The Regional Chamber of Northeast Indiana.

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Indiana lawmakers kicked off the 2020 for legislative session on Monday and what a week it's been already this past week including for example, Governor Eric Holcomb delivering his eighth and final State of the state address on Tuesday to the General Assembly.

>> The governor's aspirations for the coming weeks include two key areas that are in common with Republican legislative leadership.

They include improving third grade reading literacy and expanding access to child care by Thursday all bills for consideration at this session were filed and legislative priorities were announced by Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.

And so tonight on prime time, members from both chambers are with us to reflect on the opening week and the work ahead at the state house on the coming weeks and hear on PrimeTime Saints.

Good evening.

With us is 17th District Republican State Senator a.D.A and 18th District Republican State Representative and Assistant Majority Caucus Chair Dave Abbot and as always, we invite you to join us with your questions and comments.

You can call the number that you see on the screen as we expand ourselves.

There we go.

And in the middle is and these senators they Representative Ebbitt Dave, let me do your guys good to be with Happy New Year.

>> Good to be with you.

Thank you.

Likewise.

>> And the short session is certainly never any shorter on the kind of pace of activity the volume might shift a little bit between the budget sessions of every other year and the one we're involved in now.

It wasn't so long ago that House Speaker Todd Houston and President Pro Tem Roderick Bray were saying that maybe we can take a less is more approach in the coming session to to maybe ee if we can make the short session shorter after a seven day test run.

What's your sense of what kind of session is this possibly teeing up to be?

>> Well, I think it'll definitely be shorter but as you say, the pace will be, you know, pretty pretty busy.

It'll happen quickly.

It'll happen fast.

A number of the committees in the Senate have already met this week as you suggested in the opening, all the bills are filed some of those.

I think that was finalized and being sorted out to the committees this week.

So the Senate put out their priorities this week and those have been defined and you know those will those will start making their way through committee.

But as we move forward you can't delay in the committee.

It's a hearing.

It's a vote and that's getting on to the floor.

So the pace will be very, very quick.

And you know, I think it's a reflection of what we what we've done in the last six, eight months and what I mean by that as we came out of the April session this year, we did not have a technical correction which we usually do to go back and do some simple changes to bills that were passed in the statutes that were amended and in some committees particularly in education this year there was no summer education committee.

So you know, it's a it's an opportunity this year to really take a piece pick up some pieces that were need to be corrected from certainly the last big session which was a budget session and you know, fix those and move on and really for a lot of us get into a political spring could be a diffeent kind of rhythm day was what's it been like for you this week?

>> Well, look, Andy, you said we've we've dropped all the bills now.

We've actually had committee meetings all through the week starting on I think it was the second day we even had our first committee meeting.

We've got one bill in thirds and two on second on Tuesday which is very, very quickly usually that first weeks kind of kind of loosen up, stretch your muscles and get ready to go.

We hit the ground running and like you said, we've got some bills that are going to be clean up bills I'm working on one myself.

It's a clean up bill from a bill last year.

There's a number of them like that and then we got some policy issues that you know, as long as these are non fiscal bills you're going to see a litany of bills that may have cost to them but they can be absorbed by the agency.

Those would not be considered fiscal but there's a number of them that we're working on that really are follow up from last year and then smaller bills.

>> But there are also some good policy bills like educaton and health and things like that as a recipe of legislation for this short session was coming together Tuesday as mentioned it was Governor Holcomb's last joint address at the state House and being in the room for that and he brought a few secret ingredients of his own and some ones that are outgrowths of what took place over the past couple of years, particularly in health care and the push again toward toward literacy.

What was your sense of what 've been reading as a Reflektor State of the state address from the governor this year?

Well, I think that's very well stated.

I think the governor reflected on his his accomplishments, his successes, our successes as a state.

It's a good time to be a Hoosier.

And what I do think that the administration has done a pretty good job of is diversifying Indiana's economy with what they've done economic development wise and we've tried to be supportive with that on the other side of that and in enhancing and creating workforce development options and you know, we get into school with that where where you're talking about pathways to graduation.

We're talking about career and technical ed our students graduating K through 12 space with certificates and exposing them preparing for the work workforce and what's next because we want our graduates of high school to stay home.

We want them to be involved and understand what opportunities are available in their communities and available here in Indiana because of the coming workforce.

Challenges that we face in this economy are huge.

It's not you know, we're competing with the world economy.

We're competing, you know, among the United States and it's to keep that talent here and engaged in our advanced manufacturing among so many other things, Dave, that Work-Based learning that's that's a legislative priority which comes with an asterisk and a yellow highlighter I think in on the House side, you know, I hear more from employers from employers in particular that there's a workforce shortage.

We have a lack of science, math, critical thinking and even a lack of a showing what's reflective in some of our anxieties and our mental health issues that are in our K through 12 schools a lack of will to work.

So we have to address that in the school system and that's that's one of the priorities I think is extremely we can do a lot of economic development.

We can create housing but we really have to look at our schools and the problems within the school, especially with the third grade Ilorin testing.

We're testing students when really we should be addressing those needs earlier and provide some pathways for them for tutoring and other ways to keep them and catch them up to the rest of their cohort of students.

Those those are the things that are going to hold them back from graduating with the skills they need to fill these these needs in our economy.

>> It seems the literacy piece is something of extreme focus for both chambers as far as priority legislation when you hear one in five who's your third graders failed the state I read test and continue to struggle with foundation skills or the literacy rates among Indiana's third graders have dropped nearly 10 percent in the last decade.

What's possible in a short session to begin to to try to assist educatrs in in moving this needle in a positive direction?

>> Well, I think we have to be careful and when I said what I mean by that is I think there's a lot of tools already in the toolbox so some that is as you said suggested earlier putting an asterisk by making sure they're utilizing it um possibly channeling funding in that direction to support mentorship to support summer school in those types of things.

But the data historical data on third grade literacy is is very& well known if we don't get our children reading in the state and really anywhere throughout our country by the third grade there's a high percentage that they'll end up in our system in one way or another either in the welfare system or in the corrections system.

And so we're trying to prevent that in the early ages and we're trying to be partners and collaborate with our schools to make sure that those tools that they have are being best utilized or can best be utilized in the communities of the schools where they serve.

>> Yeah, I was noticing, Dave, that one proposal within the Senate bill one and certainly in the House bill Bill on to an extent is the notion of giving the I read test to second graders to try to be preemptive perhaps as far as who who moves forward, who gets held back and how many and exactly hallenging questions.

>> Exactly.

Yes, I appreciate that question that comment because you know, I just we just met with I don't know if you were with us, Sandy , but about 20 superintendents from the Wabash Valley which included in the schools in Fort Wayne and Southwest Allen and you know, we're used to hearing you know, we need more teachers or we need higher pay for teachers.

A lot of comments more in that direction now they're all focused in the island in particular and what that does the challenges that presents that child, it's the testing is too late at that point in time.

We're we're gauging that person's progress after we've had time to address it when it was happening earlier so that I learned in second grade and also child care and preschool get them prepared at a quicker time if we can get child care either in the workplace or in child care facilities that are affordable where parents can actually be home work with these children and that's the key.

If it doesn't start in the home then we're going to put that under the schools which is really a difficult task for them.

They're understaffed for it and for not doing until third grade when we decide we see they're failing.

>> We've failed because we haven't addressed it soon enough.

I know on the Senate side your colleague Senator Stabenow says that wouldn't regard to child care.

This is an infrastructure issue for the state of Indiana because it affects every aspect of our economy.

>> Yes, it can.

And I think the key is is not to add any more regulation, any more restriction.

It's actually repeal some of that back.

And we have a program called On Your Way pre-K which is not even being fully utilized in some parts of the state.

They're marketing pretty expansively and still trying to fill those courses.-But it's a t opportunity to reach younger kids and get them prepared for school and define some of the issues that where we can begin to remediate and begin to bring in mentors and others to to advance that.

So they're prepared for second and third grade I read test and get them literate.

Yeah, This notion of explaining this I saw that within the child care measure it was to your point earlier, David, that anything nonphysical that could still assist with child care would be on the radar for the coming weeks and that if there is a fiscal component it moves back in line for conideration say 12 months out would be next session now.

Now that being said, of course there are fiscals that can be passed this year.

I mean for instance, property taxes, things like that or local funding that doesn't open the state budget.

So we do have other avenues there at a local level.

There's grants of course and opportunities like that to that point I think it's one of your pieces of legislation with the idea of looking for tax deduction and credits for persons 65 or older.

>> Yes.

So you have my attention talking.

I got my own attention on all of us.

We add up to one hundred and eighty or so.

I'm not that excuse me.

>> Yeah.

What I want to do what we're trying to do is we recognize an ongoing problem for our population 65 and older for example.

They've lived in that house all their life .

Their parents lived in it and you know, they've had a regular job.

They're not you know, these super wealthy people.

They're like the common working man that they've lived in the house that they haven't really done a lot of improvements to.

But the assessed value of the homes around them have gone up.

Their assessed value has gone up tremendously and likewise the tax burden even if it didn't change the rate the assessed value has priced them out of their house and they're having a hard time just paying the bills.

So what we're trying to do is just take some of these existing deductions to get the over 65 deduction.

But there are criteria on how much that house is worth and right now currently it's up to two hundred and forty thousand dollars is the maximum your house can be worth and get that fourteen thousand dollar deduction you we looked at a lot of scenarios because if you raise it too high then you have such a tax shift by the over sixty five getting that benefit from the higher deduction and also there's a cap loss too if too much of the tax in other words if you're giving too much of a break to everybody a select group someone's got to make that up because you have a levy that has to be met by the county and so you have to be really careful how much how many tax dollars you shift and how many people you push over there.

One percent cap for a homestead .

What that basically means is that's that's dollars that don't go back to the county.

I don't get shift.

That's tax loss.

But we want to help these people and we're trying to do it in a very small way, raise it to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, increase the income from forty thousand dollars for a married couple for instance to fifty thousand just to keep up with inflation.

There is an automatic escalator on on the on the income goes of the Social Security COLA.

But in addition to that we think we need to jump ahead a little bit to three hundred fifty thousand at least and next year we're going to be addressing taxes as a whole but for now this would give us a little give them a break and then we'll look at it in a bigger, bigger scope next year.

>> Under the topic of taxes, gentlemen here has a bill that has been receiving powerful attention and that Senate bill ninety eight the idea of a dependent child exemption.

>> Yes.

I'll have you take it from there.

OK, well are state for life we spent a lot of time a summer ago, you know, legislating that and standing up for life here in Indiana and the question on the other side of that is how are we supposed supporting pregnant mothers and how are we supporting kids once they are born and families?

And so for me this kind of seemed like a natural deduction that we could add to our tax code where if a woman is pregnant they get credit for that tax or for that child if it carried over the the year.

So if you're pregnant until twenty three and the baby was born in twenty twenty four you could actually claim that child as a deduction and I think it's twofold.

It's certainly giving a deduction to that family as they begin to start that family with the new child in.

The second thing is we talk about infant mortality in the state of Indiana and a big part of infant mortality is pregnant mothers engaging with their doctors Uruguayans early and so this encourages that and incentivizes that to get our mothers in connection with doctors so they can begin some prenatal care.

They can have the radiological services to see the health of that baby and nurture it as they work towards birth.

So I would hope that it can do two things in that regard.

The challenge of course is this year it is a there is a fiscal element that probably will not allow it to fulfill and completely through the process.

But we do have a hearing this week and I'm excited about sharing the idea with the tax and fiscal committee in the Senate and we have some folks coming in to testify and it's pretty, pretty unique idea that's been only shared and or been done in two other states Georgia, Wisconsin are both looking at it.

And so I look forward to having the hearing this year and see what can possibly be done with it next year.

There's some wrinkles to work out and some details that still need to be figured out with legislation.

But conceptually in being a state for life I think we need to celebrate that and support that from its infancy at conception to birth and beyond.

>> We are talking this evening with State Senator NDA and also with State Representative Dave Abbott here on prime time.

If you'd like to join us, you see the number on the screen.

Please feel free to to call in a question or comment with the gentleman both Andy and Dave and several others bringing attention within the last couple of months to something that's been going on for multiple years.

And I feel like a lot of us were catching up on the cause of a road we've traveled frequently in Indiana that's U.S. 30 and the notion that its time has come to move from a highway to a freeway and we're all having to go back to school to find out what the difference is because sometimes we use those words interchangeably.

But Dave, let me start with you because you have a piece of legislation here as well regarding annexation which also seems to speak powerfully to the idea of part of that annexation, including roads in addition to two tons.

>> So let's start there.

You see thirty's in the spotlight.

>> What are we trying to fix?

Well, the traffic congestion the safety I think is the big one.

There's a lot of heavy truck traffic.

You've got SDI, B.F. Goodrich, you've got zero Biomet the medical community is and now we have Amazon so we've seen with with the traffic lights the congestion especially around the Columbia City Warsaw area that has caused a situation where not only are the businesses concerned about the time travel and that's lost to them and this has been going on for years and years.

It's building more and more as we grow.

We're getting to a point now where corporations have told us that we're not going to continue to grow unless we improve this highway system going to Chicago in particular, it's not feasible for them to go the toll road crew up 69.

They want to make that short.

That's dollars.

That's truck that's truck dollars and gas time and everything else.

So it's it's it's time it's time that we take this and turn it into I would call a kind of a limited interstate because you're still going to have-acceo have cloverleaf.

But as you go through some of the towns like say Columbia bypassing those is a big challeng.

So that's one of the things it is really a talking point now with the Papel 30 within DOT when they're laying out this study, how we're going to do this is how to facilitate these changes to make it happen and of course, you know, keep safety is number one concern.

>> Yeah.

Even going through Huntington County on twenty four even that idea going from two to four lanes has made a world of difference now it is it's the idea spawns a little bit I think are made mainly from economic development and we've obviously had a huge investment in economic development in the last eight to ten years where we've seen some of our industries grow and the investmnts that we've partnered with our industry industries to keep them here.

But a huge part of that is logistics, whether it's getting them the parts or delivering their parts to the marketplace and a challenge many years ago that was completed with the Heartland corridor was twenty four from Lafayette to Toledo four lane all the way and we have that with thirty.

But you know it's really become a safety concern as as much as it has an economic development concern along the corridor of 30 there's been multiple incidents over the last few years.

We've actually the semis hitting semis whether it's in anticipation or lack of anticipation heading in and out of the stoplights.

And so, you know, there are things there that really need to be corrected.

If we can limit some of those intersections, it'll be safer both for the casual traveler traveler or the work traveler and the business travel and you know, those are those are things that we need to look at and things we particularly need to look at here in northeast Indiana because we need to make sure we're getting our fair share of funding not only from the federal government but also from Indianapolis and getting those dollars invested up here in our community and that's been a priority of our whole delegation up here to continue to emphasize that and begin the process of environmental studies, engineering studies and begin to lay that out.

And my hope is that we can begin to pick off some of these intersections because it's going to take a 10 or 20 year project and and a lot of money to do it.

But if we can hit some of those troubling intersections I think is people navigate a Highway 30 if that's what we're going to call Freeway 30 that they will begin to see the benefits of that infrastructure improvement.

So I think that's what we're all hopeful for .

You know, we can make it certainly important for economic development but even more importantly safe even as it's a short session, it's even a shorter prime time.

>> We're down to the last couple of minutes I've let me give each of you at least a minute to say that in the weeks to come what other legislative subject area or a bill that you're proposing, are you looking forward to following a date from start with a promise?

>> I'll keep this short.

I'm very passionate about this.

Back in 2008 nineteen in all goodwill the state of Indiana, the Dinaw in particular remapped the entire state they did a lighter from the in-house laser and then they also did it from the ground and they did modeling to determine where the flood plains are because about a third of our states covered by FEMA flood plains and that's data that's used to decide whether or not you need floodplain insurance if you're participating in the program, if you're buying a house, you have a mortgage, you're in a floodplain.

You have to have the insurance they remapped it.

Unfortunately there has been in the last couple of sessions some efforts we've done legislatively to correct where a house has been put into a floodplain.

Well, it is not in a floodplain and that a complicated to get into.

That's why I keep this short.

What my bill's going to do is slow this whole process down of adopting these maps until we've had time to allow the property owner to appeal at no cost to have the DNR come back out and remeasure some of these errors get them right.

We don't want to lose millions of dollars and we've had examples of some businesses we're going to expand.

They found out they were in a floodplain that they were not in really once they re challenged that data and had it fixed that kept their business in this state, it was going to move out of the state because they were drawn into a flood plain that didn't exist.

So we want good flood plains.

>> We just want them right there, you know, and how about using some technical corrections?

I've spent some time working with the Indiana Geological and Water Survey which does the mapping for the state and some things like that.

So we're working on some conflicting education credits for that licensure and then I continue to be focused on parental rights and making sure that the parents are engaged in our kids health care both with their doctors and in the school environment.

As we talk about school based health clinics becoming more prolific throughout the state in the country, we need to make sure that parents are signing off and approving that whether it's physical health or mental health .

And so I have a piece of legislation that I carried last year filed again this year to keep parents in tune with that.

But it's Indiana is a great place to live and it's a great time to live here.

We have challenges and we're ready to face them and we've done a lot of that good work prior to the session.

So hopefully this year will be a lot of technical corrections .

We can get in and out of Indianapolis and get on with running the state and I'd be remiss if we didn't at least recognize that you have filed for candidacy for Congress.

Thank you.

Maybe a comment or two on on on that in 30 seconds or less.

Well, it's been an honor to serve District Seventeen and in the four counties that I've served over eight years and you know, Jim Banks have served us very well here in northeast Indiana as he moves up for the Senate seat.

We need to make sure we have somebody that's familiar with legislative work, that's familiar with constituent services and you know, I hope I can take my efforts and you know, my my legislative ability forward to the US Congress and we've been working very hard to do that and now we've got to double down and do everything we've in the last ten months and four months and twice as much.

So it's going to be going to be a sprint now and away the short session goes it'll be objects in the mirror are always closer than they appear.

>> So your best wishes for the weeks ahead to you to you both in your activity and we'll be following progress with the session right here Friday nights at Seven Thirty our guests this week Seventeenth District Republican State Senator a.D.A 18th District Republican State Representative Chair Dave Ebbitt.

Gentlemen, thank you very, very much.

And next week we will have House leadership in the House.

We will have House Majority Floor Leader Matt Laman and House Democratic leader Phil Laquinta joining us right here on set and we hope you'll be with us as well.

I'm Bruce Haines for all of us with prime time.

Thanks for watching.

Take care.

We'll see you then.

Goodnight The Regional Chamber of Northeast Indiana.

Advocates for a world class infrastructure, a competitive business climate, 21st century talent and rural investment.

One region, one voice.

NEINAdvocates.com.