Issues discussed

Health care and education, in addition to and in conjunction with the two-year budget, have been among the major topics in front of the Indiana General Assembly this year.

They were two of the points of focus of questions from area residents when they had an opportunity to address their legislators.

State Sen. Travis Holdman (R-Markle) and State Reps. J.D. Prescott (R-Union City) and Matt Lehman (R-Berne) addressed those topics as well as township trustees, broadband internet and others during a Third House Session on Saturday at John Jay Center for Learning in Portland.

Roy Adams and Jennifer Hartley, both of Adams Physical Therapy, and former Portland mayor and current mayoral candidate Randy Geesaman asked the legislators about health care, including about healthcare monopolies and costs, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements and mental health.

Lehman, the house majority floor leader who now represents the northern third of Jay County along with all of Adams and Wells counties, said House Bills 1003 and 1004 attempt to address some of the issues Adams and Hartley asked about by addressing them from both the hospital side and the insurance side. The bills, which Lehman co-authored, provide a tax credit for employers that implement health reimbursement arrangements and to increase competition among both insurance companies and health care providers. House Bill 1004 would penalize some hospitals if their rates exceed the national average.

A significant portion of the conversation focused on Indiana University Health.

“IU Health has a larger surplus than the State of Indiana,” said Lehman. “And they’re a not for profit. That’s what we have to address.”

Regarding efforts to make progress on mental health, Holdman said it’s too early to tell how much impact has been made, but acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic “did a number on us as a society.”

Questions from Dillon Muhlenkamp, a Purdue University student who does his student teaching at Tipton High School, and Kent McClung, a teacher at Winchester Community High School and also a Portland City Council member, focused on funding for agriculture programs and whether the state will provide funding to cover the cost of books as it looks to eliminate charging families book fees.

Prescott, who represents all of Jay, Randolph and Blackford counties and part of Delaware and Henry counties, responded to Muhenkamp saying that the proposed budget includes an increase in funding for career and technical education. He also noted House Bill 1002, which addresses a variety of issues regarding career readiness.

“The big thing with House Bill 1002 is getting kids career-ready in general, whether that be with going straight from high school into the workforce through college-ready programs,”?he said.

Lehman told McClung that while the budget does not specifically earmark funding for books, those costs were factored into the overall increase in funding that is being provided for K-12 education.

Also addressing the legislators Saturday:

•John Bartlett, a Blackford County Democrat who ran against Prescott last year, asked Holdman to oppose House Bill 1355, which calls for the merger of all townships in Blackford County to a single township, as it moves to the Senate. He also asked pushed for an expansion of rural broadband service, saying the general assembly could have used part of the state surplus for that purpose instead of providing refunds.

•Joshua Kimbrell, vice chair of the Randolph County Democrats, was critical of Prescott for House Bill 1142, which would allow a state or local agency to charge for labor costs required to provide a copy of a law enforcement recording, and asked Holdman to oppose it in the Senate.

•Geesaman asked legislators to be conscious of making sure municipalities, counties, school boards, libraries and other local units of government do not lose funding as part of efforts to reduce taxes.

•Brandon Kloer, whose wife has run against Prescott twice, questioned how legislators provide information about public events, saying he finds it difficult to locate.

•Todd Wickey, a candidate for mayor of Portland and a former classmate of Lehman’s, offered praise for work to reduce taxes and cut ties with investments connected to the Chinese Communist Party.

In response, Holdman, who serves as majority caucus chair and represents all of Jay, Blackford, Adams and Wells counties and part of Allen County, told both Bartlett and Kimbrell that he would review the house bills at their request. Lehman noted that a key to rural broadband is removing the push for profit and instead seeing it as a public service, similar to rural electrification in the 1930s.

Holdman, who earlier in the event mentioned a bill he authored to create a two-year tax study committee with a focus on eventually doing away with the individual state income tax, said initial talks would leave the local income tax structure untouched.

“Because that’s so integrated with the property tax structure,” he said, while acknowledging that another bill intended to provide property tax relief would, in its current form, result in a hit to local units of government.

The legislators responded to Kloer by saying the events are listed in each of their weekly newsletters.

During the introductory comments, Holdman touted legislation that will allow some small businesses to deduct a larger amount of their state income tax on their federal taxes, estimating a total annual savings of $60 million per year; Lehman pointed out House Bill 1006 that provides a mechanism to move those who need mental health services from jails to the proper facilities and House Bill 1007 that calls for decision making on energy infrastructure take into account reliability, affordability, resiliency, stability and environmental sustainability; and Prescott focused mostly on the budget, including the $2 billion increase for K-12 education and additional funding for Indiana Economic Development Corporation and the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI).