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The Indiana General Assembly is currently reviewing the close to 1,000 bills that have been filed this session. And their beginning to shape the State’s $15.6 billion biennial budget. Their action could have a profound impact on local businesses and on the local communities so business are paying close attention to what’s happening.
Joining me on the show this week were Kyle Hannon, President & CEO of the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce; Rob Parker, President & CEO of the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce; and Rita Mrozinski, President & CEO of the Greater LaPorteChamber of Commerce. Each have the responsibilities of communicating the priorities of their local communities to the members of the General Assembly.
The State of Indiana does a terrific job of making the actions of the Indiana General Assembly accessible from every corner of the State. If you visit their web-site, you can find everything from the drafts of every bill, committee hearing schedules, amendments to bills, and ways to contact your legislators. And you can watch every committee meeting and every session live on the internet.
Most of our legislators in the region are very accessible to the public throughout the session. Each of the local Chambers of Commerce host a monthly Third House Session with their local legislators. At those sessions, members of the public are able to hear first-hand from Legislators on what’s happening at the Statehouse and how key priorities are advancing. Follow these links for a schedule of Third House meetings in your area:,Elkhart County, Kosciusko County, La Porte County, and St. Joseph County.
On the show this week, our field correspondent George Lepeniotis visited the South Bend Regional Chamber’s Third House meeting and interviewed State Senator Ryan Mishler. Mishler himself is a local businessman and entrepreneur.
The issue getting the most attention during the early part of the session is road funding. The State and Local governments are saying there isn’t enough money to maintain what they have, let alone consider any new infrastructure projects. In addition to routine maintenance like pothole repair, two key transportation priorities that include expensive price tags are upgrades to US 31 and US 30 are on the area to-do list.
The Indiana House Republicans have released their own infrastructure plan. Being debated are things like an increase in the gas tax, new registration fees, even tolling. An initial hearing lasted some seven hours and included testimony from both those in favor of a long term solution as well as those concerned about either new taxes or new fees. The legislators seem committed to coming up with a long term infrastructure plan prior to their late April adjournment.
Other key items are related to the development of the $15.6 billion biennial budget, the expansion of the statewide pre-k pilot program, funding for the South Shore railroad improvements, and various other workforce and education bills. We touched on a lot of them on the show.
Be sure to join us next week, as well welcome a couple of student entrepreneurs from the St. Joe CEO program, we’ll hear more about their business ideas and the important things they are learning in the class; they’ll tell us about a big event they have coming up entitled Start-Up the City, we’ll talk about how your student can become part of the program and we’ll hear more about where the program will be coming to next.