The 2013 legislative session concluded in the early hours of Saturday morning with the state’s $30 billion budget being one of the last bills to pass the General Assembly. Over four months of work went into the production of the budget bill, which ended up passing with bipartisan support. I was pleased to cast my ‘yes’ vote for the balanced budget because of its emphasis on education, job creation and tax reduction.
This session was much different than my first two, as there was an observable effort among the parties to work in a bipartisan manner for the betterment of Indiana. The tone was different, and many of the bills had Democrat and Republican authors and sponsors.
There are many notable success stories from session, including the tax relief package enacted in the budget bill. Hoosiers and their bank accounts will benefit from the $650 million cut from state payrolls per year over the next biennium. The economy has turned around, enabling the Legislature to increase funding for vital services like infrastructure repairs on roads and bridges and education. We’ve funded our priorities to historic levels, while also being able to provide tax relief to struggling Hoosiers.
In looking at the tax cut package, the inheritance tax, commonly referred to as the death tax, has been repealed, enabling more small businesses and family farms to stay in the family. Income taxes will be reduced over the next four years by five percent and corporate income taxes and financial institutions taxes will be lessened to 6.5 percent.
Outside of the budget, I concentrated my efforts on legislation that would directly help Hoosiers in the realm of public health and safety. It’s always great to see a policy initiative that you have been working on for a long time cross the legislative finish line and become law.
A bill I authored, House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1061, allows the judges of the Warrick County circuit and superior courts to jointly appoint a magistrate to help oversee judicial duties. This legislation was authored as a result of efforts to create a position for a magistrate that has been ongoing for almost four years.
According to the 2010 census, the Warrick County population has grown by almost 10,000 people in past ten years, making it one of the fastest growing counties in Indiana. The attractiveness of the region has spurred economic development and consequently, more work for city judges. City judges will be held accountable for their work by the magistrate, creating a higher level of efficiency within the judicial system.
With Warrick County growing so rapidly, it made sense to add a magistrate. The magistrate will have the same essential responsibilities as an elected judge and will ease some of the load in lower level offender cases. The magistrate will be funded by the state, and staff of the county judges will support the magistrate’s duties, meaning no extra costs will be incurred.
I collaborated with my fellow Southwest Indiana legislators to protect our dedicated law enforcement officers by co-authoring HEA 1151, which creates a Blue Alert program for Indiana.
The Blue Alert program will notify the public when a law enforcement officer is killed, seriously injured or missing in the line of duty. The program will be operated by the Indiana State Police Department and will also alert the public if the criminal who caused harm has not been apprehended and may be a danger to others.

This program will help address issues of public safety in our communities. I sincerely hope the Blue Alert program will help ease the minds of the brave men and women who serve our communities.

I also worked with fellow legislators in the Senate. Among these bills was Senate Enrolled Act (SEA) 554, which will save Hoosier taxpayers thousands of dollars each year under telehealth and telemed services.

Patient monitoring can now be done in the home by a health care provider from a distance. Telehealth and telemedicine services allow physicians and psychiatrists to care for their patients without having those patients travel to receive them or having physicians use precious time and money to visit the patients in their homes.

As a healthcare professional, I felt very strongly about the importance of this particular legislation. Specifically for congestive heart failure, there is normally a one in four readmission rate. With telehealth, there is a one in twenty readmission rate. Reducing the readmission rate means that patients are having healthier outcomes, and is less costly.

I am honored to be your voice at the Statehouse. However, I always enjoy coming back home to our community and digging into our local issues. I am appreciative of your communication over the last four months – it is encouraging to hear your thoughts, and it helps me vocalize what is best for Hoosiers.

As always, you can contact me by phone at 317-232-9674 or by email at H75@in.gov. Be on the lookout for more information from me coming in the next couple of months and have a great summer!

I have lived in Evansville most of my life. Anyone who thinks this community belongs on any kind of “worst city” list hasn’t spent enough time here to make their opinions worth caring about.

But if there’s a fight to be made to defend the city I love, let me be the first to dive in and speak my piece.

I think the people of Evansville would be the first to tell you that we have some problems. That’s one of the things I like about being here.

But let me tell you a few stories about things I have witnessed from my part-time job as a state legislator, just to show you how people here can turn challenges into opportunities.

A while back, I watched a mother from Evansville successfully fight for a bill requiring officials to notify parents when their children are mentioned in crime reports. Why? Her child had been a victim and she didn’t even know about it. She didn’t want other families to go through what her family had suffered.

There is a local attorney in the prosecutor’s office who was involved in that fight and who continues to advocate for an Indiana law for children’s rights.

Our Prosecutor, Nick Hermann, has always been front and center about arranging what we needed at the Statehouse to advocate for legislation. The same goes for our Chief of Police, Billy Bolin.

Our local child protective services get a lot of criticism, but we also must note that their work is so respected in Indianapolis that our city may very well be on the short list as a location for one of the new hotlines being placed outside Indianapolis.

And then there are the other child advocates from Evansville who call and email me regularly. I feel privileged to have worked with them on legislation to protect abused and neglected children, and it is because of their efforts that we were able to pass some reforms this year.

Representatives of our police department and fire department advocated successfully for a bill to provide emergency medical procedures in certain limited situations like a school shooting. They initiated the issue this year, they testified in committees, and they won.

Our police played a key role in passage of a bill to protect victims of theft in instances where precious family jewelry is stolen and melted down too quickly for law enforcement to identify. Our police initiated that issue statewide and stayed at it for three years to get it approved this session.

Our police continue to the fight the ongoing problems caused by the production and distribution of meth. Every year, they help legislators pass additional tools to fight this menace, and they keep at it.

Finally, these folks are relentless in keeping focus on the problems caused by unlicensed scooters on our streets. We haven’t reached our goals yet, but I wouldn’t bet against them succeeding.

There are other mentions, too…

The brave souls who traveled to Indianapolis more than once to support fair legislation on government consolidation, a concept that isn’t so popular among some of the powerful people in our community.

I’ll always remember the 13 year old student who helped us pass a bill that enables people his age to officiate in sports and earn money. Just try and tell me sports don’t rule!

Or the young man who lives his life in a wheelchair and spends his time courageously advocating for others like himself. He came to Indianapolis to gain support for his fight about lack of access on airplanes for certain wheelchairs. His next stop is Washington, D.C.

An Evansville youth organization spent hours in Indy talking to legislators about the value of effective drug prevention programs. In the end, this group helped get funding in the budget for these programs.

And, I couldn’t end without a shout out for USI (I feel comfortable identifying them by name!). There was a point this session where I thought they would be denied some state support, but thanks to tireless work from administrators – particularly Cindy Brinker – they were able to succeed and the university got the funding they deserved. I couldn’t be more proud.

Do you see a common theme here? Problems are recognized, and people from Evansville don’t stop until they are solved. We aren’t fond of taking no for an answer when we’re doing the right thing.

We’re not perfect here in Evansville. Yes, we have problems. But we don’t run from them. We do something about those problems. It’s called personal responsibility and we’ve got lots of it.

Evansville residents are responsible.

We take initiative. We follow through. We win.