The Regional Chamber of Northeast Indiana.

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It's the end of the third week for Indiana's 2024 General Assembly and state lawmakers are reaching a key point in this short session.

>> Next week is the last chance for bills to have committee hearings before they die.

>> Even so, several measures took big steps forward this week.

Among them a Democrat led House bill that would decriminalize fentanyl test strips that cleared the courts of criminal code committee.

>> The House unanimously voted to offer former public employees a retirement benefit boost known as a 13th check.

>> That bill heads to the Senate as does a Republican House priority measure to define anti-Semitism in state law and state education code excuse me and to expand the use of state higher education dollars on job training.

The Indiana Senate cleared legislation that would remove Hoosier governors ability to extend a state of disaster emergency after 30 days unless lawmakers reconvene and approve additional time.

>> The Senate's tax committee is looking at new property tax breaks to alleviate the state's child care deserts and find more affordable options at the state and local tax review task force scrutinizing Indiana's tax system held its latest meeting earlier this month and that group is led by one of our guests who joins us tonight as we thank you for joining us as well for prime time.

Good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

With us is 19th District Republican State Senator Travis Goldman who is majority caucus chair as well as tax and fiscal policy committee chair and state and local tax review task force chair.

>> Also with us is 80 2nd District Democratic State Representative Kyle Miller.

His committee work encompasses commerce, small business and economic development, public policy, veterans affairs and public safety and financial institutions and we invite you to join the conversation we're going to have here.

Just call in your questions and comments.

You see the number right there on the screen as we widen out and say Happy New Year to Senator Holdman.

>> Thank you, Ed Miller.

Travis Kyle and your business cards.

>> Both of you can only get longer.

It's going to be a Fold-out version here after all how to get all the time don't be impressed.

>> Well, it is something to start, I'll tell you.

And in the midst of following all things at the state house with committee hearing deadlines coming and nearing this halfway point, what's your sense of it all so far?

How is the session going?

>> Well, I'm sorry Miller and I talked earlier.

It's been kind of crazy for a short session just so much jam packed in with a tight schedule to be finished up here in just a week from next Tuesday for us and I think a week from next Monday for the House.

So we're moving moving things along quickly.

>> It has been very, very quick and as has Senator Coleman and I talked earlier, it's it's been interesting to talk to people that have been here a lot longer than I have.

This is just my my second year down at the state house and it's been really interesting to talk to people that have been there a lot longer than me to see if it's just feeling like it's very, very quick because it's my first short session and we have to adjourn by early March or or if things really are moving very quickly.

And so as Travis said, we are we're trying to get everything accomplished in a short period of time and so bills are flying everywhere.

>> Yeah.

And among them bills that seem to speak to both chambers, both parties some common topics, some differences in detail.

But among those for starters a priority this session is literacy and addressing the need for students to read at grade level and successfully pass the I read test.

>> And Travis, you're you're one of the coauthors of a Senate bill that is a priority focus for that chamber in improving who's your reading skills?

>> What it talk about that measure?

What's it seeking to address?

Well, it's really seeking to address the what is now currently the fail rate of the I read test and third grade which is about one in five students fail the test.

So we're working to remediate those students faster than what we've been in the past was the first test being given in the second grade and that would be mandatory.

So we get those kids fast tracked for remediation summer school extra tutoring, whatever we can do to move those kids along to read.

It's just very important that we can't move kids from one grade to the next without being able to attain that reading skills that they need.

>> I understand that the measure cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday and so it will be moving to the full chamber and sounds like the education secretary believe it was said that there could be funds to start rolling out testing some of these themes for summer school and the science of science of reading the a lot of the additional funds are observable with what we already have in the coffers and so it's not going to take extra dollars necessarily.

We'll just have to move some dollars around to make that work.

>> And Kyle, solving the third grade reading proficiency crisis that's focus in the House for four for both parties and certainly key on the Democrats agenda.

>> Yeah, it absolutely is.

And and we I think we all recognize that there is an issue we have as Senator Coleman said, we have a pretty high failure rate on the I read and so I will obviously have the debate in the House as it's as it's happened to the Senate to and I think that, you know, we will we will develop different ideas or how to how to affect that how to how to change that.

I think that I applaud the effort to move testing back because I think that if at third grade it's almost too late for some of these students and if we if we lose them and they go further beyond that, we kind of have lost them for good.

And so the further we can kind of roll that back to second first grade and kind of test and see where our students are and remediate those students that need that help before they hit that that big third grade benchmark I think is really good.

>> I think I think part of the problem is really we're growing out of the pandemic because the other issue is not a priority Bill.

But one of the things we're taking a look at is just the truancy rate is really high and parents are not diligent as they should be to get their kids to school and the truancy rate is really kind of off the charts right now.

And so we need to do all we can to keep the kids in school because it all relates to learning and reading is just a result or the lack of reading skills is just a result of that truancy and that lack of discipline.

>> Well, another shared topic between the chambers is the notion of increasing access to affordable high quality child care.

>> Indiana lawmakers looking at making, for example, for profit child care providers tax exempt, maybe providing some new property tax breaks to alleviate the state's child care desert's as identified.

This is a big measure, Senator, for you and how does this particular approach incentivize child care?

>> Well, the one bill that we have that Senator Rogers that I'm a co author on just allows for a tax credit or an exemption on the property tax side for employers that use a portion of their business to house the daycare center or child care center.

So we're really doing what we can because the lack of workforce and one of the main problems we have for folks who can't join the workforce is they have children at home and they need daycare for those kids.

So we've got to do what we can to support the family which at the same time gets those people back to work and again, a shared theme on the House side too.

>> Yeah, we House Democrats have recognized this as a many years now and it really has become a workforce issue.

I say this to people and they kind of chuckle but its true.

It's sometimes too expensive for folks to work and because of the massive cost of child care.

And so, you know, there are there are really great ideas flying around about how to fix that and how to how to alleviate some of that.

I think now that it's affecting our workforce, the business community can really come together with our policymakers and and develop some of these solutions that allow for more access to child care and reduced costs in child care to get some of these people back to work.

>> How much of this legislation is possible in a short session where historically we're not you know, things that involve a fiscal impact often are deferred to the following year.

>> So many of the things that have to do with child care have to do with rules and regulations.

And so we're looking at what we can do to lessen the rules and regulations on child care providers.

For instance, one of the things that we are looking to do is to allow for 16 and 17 year olds to work as long as they're supervised in a daycare center on a part time basis.

So after school or evenings summertime on 16 and 17 year olds could work in a daycare center, provide that daycare.

So we're looking at all kinds of ways to lessen the rules and regulations we also have the option to do I think there are six or seven pilot programs that we're looking to put in place to do pretty much like charter schools do that they start with no rules and you make the rules as you go so that we just don't overburden folks with too many rules and regulations on child care.

But keeping in mind child safety is the most important part of that.

Yeah.

I think Travis makes a great point too about the differences between a long session and a short session obviously in a short session we aren't going to open up the budget and start taking money out, putting money in and things like that.

And so you know, so many of these big issues like child care access have multiple parts to them.

There are rules and regulations that we need to take a look at and there are fiscal impacts that we need to take look at and things we can do with the state budget to ease some of that some of those issues.

And so a short time a short session is really the perfect time to since we know we can't talk about the financial side of things, let's look at the rules and regulations of not just this issue but multiple issues and see what can we do in this time frame so we don't have to have those debates.

We can have broader debates on the fiscal impact of these issues in a longer session.

>> You know, both of you touched on this and the idea that this is a workforce issue which may not necessarily be the first thing you get to when you hear the words Trocaire.

But I want to get your thoughts on Andrew Berger's comments.

He is with the Indiana manufacturers Association says there are 20000 active manufacturing openings in Indiana but without better child care filling those will be difficult and he literally called it an economic develop issue.

Yeah, it's Senator Alben and I have worked together longer long enough that hopefully he knows that I don't get too partizan.

But this is something that House Democrats have been saying for for a long time that the access to child care has been a barrier for not just workforce but but other issues as well.

And so, you know, the fact that it's now become a workforce issue and we're addressing it as such is is great.

We quite honestly don't care what the impetus for looking at it very deeply is.

And so it absolutely is a workforce issue and you know, we all in the legislature are thrilled that it's getting a look and seeing what we can do about it.

>> I think we've lost so many daycare providers and so our capacity is wide open right now.

We just have so many openings for daycare centers that have gone out of business.

We lost anecdotally I know we've lost a number of churches who provided daycare programs but the pandemic came along and put them out of business and a lot of them did not start back up and so it's really put us at a loss for daycare centers.

But we have a we need something to expand capacity right now because we're just really coming up short on providers and we are on prime time here this evening with State Senator Travis Holdman, State Representative Kyle Miller and we encourage to join us as Fred has.

And so let's bring Fred on board.

Go ahead, sir, with your question or comment please.

The question I have having lost in the House bill last year is the 13th district for retirees being revived in either chamber.

And finally, congratulations to Representative Miller and the good work and especially Senator Colema and his work with the.

>> Well, thank you.

Thank you very much.

What we saw on the House side with with with the 13th check first of all, what do we mean by that?

>> So the 13 check would provide an additional check from state funds for our Hoosier retirees there on the public retirement system.

And so it's been part of the House Democrats agenda to get that passed through the House.

Travis, you can correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe the House passed it last year as well.

It died in the Senate and so we passed it again this year to give retirees that extra 13th check that extra that that extra money to kind of takepsomr retirees.

And so we were happy to do it.

We continue to support that and hope it goes well in the Senate .

It's it's an interesting issue and topic to talk about.

I was on some summer study committee that looked at looked at that issue whether 13th check or a COLA was better for the state budget, better for retirees and so we'll continue to have those conversations in the House.

We were thrilled to pass a 13 check for retirees and on the Senate it was very clever for Senator Miller to point out that they passed it last year and it died in the House.

>> They passed it again.

So we'll see what happens the there was a really push and pull with the 13th check issue because some folks want a COLA if you have a higher retirement coming to you, a cola means more to you than a 13 check perhaps because that cola lasts for the life of that benefit.

So it could be years and years that you get that one or two percent increase.

But those folks who are retired many years ago may have only three or four hundred dollars coming to them on a monthly basis and so the the thirteenth check has more meaning to them than the COLA does.

We've had a lot of grief to pay a few years ago when we passed a one percent cola which for someone who's getting a two hundred dollar check meant very little to them.

But we're taking a look at we have a representative Miller said we had a summer study committee and study committee looking at this issue and Senator Buchanan has a bill that we'll see if it can move or not.

There's a lot of a lot of push to get that 13th check so and so.

>> Fred, thank you very much.

We'll see how that follows in the coming weeks.

Thank you very much for your call if you'd like to join us as well.

You see the phone number there, please feel free to do so.

Something that has been added to the legislative list comes with the letters AC it seems Kyle, there are several proposed measures regarding fabricated media and artificial intelligence of which you're an author or coauthor in a couple of cases and what these bills trying to do.

>> So I think it's important to point out I authored a fabricated media bill by my House Democratic colleague Blake Johnson also did and my my Republican colleague Julie Althoff also did.

And so it just shows that this is this is becoming a big issue.

I think the EHI in general is just a wild west and there are areas where artificial intelligence can be phenomenal and really, really helpful to make our lives more efficient and better.

And I think there are other areas where it is potentially extremely harmful and damaging to our society.

And so one of the ways we've we've taken a look in the house is fabricated media within elections.

Some of these things that you're able to do with artificial intelligence is is incredible and you almost can't tell the difference between say real life but you know what's been what's been created and what has actually happened and so we want to make sure to limit the use of artificial intelligence intelligence in elections in particular.

You know, votes are obviously extremely important to people and to have something like artificial intelligence that could really disrupt our entire system and put out a lot of falsehoods and a lot of a lot of fake things is is not something we want in something as sacred as our elections and so believe it passed on second reading Representative Al Toff's bill passed on second reading and we'll go two thirds third reading and then hopefully over to the Senate where they'll have debate on on the same thing.

>> Are you hearing anything I ish in the Senate?

We are we have a bill I can't recall which state senator has the bill that they're pushing forward with.

But I agree with Kyl that it's very dangerous in this new territory that we're moving into and prevention is the difficult part when somebody commits a crime or does a bad thing involving A.I.

we try to pick up the pieces after that.

After that occurs elections and criminal acts and those kind of things are very dangerous and that's just those things we've got to stay on top of or get on top of probably be the best term to use.

>> Yeah, it seems like a whole new category of activity across I'm sure all 50 states and beyond.

One thing though that remains familiar we if we're not talking about death, we're talking about Texas.

We have a gentleman here who has stepped forward with the state and local tax review task force from Senate and roll back three just a year ago seems like only yesterday on this show can't end without asking how's it going in its first year plus it's going well.

>> We started last September with our first hearing.

We met in September, October , November took December off and we actually had a meeting in January as you mentioned earlier and we heard from experts from all over the country coming to us, talking to us doing sort of a comparative analysis where Indiana lags with other states and some recommendations on what to do and what not to do if we're going to change the tax structure in the state to be more equitable but at the same time be more attractive to keep our folks here from moving out of state when they become retired, keep our young people here and attract business to the state of Indiana.

New people coming in the January meeting was the first meeting where we've actually had testimony from citizens to come and speak to us and so we had a lot of groups we'll have one more meeting in April will chair of the committee and then I turned the chair over to Representative Thompson who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee and he will finish it out and we'll start to put some meat on the bones to take a look at what we can actually do with taxes and taxation in the state of Indiana.

We're taking a look at property tax, individual income tax, corporate tax, every form of taxation, sales tax.

We're looking at everything to see what we can do to even things up and making things more fair than what they have been.

Property tax seems to be the most complicated for us to be honest with you because there's so many exemptions and deductions that are allowed.

It's really turned into a wealth tax for folks because in many cases individuals homestead is the single largest asset that they own and we saw sort of an aberration with assessments going up with the economy and inflation drove assessment's up 20 30 percent in some cases.

So we're doing what we can to control local spending.

We put a cap last year in session at four percent on the MLG Q which is a maximum levy growth quotient which is the amount of levy that local units can take and property tax is limited to just four percent for two years.

But we're going to have to do something because if we take that away and put it back where it would have been, it's going to go to five point six percent.

What the projection is that be a 40 percent increase in levy and if we heard from our constituents to 18 months ago about the high property taxes, there will be nothing compared to what we're going to hear if we don't fix fix that and put a control even further on local spending right.

We you well, I remember you saying and earlier that one of the reasons we're doing this study is that if we don't do this study we will be passed.

>> That's right by other states.

It seems like everyone's driving to get the individual income tax to zero or to reduce their property tax as best they can and we've got to stay competitive.

We had been number nine as far as tax climate ranked by the Tax Foundation, a national organization that rates your your tax climate.

We were number nine , the best in the nation and last year we slipped to ten.

If we stand still will fall backwards and other states will pass us by.

So we have to be diligent to take a look at every farm we can and I'm being diligent and being told that we are under our own two minute warning as we move toward the close of the program which is one minute apiece to ask the general question you were both involved with other aspects of legislation in your chambers.

Kyl, let me start with you, sir.

Another bill that maybe you've authored or have been involved with we mentioned the fentanyl tester one or there's anything else that you're following here in the coming weeks?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

I think those are those are really important issues.

The final test strips in effect would decriminalize using them to test fentanyl and the idea is, you know, fentanyl continues to be such a such a scourge and a damage on our communities that if folks are going to use it we should be able to test test different things with these test strips and not criminalize the test strips themselves.

We want people we want people to get help for drug addiction and things like that obviously.

But we also want to make sure that they're not dying from from fentanyl and so things like that are extremely important and it's been a very quick session and a quick half a session and we'll see what the Senate sends us and and have more debate on those bills.

Do which might include what other bills are you following, sir?

>> Senate bill for was just intrigued me.

We had a study done of all of the small pockets of money funds that were sitting out there, dozens and dozens of funds that were just sitting dormant which accounted about forty million dollars.

And so we're taking that money and reversing all of that back to the general fund and trying to fill the gap with Medicaid that we're in the hole on with Medicaid right now and for all that in the tourism improvement districts and and a variety of other activities the door all involved in.

Thank you for that continued work, sir.

Thank you.

Good luck the rest of the way for both of you and thank you.-e way all together here on Prime time Republican State Senator Travis Hoeven, Democratic State Representative Kyle Miller and Bruce Heinsohn for everyone with prime time, thank you for joining us.

>> We'll see you next week.

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.