cherry said he believed that the improvement that has been made with the fiscal standing of the state and rewarding schools. With the last few sessions, Rep. Cherry said they used to fund schools, but now they fund students.
To keep track of where each bill is in the second half of the session, visit iga.in.gov.
