State government gets set in motion
Assembly sworn in on Organization Day at Statehouse
Although Rep. Earl Harris Jr. was sworn in for the first time as a state representative Tuesday, the Statehouse is like an old friend.
His father, the late Earl Harris, served as a state representative for 33 years until his death in 2015. His mother, Donna Harris, replaced the elder Harris.
“The benefit is I don't come into this totally new to it, because for three decades of my life I've been connected to this place,” Harris said.
Harris, D-East Chicago, and the other 20 new House and Senate members joined the returning legislators as they gathered Tuesday at the Statehouse in Indianapolis for the ceremonial start of the 2017 legislative session.
On this annual Organization Day, Indiana's 100 representatives and 50 senators met to begin discussing legislative topics and begin organizing the next session that convenes in early January.
House Speaker Brian Bosma opened the session urging his fellow House members to move past the divisive campaign rhetoric of the last election and to focus on a long-term infrastructure plan, education reform and the passage of a new two-year state budget before the session ends in May.
“With a very contentious election in the rear-view mirror, now it's time for us to turn our attention now from those issues and turn toward governing,” he said.
Republicans maintain a supermajority position in both chambers with 70 Republican representatives in the 100-seat chamber and 41 of 50 seats in the Senate
After lauding the improvement of Indiana's fiscal and business environment, Bosma outlined some of the challenges the General Assembly needs to focus on at the beginning of next year, including redirecting education dollars, replacing the ISTEP student testing program, addressing the state's methamphetamine and opioid epidemic and developing an infrastructure construction and repair program.
“The single most important task for the coming general assembly is to create, to craft and to agree upon a comprehensible, sustainable funding program for our state's infrastructure,” Bosma said. “We continue to call ourselves the Crossroads of America and you can't do that with crumbling roads and bridges.”
State Rep. Julie Olthoff, R-Crown Point, said she couldn't agree more with the issues Bosma outlined, but said she plans to push for funding to lower the unemployment rate in Lake County.
“We need jobs in Lake County,” she said. “We're the worst unemployment in the state so I'm going to work for any kind of funding I can get for workforce development.”
Across the hall, Sen. David Long, R-Fort Wayne, was re-elected as the President Pro Tempore and echoed many of the same sentiments as Bosma.
“Our No. 1 obligation is to our K-12 students,” Long said. “We need to put ISTEP in the rear-view mirror and move forward with a test that's fairer and simpler both for our schools and children but also for our teachers.”
Newly elected Sen. Eddie Melton, D-Merrillville, said he also believes education will be “one of the top issues” moving forward.
In addition to working on finding a suitable replacement for ISTEP, Melton said next session he'll bring attention to some of the problems the Gary School Corp. is facing.
“One of more pressing issues is the Gary School Corporation and making sure I articulate the urgency to address their needs,” he said, adding that with this year being a budget year it's crucial that Northwest Indiana is included in a variety of discussion topics.
“Whether it's education or transportation, in every aspect our voice needs to be heard,” he said. “We need to make sure he resources are coming back to our districts, to our parts of the state because we contribute so much to the state of Indiana.”
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