First Legislative Session Breakfast shows bipartisanship attitude

A bipartisanship attitude was on display at Saturday’s first legislative breakfast in Jasper as State Senator Lindell Hume, Democrat from Princeton and State Representative for District 74 Lloyd Arnold, a Republican from Leavenworth, shared the spotlight for about an hour.

Not lost on the attendees was the fact that Hume is the long-term statesman with 39 years in State government, while the freshman State Representative, Arnold, is just 39 years old.

Each was given about 10 minutes to present what legislation they are working on or is important to them.

Hume says that he is on the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee and that his bill dealing with spouses of deceased Veterans is the first bill taken up on the Senate side.

Meanwhile, Arnold spoke about working as a representative for all of the people in his District and how bi-partisanship is governing his attitude and method of approaching his job.

The questions asked by members of the audience of around 50 or so included:

• Property Tax reduction and how it negatively affects local budgets
• The legislators stance of firearms as it regards allowing teachers to be armed
• Increases in tax on gasoline to help fund the need for infrastructure improvements in Indiana
• The question of the viability of I-67 and if the legislators support the idea

Hume said that he supports property tax reductions as long as it does not put shackles on local governments to be able to continue to offer services needed by the public. Arnold agreed.

A quick poll of the attendees showed that no one agrees with the arming of teachers in schools and that most all agreed that some sort of increase in law enforcement presence in schools would be a better choice for school safety.

Hume pointed out that Indiana is facing a difficult road ahead in finding funds for roads and highways due to the fact that the money for Major Moves –a Daniels administration initiative – is running out.

Hume said that he would have preferred to see a continued ownership by the State of Indiana to the toll road that would continue to provide long-term money for infrastructure needs in the state, rather than the one-time payment by an outside organization.

He also talked about how the increase and decrease in gasoline price in Indiana has no effect on the price per gallon that Indiana gets in taxes, because it is fixed at 18 cents per gallon. And, when gas prices increase, people find ways to buy less, which means less money to the State for transportation needs.

Arnold said that he supports the push for I-67 and will continue to lend his voice to those who advocate for its construction. Hume likewise agreed with the concept.

According to Senator Hume, this year there is a concerted effort for bipartisanship in the house and the senate and he thinks the session will result in a lot of positive, well-thought out ideas rather than the politically driven items of the more recent sessions.

The next Legislative session breakfast is scheduled for February 16th at the new classroom building on the VUJC campus at 8:30 a.m.