This year’s legislative session focused on kids and the money that’s needed to make sure they’re well educated and safe, mentally and physically, local lawmakers said.
If all goes as planned, teachers and Department of Child Services case workers and attorneys will receive raises, their agencies more money to put toward outside resources, and schools will be made safer.
Locally, the session focused on increasing tax revenues and public safety, and the House and Senate passed bills local lawmakers say will protect residents in Johnson County’s cities and towns.
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Greenwood was included in a tax bill that allows the city council to impose a 1 percent food and beverage tax. They have not done so yet, but if they do, Mayor Mark Myers says that additional income will go towards adding more police and fire fighters, then toward other economic development initiatives.
It marked the end of an uphill battle for Myers, who had been pushing for the ability to add the tax since he took office.
From the legal age for smoking and vaping, to teacher pay raises and what should happen to drivers who have THC in their system, the session laid the groundwork for future debates.
Here’s a look at some of the issues local legislators proposed or took a stance on:
Fire, city agreement a model for elsewhere
Tax battles in Fort Wayne and Bloomington brought to light a decades-old agreement made locally between the City of Greenwood and the White River Township fire district, said Rep. John Young, R-Franklin.
In the 1980s, when Greenwood began annexing land in White River Township, local officials created a special fire district fund so that residents in those areas would not be double taxed by both the city and the township’s fire district, even though both serviced the area. They set it up so that the township receives those tax dollars, and the Center Grove area fire district was grandfathered into that deal, Young said.
Other municipalities are having a harder time reaching an agreement. In Fort Wayne, the case has gone to trial. One bill that was proposed this year would have re-directed those tax dollars to the cities instead of the fire districts. But lawmakers, including Young, introduced a separate bill that protects the agreement that Greenwood and White River Township have in place, even if a future bill attempts to challenge it again, he said.
Conflicting state laws on THC
Next year, Young plans to pitch another public safety related bill that was sparked by a conversation he had with Edinburgh police chief David Lutz.
Current operating while intoxicated laws in Indiana say that if a driver is involved in a fatal car accident, alcohol and drug tests are required. If those tests show the driver has marijuana in their system, regardless of whether they are currently intoxicated, they are criminally responsible for that accident, Young said.
In Indiana, THC is considered a Schedule I substance. It can remain in someone’s system for weeks, he said. With more and more states — including neighboring states such as Michigan — legalizing it medically and recreationally, if someone driving through Indiana is involved in a fatal car accident, they could face felony charges for a drug they consumed legally in their home state, even if they are not intoxicated at the time of the accident, he said.
The bill would change the law to require additional testing to prove a driver is intoxicated at the time of the accident.
It was introduced late in the session, but gained traction quickly, Young said. He plans to introduce it again next year.
Protecting homeowners in small towns
Rep. Woody Burton, R-Greenwood, was proud to have passed a bill that protects property owners in small towns.
The Towns of Bargersville and Trafalgar buy electricity wholesale and then charge residents for it, Burton said. The major utility companies that service most areas fall under state regulatory laws that make sure there’s a responsible process to providing those utilities, and gives the public an avenue to complain about services and make changes to it if needed, essentially protecting consumers.
But the towns that buy electricity wholesale do not have to adhere to those same standards. So if a landlord owns a home that no one is living in, or that a renter moves out of without proper notice, that property owner is stuck with an electric bill. A municipality also had the right to place a lien on a property if electric bills aren’t being paid. In some cases, Burton said, a property owner isn’t even aware the utility bills aren’t being paid.
A bill that passed this year changes that to include more protections for landlords in those areas, and better regulates the municipalities. For example, now a renter must pay a security deposit to have their electricity turned on, Burton said.
Follow the money
Because it was a budget session, money took priority this year.
More state funding will be directed towards schools and DCS over the next two years.
“In terms of what we had to do with our budget, funding for DCS probably took a bigger bite out of that pie than we anticipated,” Young said. “The issue is, we really don’t know for certain what DCS needs to effectively operate.”
The department will receive a $243 million increase in fiscal year 2020, and a $223 million appropriation in fiscal year 2021, millions of dollars less than what DCS officials asked for at the start of the session. DCS originally asked for a $286 million budget increase per year, which would have brought its annual budget to more than $900 million.
The governor’s office will be able to pull additional money from an emergency fund, first established in 2017, to compensate for any unexpected needs in DCS, Young said.
They plan to increase pay for case workers and attorneys in an effort to lower the department’s alarming turnover rate. But part of the the department’s initial ask was so it would have more money to leverage outside resources, such as drug counseling and home-based services, taking some of that work load off case workers. The problem with that is there is no consistency in what those outside agencies charge, he said.
Lawmakers also made sure there was money set aside in the two-year budget for teacher pay raises — $15 million to be exact. Overall, K-12 schools received a $173 million boost in funding, which also included money for school safety grants.
“I was a real strong advocate for getting these teachers a pay raise,” Burton said. “If they’re happy, they’re going to do a better job.”
In Sen. Rodric Bray’s, R-Martinsville, first year as Senate president, he is proud to have helped increase pay in those crucial areas, as well as retain a cushion for the state in case of any economic downturn, which is certainly in the realm of possibilities, he said.
Bray’s new role is managerial, so he isn’t authoring or sponsoring many bills, but he will continue to lobby for a bill that would raise the smoking and vaping age to 21 from 18, he said.
“That’s one that we had a lot of momentum for; it was moving along nicely,” Bray said. “I feel like that’s something we should probably continue to try to do. It’s a problem for citizens and the workforce.”
