Roads dominate session

Local legislators have their hands firmly grasped at 10 and 2.

While the biannual budget will always be the No. 1 priority for the Indiana General Assembly during years ending in an odd number, Rep. Greg Beumer (R-Modoc) and Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle) steered the conversation to roads Saturday morning. They also discussed education, legislative priorities and the general tone of politics during a Third House Session hosted by Jay County Chamber of Commerce at Community Resource Center in Portland.

Beumer explained proposed legislation, noting that about $1.2 billion in additional annual funding is needed for Indiana Department of Transportation just to be able to maintain the state’s more than 19,000 bridges and 98,000 miles of roads. Of those, he said, 66,000 miles are county roads.

House Bill 1002 would create several new or expanded funding sources for those roads.

Those include:

•Increasing the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon. The tax, currently 18 cents per gallon, was last increased in 2003, and Beumer noted that inflation is 31 percent over that 14-year span. (The bill also provides for an annual gas tax increase based on an index factor.)

•Over a period of four years, transferring money from the sales tax on gas from the general fund to instead be used on roads. (Currently, 2.5 cents of that tax per dollar of gas sold goes to roads while the remaining 4.5 cents goes to the general fund.)

•Charging a $15 fee per vehicle (or $150 per electric vehicle) at the time of registration. That money would go into the Community Crossings Matching Grant Program created last year.

“The one priority that we want to establish is that we certainly want to maintain what we have,” said Beumer, who represents all of Jay and Randolph counties and part of Delaware County. “Please rest assured that it is one the top priorities for members of the legislature that your dollars, if the gas tax goes up, are going to maintain, finish, and only then do we start new construction. But most importantly, the money is going to roads and bridges.”

Holdman said he has already heard from those outside of Indiana who say the state doesn’t need to increase taxes in order to approve its roads. But he noted that in recent years state legislators have limited the inheritance tax, capped property taxes and lowered personal and corporate income taxes. In short, he said, there isn’t anywhere else to turn for funds.

“If I felt like we were wasting dollars at the state level, I would be the first to complain, because I’m all for efficiency,” said Holdman. “But folks, we have cut it to the bone, in my opinion.”

Rural Bryant resident Doug Horn spoke in favor of all of the taxes and fees, noting the importance of infrastructure to everyday Hoosier life. He expressed his belief that legislators must do the job of explaining and selling the funding plan because the need for road upkeep is a foregone conclusion.

“This gas tax, you pay for roads so you can get here today or so you can run your business,” he said. “I don’t know why we waited so long. …

“If we don’t have roads, we don’t have industries, school buses cost more to drive. Instead of being what we want to be with drawing industries and being a crossroads, people are going to drive around us.”

The legislators spent most of the morning responding to questions, including from Portland resident Tony Giltner about legislative priorities. There has been too much focus on “booze, guns and gambling,” he said, when schools, taxes and wages have a much greater impact on the quality of Hoosier lives.

In response, Beumer listed off a series of house bills, saying that the numbering system is intended to set priorities. Behind 1001 (budget) and 1002 (road funding), the rest of the first eight bills include topics such as ISTEP testing, pre-school, the method for choosing the superintendent of public instruction, mental health, education course access and workforce development.

Holdman added that the Regional Cities initiative approved during the 2015 session targeted improving such quality-of-life issues. And, he said, though Jay County was not involved in the groups that received money in the first cycle, he believes new Gov. Eric Holcomb is committed to continuing it in order to provide more opportunities in the future.

Jay County resident Gary Schmiesing asked about the state of political discourse.

“My concern comes from what’s happening in the Republican Party in general, and I’m talking about what we’re teaching our kids,” said Schmiesing, who identified himself as a Republican. “That people can call other candidates liars, cheats, crooks. If I had said that when I was a kid I would have been well disciplined.”

Beumer acknowledged those concerns as part of a greater societal issue. Holdman agreed that there is a problem as well, specifically noting President-elect Donald Trump as a part of it.

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” he said. “My mother would have slapped me if I had said any of those things. …

“I don’t make any excuses for the guy,” he added of Trump, “but I will say that Mike Pence is the best thing that ever happened to him.”

Holdman also relayed a conversation he had with a Kentucky resident about the need for mutual respect and decency.

While Saturday’s session mostly focused on roads and resident concerns, Beumer pointed out that both he and Holdman have authored bills that would remove a requirement that newly elected city court judges be licensed attorneys. Legislators passed that requirement in 2015, but smaller municipalities like Portland and Dunkirk have expressed concern because they may not have attorneys interested in the position. That could result in losing their city courts.