HANCOCK COUNTY – With the legislative session for 2024 coming to an end the night of March 8, State Senator of District 28 Michael Crider and State Representative of District 53 Bob Cherry reflected on their bills and which ones made their way to the governor’s desk.
Out of all the bills introduced during the session, 172 were passed to the next step of a signature, according to the 2024 Bill Watch website. Gov. Eric Holcomb has seven days from the time a bill reaches his desk to sign it or veto it. If he doesn’t do either after seven days, it automatically becomes the law, effective July 1.
Rep. Cherry said the last week of the session went quick and they finished everything by 9:30 p.m. Friday night. Rep. Cherry said when he has been there as long as he has, surprises don’t happen anymore.
“It seemed like everything came together. We didn’t have that many hot issues out there,” Rep. Cherry said. “A few bills died, but again I think the session went pretty good.”
Rep. Cherry’s bill addressing the 13th check, House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1004, was signed into law on Wednesday, which will provide a one-time, post-retirement payment to help cover cost-of-living gaps for retired public employees.
“It’s wonderful,” said Rep. Cherry when asked about how he felt that HEA 1004 passed this session. “I’ve had a lot of phone calls, and a lot of people said it affects them and I really appreciate the support.”
Rep. Cherry also wanted to mention that Sen. Crider co-sponsored the bill, and that he always appreciates Sen. Crider’s help.
HEA 1120, which Rep. Cherry co-authored, was also signed into law on Wednesday and will increase the assessed value limit for the disabled veteran property tax deduction from $200,000 to $240,000.
Despite the session just finishing and this being his last year as representative, Rep. Cherry still has work to do. He said that he’ll have a budget meeting in the beginning of April and will still hold his responsibilities as he is a part of the Whitewater State Park Commission and the Indiana State Fair Advisory Committee.
Sen. Crider said that in the 12 years he’s been at the Statehouse, this last session was one of the most unusual but still went well overall, mentioning that tight timelines and some legislation didn’t move through because there just wasn’t time for committee hearings.
“We said we were going to try and get in and out and move a few priority issues, which we got most of our priority things done,” Sen. Crider said.
Two of Sen. Crider’s bills that were signed into law already were SEA 109 and SEA 172.
SEA 109 will allow the Division of Aging to contract with qualified individuals to provide adult protective services and SEA 172 will work on compensation for victims of violent crimes.
“When you can work on things like adult protective services and helping victims of violent crime, that’s a rewarding thing to be a part of,” Sen. Crider said.
Sen. Crider said he also was an author of SEA 23, which will deal with damage to correctional facilities.
Sen. Crider said that there have been problems within certain jails where inmates will cause damage that is significant in the way it interrupts, such as a damaged sprinkler system causing a jail to have to be evacuated.
SEA 182 that Sen. Crider co-authored was also signed, which deals with the regulation of drones near correctional facilities since there has been an issue in the past of contraband being dropped over prison walls.
“Trying to help on the public safety side and corrections side, so it’s one of those I often get asked, just based on my law enforcement background, to be involved in some of those things,” Sen. Crider said.
Sen. Crider said Senate Bill 10 was amended into another bill, looking at ways to improve the mobile crisis response effort.
“Senate Bill 10 really begins to look at ways to use public safety to be more proactive, and maybe try to interact with some of these folks who are known to have significant mental health challenges before they get all the way into crisis,” Sen. Crider said.
Sen. Crider said one of the most significant challenges is when individuals will need a short-term inpatient psychiatric intervention, but there isn’t enough capacity in the mental healthcare system.
With the legislative session ending, Sen. Crider said there is still plenty of work to do on enhancements to the mental health system — continuing to build off of SEA 1 from the 2023 session.
Sen. Crider said Hancock County is doing a great job with initiatives, such as the mobile crisis team, Healthy 365 and mental health navigators working.
“I’m really proud of what Hancock County has done and what we’re trying to do here locally,” Sen. Crider said.
To view the complete list of bills and status of signature, visit https://www.in.gov/gov/newsroom/2024-bill-watch/.
