Dubois County State Legislators give overview of busy session
Senator Daryl Schmitt and State Representatives Shane Lindauer and Steve Bartells gave a rundown of bills they were working on this legislative season at the first Jasper Chamber Legislative Breakfast held Saturday morning at the Vincennes University Campus Center for Technology, Innovation and Manufacturing.
Senator Schmitt
Senator Schmitt was the first legislator to speak to the crowd of around 50.
Schmitt, a farmer and former county council member, emphasized his focus on local decision-making and government accountability.
“My priority is always to drive decisions local,” Schmitt said. “I think at the local level we can make the most prudent and responsible decisions.”
Schmitt highlighted five key Senate bills that align with the Senate’s top priorities for the session. Senate Bill 1 aims to enact meaningful property tax reform, mirroring Governor Mike Braun’s priorities.
“Nobody wants higher taxes,” Schmitt said, acknowledging the recent increases in property tax bills. “We have to find the balance. Everyone’s clamoring for property tax relief, but we also have to fund our local government.”
The senator noted that while Indiana has one of the lowest levels of property taxes compared to other states, many residents have seen 20 to 25 percent increases in their tax bills in recent years as the market has driven up property values.
A study from the Department of Local Government and Finance found that if passed as currently written, Senate Bill 1 would result in a reduction of property tax collections in every category (counties, cities, townships, libraries, school corporations and special units) except properties within tax increment finance districts, which would continue to increase. This is due to these districts capturing the incremental increase in property taxes to be used to support those districts.
Senate Bill 2 focuses on containing Medicaid costs and lowering healthcare expenses. Schmitt emphasized the need to eliminate fraud while still supporting those in need.
“We have a lot of people at risk at need that we do need to help, but we’re going to have to find a balance,” he said.
Senate Bill 3 requires health plan intermediaries to work in the best interest of their clients, those clients being the businesses that provide the insurance for their employees.
Water resource management is addressed in Senate Bill 4, which aims to create safeguards against unintended consequences when moving water between watersheds. The bill comes amid an ongoing debate over a pipeline to pump water from an aquifer in Tippecanoe County to a mammoth industrial campus in Boone County.
“We’re fortunate at this point with our water resources in Indiana, but we have to make sure and manage those appropriately,” Schmitt said.
Senate Bill 5 targets fiscal integrity and contract accountability, reflecting Schmitt’s commitment to efficiency in government operations. The bill seeks to implement controls on contract awards and ensure proper bidding procedures.
“I believe in elected officials having accountability,” he said.
Education reform is another priority for the senator. He discussed Senate Bill 146, which proposes raising the minimum salary for beginning teachers from $40,000 to $45,000. In a handout to the group, it was reported that of the state’s approximate 60,300 teachers, about 6,000 earned below $45,000 annually.
The goal of SB 146 is to enhance the pipeline of teachers in Indiana schools with better pay and improved benefits while removing some barriers for individuals to become teachers.
The bill also aims to increase the minimum percentage of state education funding that must be used for teacher salaries from 62 percent to 65 percent.
Schmitt acknowledged that the legislative process is still in its early stages, and many of the proposed bills could undergo significant changes before becoming law.
“Will that bill look the same when it gets down to the end of the road? Very possibly no, probably no,” he said, referring to the property tax reform bill. “You know, will we be able to recognize it? Could be.”
As the legislative session progresses, Schmitt pledged to continue working on these priorities while balancing the needs of his constituents with broader state concerns.
Representative Bartels
Bartels, in his second year as chairman of Homeland Security, Public Safety and Veterans Affairs, emphasized his focus on issues within his wheelhouse.
One of his priorities is a bill allowing school corporations to include pay for social workers, psychologists, and mental health professionals in the 65 percent of the funding required to be spent on teacher salaries.
The representative also discussed a recently passed National Guard bill, which aims to improve benefits for guard members and their families. The legislation would make guard members state employees while on active duty and allow them to use the National Guard supplement grant in addition to the Century 21 grant for educational expenses.
“Recruiting and retention is hard,” Bartels explained. “We used to be fourth per capita in the nation and we’re slipping down to 9.”
In line with his goal of reducing government and improving efficiency, Bartels is proposing to move the state chemist’s office from Purdue University back under state control.
“The intent is transparency and being able to be accountable to the employees and actually know their schedule, know their budget,” he said.
Bartels is also working on a law enforcement bill (HB 1186) requiring memorandums of understanding between sheriff’s departments for special deputies operating outside their jurisdictions.
“My intent is only to make it more efficient,” Bartels stated, addressing concerns about town marshals and special deputies working in areas without proper oversight.
Another military-focused bill (HB 1235) aims to modernize state codes to match federal codes, including recognizing the Space Force as an armed service. The bill would also make it easier for veterans to access the state’s veterans home.
Bartels is carrying a bill to establish the governor’s new Office of School Safety, which he says will not increase government size but consolidate existing boards and make them more efficient.
“So now everything has to do with school safety will be under one roof, one person and a board that can kind of a bunch of smart people that we can kind of move forward on some of those things,” he explained.
The representative is also proposing to remove the governor’s appointees from various local boards to reduce bureaucracy and save costs. “For example, I’m the governor’s appointee on Region 15. Love it, love going there. But it’s just one more out of bureaucracy,” he said, adding that those positions receive a per diem, though he has never taken that per diem.
These appointees provide reports to the governor and don’t have a lot of input in those board decisions. “We can do that through a memo or email,” Bartels said.
Bartels highlighted his work on establishing a standard for operating while intoxicated (OWI) charges related to THC, proposing a quantifiable measurement of 5 nanograms of THC to determine intoxication. This is an essential step in the potential future legalization of marijuana for medical use.
Other bills Bartels discussed include one that would allocate a portion of state park entrance fees to local communities providing services to those parks, and another aimed at identifying gaps in emergency medical services across the state. The bill would funnel $1 from each entry fee paid.
Bartels also addressed concerns about potential changes to township government and volunteer fire departments, stating, “There’s no intent to get rid of fire departments and actually we’re trying to figure out how to save money for the local government so they can spend more on firefighters.”
The representative encouraged constituents to contact him directly with concerns or questions about proposed legislation.
Representative Lindauer
Lindauer, who chairs the Natural Resources Committee and serves on the Roads and Transportation Committee, is authoring nine bills and co-authoring several others this session.
Among his priorities is House Bill 1612, dubbed the Rural Growth Act. The bill aims to establish tax credits for investments in small businesses, particularly those looking to scale up operations.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our nation and our state,” Lindauer said. He expressed concern that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation often focuses on attracting large companies “at the expense sometimes of rural Indiana or small businesses.”
Lindauer is also pushing House Bill 1611, exempting Indiana from daylight saving time changes. The proposal would keep the state on standard time year-round, eliminating the need to change clocks twice yearly. If passed, we would no longer spring forward in the spring.
“I would seriously like to see this bill move,” Lindauer stated. “I think what it does to our biological clocks on the spring forward, the fall back, it does not make any sense to me.”
Another bill, House Bill 1614, addresses the concept of central bank digital currency which would allow individuals holding gold or silver to make transactions against that gold or silver with a debit card.
“If I put $1,000 of gold somewhere, it’s hard for me to go to Walmart and buy a gallon of milk with my gold,” Lindauer explained. “This would allow us to have gold on deposit or silver on deposit somewhere, and then I have like a debit card where I can go to Walmart and buy my gallon of milk.”
Lindauer is also sponsoring House Bill 1615, which aims to support military installations in Indiana. The bill would allocate state funds for infrastructure improvements at facilities like Crane, Atterbury, and Grissom.
“The goal here is to reduce the possibility… that a BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) is going to happen to one of our installations,” Lindauer said.
It would also allow the state to invest in tech parks associated with these installations.
In a lighter vein, House Bill 1618 proposes designating the persimmon as Indiana’s state fruit. The idea originated from a fourth-grade class in Jasper studying Indiana history and civics, and Lindauer sponsored the bill to help foster that civic engagement. “Senator Schmitt and I are going to go to the class and talk a little bit about the process,” Lindauer said. “They’ve got a presentation and a PowerPoint and the whole nine yards. So I know we’re pretty excited about that, and hopefully, we can get a few of them to come up and maybe even testify at the State House.
Other bills Lindauer is co-authoring include legislation on medical marijuana and easing restrictions on farm and home-based businesses.
Lindauer also mentioned House Bill 1002, an education deregulation bill, though he is not directly involved in its development. “It’s a very large bill that just rolls back a ton of regulation in the education world,” he noted.
As the session progresses, Lindauer emphasized the overarching importance of the state budget, which he said “dominates and kind of overhangs everything because everything is funneled through the budget at the end of the day.”
The 2024 legislative session marks Lindauer’s eighth since joining the Indiana House of Representatives in November 2017.
After each legislator reported on some of their bills, Chamber Director Nancy Eckerle took questions from the audience on numerous topics.
Regarding the Mid-States Corridor project, the legislators emphasized their limited role in decision-making while acknowledging they have heard from a large contingent opposing the corridor and others that support the corridor.
“Certainly I speak with more people who are opposed to it,” Representative Lindauer said. “I do speak with people who are in favor of it. And it’s not just the big names that, you know, there are definitely people who come to me in the gym, Walmart, whatever it may be, and say they’re in favor of it.”
The legislators stressed that they would not have a direct vote on whether to proceed with the Mid-States Corridor.
“We will never vote as House or Senate. We will never vote on the Midstates Corridor specifically,” Linduaer explained. “In fact, we’re constitutionally prohibited from voting on the Mid-States Corridor.”
Instead, the legislature’s role is limited to approving the overall budget for the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), which decides which projects to pursue. Lindauer said that the governor, as the state’s executive, can direct INDOT on whether or not to pursue specific projects.
Senator Schmitt acknowledged the personal impact the project could have, noting that early proposed routes would have gone through his property. Though unaffected now, he said he is struggling with how he feels about the corridor and it’s impact on the character of the county and landowners versus economic growth.
“Where is the balance? I don’t know. We can be pro growth where we want to just go full speed ahead and incentivize, whether it’s through TIFs, abatements, whatever you want to call and want our area to grow and have multitudes of strip malls and parks,” he said. “Or do we try to not do anything and maintain the lifestyle that we have.”
They emphasized the need for measured growth to avoid stagnation while preserving the area’s appeal.
Representative Bartels noted he had supported a bill increasing compensation for property owners to 125 percent of fair market value when land is taken for projects through imminent domain.
“We really said, look, if the government’s going to get involved in taking somebody’s property, then they’ve got to pay and they can’t just pay the 100 percent or just barely a fair market value,” he explained.
While not taking a firm stance for or against the project, the legislators emphasized their role in listening to constituents and conveying those views to INDOT and the governor’s office.
“I view my job with the Midstates Corridor is to listen to people. I take those voices for or against, back to INDOT, back to the Governor and I’ve done that,” Lindauer said.
The officials encouraged continued public engagement on the issue, offering to discuss concerns further with individual constituents.
Ferdinand Council President Ken Sicard noted that property tax relief would likely impact services the cities and towns could provide.
Senator Schmitt said in studies, they found that about “five billion some odd dollars” were being left on the table that counties could be collecting.
“If we’re taking it from property and we’re adjusting it over here to local income taxes, we’re driving decisions more to the local level, where we can make decisions on ourselves,” Schmitt said, adding that he feels those decisions are better made at a local level.
Bartels noted that the state would be weighing how counties use the revenue streams available through local option income taxes as they are considered for state grants and funding. The Community Crossings Grants used for transportation infrastructure was an example he brought up that a county or municipality could see less funding from if they don’t use these other tax revenue streams.
The legislators explained to the audience that with 1,200 bills being considered through both houses, it was difficult to have an answer for every question posed. They recommended reaching out directly with questions and shared their contact information with those who requested it. They also spent time talking to audience members after the event.
The Chamber of Commerce will likely host a second legislative breakfast later this year.
