INDIANAPOLIS —
With this year’s session of the 117th General Assembly in the rear view mirror, it’s time to reflect on how our efforts will impact our most important asset: Indiana’s future. Despite historic challenges, I believe this session of the General Assembly will be viewed in years to come as one of the most progressive and accomplished legislative efforts in generations. Hoosiers have much to be thankful for.
Last September, Republican candidates for the House announced our “Strengthen Indiana Plan” which focused on fiscal integrity, job creation, expanding education opportunities and standing up to an overreaching federal government. Republicans delivered on each of these key initiatives, and much more.
We pledged to adopt an honestly balanced budget, without the strings and gimmicks of the past, and without a tax increase on Hoosier families or employers. At midnight on April 29, we delivered.
The new budget not only lives within our state’s means, we exercised the discipline necessary to ensure healthy reserves at the end of each of the next two fiscal years, a position no other state in the nation can claim. We funded critical needs in public safety, care for the indigent and public education at levels exceeding the last two years, and successfully expanded the state’s full-day kindergarten grant program to reach every unfunded school and student in the state.
We focused education dollars on students rather than institutions, allowing dollars to follow transferring students to their new classroom, and addressed the disparate funding of students in rural, suburban and inner city schools. We instituted locally controlled evaluations for every teacher, allowing schools to recognize, reward and retain the best educators regardless of how long they have been in the classroom.
We opened opportunities for more families, especially those of modest means, to select the school that is best for their child regardless of their income or neighborhood. The expansion of public charter schools and the creation of a new education choice scholarship will allow families with fewer resources to have the same opportunities their wealthy neighbors already enjoy.
To help Indiana lead the nation in job creation efforts, we balanced the bankrupt unemployment compensation system without bankrupting Hoosier employers; gave local units of government new tools to attract new and expanding employers; and trimmed the corporate tax bill for 22,000 Hoosier employers (including 16,000 small businesses) to help our economy recover faster than our neighbors.
We even did what some said we couldn’t — we adopted fair, common sense legislative and congressional maps on a bipartisan basis, bringing an end to a generation of gerrymandering by our colleagues.
Yes, some will say we “wasted time” on social issues and immigration reform, but these issues impact Hoosiers as well, and the common sense measures we adopted did not distract from our main purpose — moving Indiana dramatically forward. Even a record-breaking Democrat walkout in Urbana didn’t stop us from reaching our goals.
Fiscal integrity, education opportunity and job creation effort is what we promised — and what we delivered. While our neighbors struggle to borrow and tax their way to prosperity, Hoosier Republicans stood firm. Hoosier taxpayers, school children, every day workers and our future will be the beneficiaries.
Flashpoint
FLASHPOINT: Trailblazing session strengthens Indiana
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FLASHPOINT: Storm chasers must heed warnings, remember why we chase storms
The tragic death of noted weather researcher and former Discovery Channel storm chaser Tim Samaras has shaken all of us in the meteorological community.
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FLASHPOINT: Humane Society does not merit IRS targeting either
Rep. Blaine Leutkemeyer is right that the IRS should not target any charitable organization solely on the basis of its ideology. Yet that’s exactly what he’s asking the IRS to do in his factually unfounded attacks on The Humane Society of the United States, the nation’s largest animal welfare organization and one that has the highest marks from the top charity watchdog organizations.
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FLASHPOINT: A crisis at the NLRB
Most people in Indiana don’t even know what the National Labor Relations Board is. Well, why should they?
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FLASHPOINT: Legislative session reflected Hoosier priorities
The 2013 session of the Indiana General Assembly came to an end just a few weeks ago with the final passage of our state’s next two-year budget.
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FLASHPOINT: A legislative session of missed opportunities
Given the nature of politicians, grand claims of accomplishments and overblown rhetoric about “historic” efforts are to be expected at the close of any legislative session.
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FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.
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FLASHPOINT: Indiana lawmakers reinforced school safety mechanisms
Nothing is more important to me than the safety of my children. Every parent has felt that instant, apprehensive rush when their child plays too close to the street or falls down while playing soccer and it is our responsibility as parents to implement every safety mechanism we can muster to protect our kids.
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FLASHPOINT: Lessons from the legacy media — get it right, first
Enough mistakes and maybe we’ll learn: When in doubt, leave it out.
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FLASHPOINT: Hoosiers got steady hand in recent session
As the General Assembly began its work last November, as Speaker of the House, I pledged a renewed spirit of bipartisanship with legislators working together to solve our state’s most pressing challenges. As this year’s legislative session concludes, representatives from throughout the state — Republican and Democrat — have joined together to address those issues at the forefront of Hoosier minds: maintaining our state’s fiscal integrity, spurring job creation and expanding education opportunities for every Hoosier family.
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FLASHPOINT: Time has arrived for overhaul of TV news
Former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes gave an address in 1992 in which he claimed television news was too superficial and too focused on visuals.
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FLASHPOINT: Fiscal cliff, Obamacare have already raised taxes enough
Our history is rich with stories of people who have immigrated to the United States for a chance at the American Dream. The American Dream, in its truest form, is the opportunity to achieve success by working hard and playing by the rules; to make it on your own and to say, “I earned this.”
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FLASHPOINT: Expanding Medicaid coverage makes sense for Indiana
Since last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act effectively gave states the option to expand Medicaid, policymakers across the country have debated if and how to extend health programs to millions of uninsured Americans.
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FLASHPOINT: Improve public education, stop experimenting with it
In January, the four of us who serve as the Democrats on the House Education Committee outlined our hopes for the 2013 session of the Indiana General Assembly, particularly in joining with Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz to offer common sense solutions to improve the quality of education for our children. With the halfway point of this session past us, we remain optimistic that positive steps can be taken … but that optimism is tempered by the reality that education policies are being directed by a legislative majority that has a radically different agenda.
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Healthcare law anniversary no reason for celebration
March 23 marked three years since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law, yet this is not an anniversary that deserves celebration.
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FLASHPOINT: Defending state’s authority is attorney general’s obligation
The law of the land recognizes the authority of states to license marriage.
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FLASHPOINT: Stability key for state’s future
Hoosiers have the unique luxury of being the fiscal envy of the nation due to the sound fiscal policies of the last eight years.
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FLASHPOINT: House budget offers Medicaid solution for Indiana
This week, my U.S. House Budget Committee colleagues and I introduced a federal budget resolution for fiscal year 2014. Our budget is a responsible plan that stops spending money and balances in 10 years — largely through making key reforms to drivers of our debt like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
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FLASHPOINT: Problem gambling in Indiana: A new understanding of community concern
The week of March 3 was designated as National Problem Gambling Awareness Week.
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FLASHPOINT: Eastern time in Indiana defies common sense
Nobody complains more than Hoosiers about changing their clocks. And there’s a valid reason — daylight-savings time in Indiana’s Eastern Time Zone is painful.
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Praying for civil resolution to debate over gun control
Guns are lively ammunition for passionate debate these days.
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FLASHPOINT: It’s not too late to expand health services
This week, state leaders euthanized the biggest, boldest Hoosier jobs proposal of the 2013 session of the Indiana General Assembly.
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FLASHPOINT: You can’t go back again — and that’s OK
Our progressive colleagues have been telling us for years that the 1950s were a horrid time.
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FLASHPOINT: The fierce urgency of now — nation needs to protect youth
The alcohol-fueled alleged serial rape of a 16-year-old Ohio girl by two of her similarly impaired classmates — not to mention the drunken videotaped commentary of others — points yet again to the imperative that adult America renews its commitment to address as a true national community those issues that most threaten the health, safety and forward development of youth.
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FLASHPOINT: A pastor speaks out against Sullivan’s ‘traditional prom’
I am a pastor in Sullivan, Ind., and I am outraged.
Recently, two young students applied to walk the Grand March together in the school prom in Sullivan. -
FLASHPOINT: 0wning firearms is a First Amendment exercise, too
Following the hysteria generated by gun prohibitionists in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a nationwide rush on gun stores began as citizens bought semiautomatic modern sporting rifles, handguns and ammunition, in effect “making a political statement” about proposals to ban such firearms.
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FLASHPOINT: Maintaining the priority
Recently a newspaper article has been written about a change in the by-laws of the Indiana High School Athletic Association which speaks directly to attempted undue influence exerted upon students below the level of grade nine and their parents.
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FLASHPOINT: The fairness of marriage
What is the current Indiana law concerning marriage? Our state defines marriage in a singular way — between a man and a woman.
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FLASHPOINT: We ask state legislators to abide by their oath of office
All of us relish giving unsolicited advice to our elected representatives.
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FLASHPOINT: Mentoring is having major impact on public education
While managing local utility services, Mike Martin found a new way to energize his community, and students are starting to benefit.
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FLASHPOINT: Common Core standards should be common sense
Years ago, when state officials and education experts came together to create new model standards for schools, they probably never expected it to be controversial.
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