Legislators share their thoughts

Mar. 21—The Greensburg Decatur County Chamber of Commerce hosted a legislative update Saturday, March 16. The event was initially slated for mid-February but was postponed due to inclement weather.

State Senator Jean Leising (R-District 42) and State Reps. Jennifer Meltzer (R-District 73) and Alex Zimmerman (R-District 67) discussed what they had worked on in the most recent legislative session and answered questions from the audience.

Senator Leising authored 13 bills and four resolutions during the most recent legaslative session. Reps Zimmerman and Meltzer each authored five bills. Of the legislation the senator and two representatives authored, the following passed:

—Senate Bill 8, Higher Education Matters, authored by Senator Leising. SB 8 requires all Indiana high schools to offer Indiana College Core courses and changes the name of the statewide transfer general education core program to Indiana College Core. Students successfully completing eligible courses under college core receive college credit for them.

—Senate Bill 104, Veterinary Medicine, authored by Senator Leising. SB 104 requires Indiana State Police to disclose criminal activity by or the criminal history of veterinary license and certificate holders or applicants to the Board of Veterinary Medicine. It also requires veterinarians or veterinary technicians to disclose such information when renewing a license or certificate and requires the board to compile the information into an annual report.

—Senate Bill 140, Natural Resources, authored by Senator Leising. SB 140 makes provisions related to removing logjams from waterways and otherwise relocating logs.

—Senate Bill 183, County Option Property Tax exemption, authored by Senator Leising. SB 183 enables county fiscal bodies to adopt ordinances exempting mobile or manufactured homes from property taxes.

—Senate Bill 247, Water and Wastewater Utility Infrastructure, authored by Senator Leising, SB 247 amends a statute concerning acquisition of a water or wastewater utility by a utility company.

—Senate Bill 273, Biomarker Testing Coverage, authored by Senator Leising. SB 273 requires health plans, including Medicaid, to cover biomarker testing for an enrollee's condition.

—Senate Bill 260, Neighborhood and Individual Development Incentives, authored by Senator Leising, SB 260 defines what a "community based organization" is.

—House Bill 1320, Building Regulation, authored by Rep. Zimmerman. HB 1320 defines an unsafe building or structure for unsafe building law purposes and increases the estimated work cost required by enforcement authorities to $25,000 for the authority to use its own workers and equipment. The bill also makes provisions relating to regulations and restrictions on residential mobile homes and changes planning and zoning standards related to mobile or manufactured homes.

—House Bill 1203, Xylazine, authored by Rep. Meltzer. HB 1203 makes Xylazine possession a Class A misdemeanor which increases to a level six felony if the person has a prior Xylazine-related conviction. The bill also makes it a level five felony, which increases to a level four felony with prior related convictions, to deal Xylazine. According to the CDC, Xylazine is a tranquilizer linked to overdose deaths increasingly found in the US illegal drug supply.

—House Bill 1204, Publication of Public Notices, authored by Rep. Meltzer. HB 1204 allows political subdivisions to publish notices in the print or electronic edition of a newspaper which prints no more than three times per week. If a newspaper prints twice per week or less, a political subdivision can publish notice in print or online, or, if the newspaper doesn't have a website, in print or on the political subdivision's official website. Notices published by political subdivisions regarding certain property tracts can be published solely on their website.

Leising discussed legislation she's worked on relating to education including her efforts to require schools to teach cursive and also discussed legislation that could regulate land purchases by adversarial countries. Leising defined adversarial countries as China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.

Decatur County council candidate Rob Duckworth took the podium to ask how the state would handle cost increases associated with the Xylazine legislation so that the cost wouldn't come back to local governments.

Meltzer said there are several factors not yet decided that could affect the budget.

"We can take a deeper dive into it next year," she said. "In my opinion, it's not prudent to start passing laws if we don't know the lay of the land before we do. We might know what happens in Indianapolis and Shelbyville and Greensburg, but I can't tell you how Fort Wayne handles EMS. So, to make sure we don't do something that maybe helps one part of the state but actually screws up a part that's doing it correctly, I do think we need to take a hard look at how" all factors interplay and see where the process is being slowed down.

Senator Leising responded to Duckworth's question, stating she feels mental health and addiction services, "were lumped together a few years ago," continuing, "personally, I think we're not going to solve these issues until mental health and addiction is separated and becomes its own, in a sense, entity."

Leising believes the state will have to start by "taking a baby step and saying, 'what's wrong with the system?" She added, "Next year will be a budget year and I think we will see more money go toward mental health and addiction — but a big part of that has to do with the Medicaid budget. Medicaid has become an ever-increasing portion of this total state budget. Now, I believe, it's 18%. Now, K to 12 education as a percentage of the budget is down to 47% or 48% — less than 50% — it had always been hanging right at 50%. Higher education has dropped, too, by a percent or two. If you have kids in college," tuition, "is more expensive. I think all of this is going to have to really be looked at as how much can Medicaid support because a lot of these services fall upon Medicaid."

Zimmerman said he agreed with Leising that addiction and mental health needed to be separated.

"There are two distinct areas. We could throw all the money in the world at treating mental health and addiction, but the crisis is only going to get worse," he said. "We have a dearth of coverage in our rural areas of providing mental health services to those who need it. ... There's not a good answer to solve the crisis, but I think it definitely needs to be part of our budget discussion next year. My concern, that Senator Leising mentioned, is the Medicaid forecast was a billion dollars off this year and where are we going to find the money to put into these programs we think might be able to help? That's my biggest concern and I wish I had the answers."

Another audience member inquired whether the adversarial ownership legislation affected lease properties. Leising said it does, "but, residential housing is not prohibited, so if you have a student — an international student at Purdue or IU or somewhere — they don't have a problem," renting an apartment. Legislators clarified that if the person is in the US legally and if a company is 51% owned by individuals legally in the US, the legislation doesn't apply to them, either. There's also an exception allowing companies currently in the US who have a lease to renew that lease.

Hollie Payton, a Democratic candidate for District 73 State Representative, asked legislators how they voted on an FSSA audit and what their thoughts were.

Zimmerman said the audit was proposed on second reading in the House and he and Rep. Meltzer supported it. Leising added, "As far as I know, the Senate never voted specifically on the audit. I'd spoken with the lieutenant governor who strongly supports the audit. I strongly support the audit. I think in meeting with FSSA, that they cannot explain several of their things that are under them to my satisfaction. ... I think it isn't that anybody is taking money, I think they're just not managing some of the programs as well as they should."

There's language in a recently passed bill, according to Leising, that will require FSSA to present a plan for the Medicaid program to the Medicaid Oversight Committee.

Contact Noelle Maxwell at news@greensburgdailynews.com.