NWI legislators outline priorities ahead of Tuesday’s Organization Day

Northwest Indiana’s legislators attending Tuesday’s Organization Day are ready to make the most of the shorter 2024 session.

As 2024 is a non-budget year, the session is scheduled to start by Jan. 8 and end on March 14. Tuesday is the ceremonial first day of the session where new legislators get sworn in and start getting their bearings at the Statehouse in Indianapolis.

State Rep. Earl Harris Jr., D-East Chicago, who is chair of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus, said housing is the caucus’s focus them for this short session.

“It’s really a national issue. I think a lot of people are looking at that in terms of how we can help people get in a home and stay in a home. That’s going to be a big thing,” Harris said.

Harris said he will also be working on legislation concerning a driver card.

“It’s not a license. It just allows for undocumented individuals in the state to be able to drive. It does not give all the privileges of a license,” Harris said. A driver card would not enable the holder to do anything other than legally drive, such as vote. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of a driver card. The card would help with public safety and also with enabling undocumented individuals to obtain insurance for their vehicles.

Harris plans to continue pushing forward with education legislation following the passage of HB 1449, the 21st Century Scholars bill, which passed in 2023 with bipartisan support.

He said the Democratic delegation had some successes in 2022 despite the Republican supermajority. He attributed those successes to the relationships built with legislators from across the aisle.

“One of the things I’ve said from the beginning of my time here, relationships equal resources. We need to continue to work on those,” he said, adding it was important to get their Republican counterparts to understand the value of introduced the Democratic delegation introduces. “We were pretty successful this last session. We are going to continue to plug away this year.

“The truth is a good idea is still a good idea no matter where it comes from,” Harris said.

State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, said he spent the summer siting on the health committee and one topic assigned was one he was not anticipating — childcare.

“It’s pretty much an infrastructure issue in the State of Indiana,” Charbonneau said. Access to childcare affects businesses and parents who want to work or go back to work, he said, and a lack of quality childcare affects much needed teachers who want to go back to work after having a child.

Charbonneau said he sought recommendations on childcare that could be implemented with no cost during the short session year.

“We had a number of recommendations, administrative kinds of things,” he said. The legislator said he does not want to see the legislation get bogged down or killed in committee during the appropriations process, so he is focused on no cost solutions this year.

He’d also like to see some tweaks to existing legislation governing hospital assessment fees, fees self-imposed by the hospital and matched by federal dollars in an effort to help with Medicaid-type patients.

Another law he would like to tweak is one addressing the nursing shortage.

“We have such a nursing shortage that last year we allowed Ivy Tech to use adjunct professors instead of full-time professors,” Charbonneau said. At the time the legislature did not included the state’s four-year nursing programs. He would like four-year programs to have the same exception.

State Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, said he is starting the session with a complaint about a change in rules, which typically is not done in a session following an election year, that allows each legislator only five bills. Legislators normally each get to introduce 10 bills. Committee chairs were give two extra bills and he said Democrats fought for and secured the opportunity for ranking minority members to also have the ability to submit two extra bills.

“My priorities this season first and foremost are children,” Pol said. Childcare has been identified as a growing issue in Indiana, with the Indiana Chamber of Commerce identifying access to childcare as the No. 1 barrier to attracting new business.

Pol said he will be comparing notes with Charbonneau on legislation to improve the state’s childcare infrastructure to see if they can move forward in a bipartisan way.

“Moving forward we need to address some of the archaic language in our code that is hard for center to navigate. It creates unnecessary barriers,” Pol said. One of the bigger reforms he is interested in is a tri-share model where employees, employers and the state each share a third of the cost of childcare.

Pol would also like to see the $1 law, the legislation that allows private charter schools to purchase unused school buildings for $1, modified to give priority to childcare centers.

“It’s our No. 1 issue; we need that more,” Pol said.

Pol said he also plans to introduce legislation allowing for workplace accommodations for pregnant women. If there is a good amount of support for the measure, he said he would ask fellow legislators to consider paid family leave.

He again will put forth marijuana decriminalization legislation. Three of Indiana’s border neighbors have some form of legalized marijuana, Illinois, Michigan and now, Ohio.

Pol also plans to pursue compassionate release legislation for aging and terminally ill offenders who have served a significant portion of their sentences and have a family network on the outside to provide care. The move would ease the financial burden of long-term care for aging inmates on the state’s jails, he said.

As the minority whip, State Rep. Lonnie Randolph Jr., D-East Chicago, will have seven bills to introduce.

“I’ve already filed four. The other three hopefully be ready to get them filed tomorrow. My immediate concern right now is I have to focus on my district,” Randolph said.

Whiting is part of his district and he is concerned about the Superfund site designation for the former Federated Metals plant in Hammond/Robertsdale. Randolph said he would like to see the Indiana Department of Environmental Management return to having a representative on-site in Northwest Indiana.

“It is much more expedient to have someone local monitor industries in the area. If an environmental issue pops up, they will be there right away,” Randolph said.

He also plans to introduce legislation concerning firearms in the wake of the legislature’s 2022 passage of permitless carry.

“I do have a bill to increase the age to 21. You have to be 21 to buy alcohol, 21 to be in the bar. Why can’t you be 21 to buy a weapon? I’m just trying to use common sense legislation that affects everyday common people,” Randolph said.

He also plans to reintroduce legislation that died in committee that would prevent people from carrying guns at polling places.

The newest member of Northwest Indiana’s delegation, Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, said he is ready to hit the ground running during his second legislative session even though it is the short session.

Dernulc said he is looking at legislation that would increase access to counseling services to help protect children.

“It’s becoming a bit of a niche for me. Our most innocent and precious are sometimes not cared for,” he said.

Along that line, Dernulc said he will be looking at support for a drunken driving bill that would require an intoxicated driver who causes the death of someone with a family to be responsible for paying child support.

Dernulc said he has been working on a few things with Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, who Dernulc described as a role model and mentor. One bill would close a loophole that involves convicted sexual predators living within a Homeowners’ Association. State law prohibits sexual predators from living within 1,000 feet of a park or school, however it does not apply to those living in HOAs.

“I want to make sure our kids are protected,” Dernulc said.

Like other legislators, Dernulc said he was ready to bring 10 pieces of legislation to the floor and is working on trimming his desired list to five.

“I’ll have all five ready to roll by the time the session starts,” Dernulc said, adding he has several others he is prepared to introduce during the budget year session in 2025.

“I feel a lot more confident coming in and knowing the inner workings. I’ve made some good relationships with people,” Dernulc said.