folks it's a wrap for the twenty twenty six Indiana General Assembly's legislative session lawmakers passing a flurry of bills at the deadline.

We'll catch you up on what's going to the governor's office for consideration and get your comments and questions right now on prime time.

>> Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Prime Time.

I'm your host Ed Leon.

As we come to you live here on a Friday night, the legislative session is in its final hours before coming to a close at midnight.

There are a host of bills that have been sent to the governor's desk for signing including bills on immigration enforcement banning cell phones during the school day, luring the Chicago Bears across the border to Hammond, Indiana and many others.

There's much to discuss.

So let me introduce my panel of informed policy watchers who are here to share their perspectives on the work of the one hundred and twenty fourth General Assembly.

They are journalists and editorial writer from the Journal Gazette, Jeff Kovaleski, attorney and former Republican state representative from Fort Wayne , Mitch Harper and chair and professor of political science at BFW Mike Wolf.

>> Gentlemen, thanks for being on prime time tonight.

Well, it was a short session.

>> Mike, what are your thoughts on on how this this is the General Assembly performed here?

Well, it was really a dramatic short session obviously started a little earlier than many people right on it and big questions dealing with federalism and everything.

And we kept, you know, a theme over the last number of years his home rule how much localities are able to control the state and continue to addressing those matters.

But I did think it finished with some really big bipartisan things along with some of the controversial national effects that we've seen with immigration and other stuff.

Right.

So I think, you know, overall they packed a lot into a short session.

>> What grade would you give them your professor?

I would give A B plus B plus Mitch, what are your thoughts?

Well, I think the one of the things that marked the beginning with the redistricting battle was generally there's a stage setting the governor someone is setting the stage for what is going to be the big issue, what's going to be the theme for this session then blew past because everyone was focused on redistricting and I think the public's probably coming out of the session a little confused as to what those big items were because there was a basket of them and I'm not sure all of them fit neatly into to a partizan base.

I think the legislators will be scrambling as they go through the summer and fall.

I think so.

Jeff, any of the bills stand out to you?

Oh, the one bill that got through today was House bill ten thirty eight that is the casino bill.

It had gone through different stages of the legislation and the original came out with adding a new casino so it'd be 14 instead of 13 and there was no requirement for a public hearing.

The senators had a problem with that.

Right.

Senator Brown and Dr.

Tyler Johnson both were very strong when they said that we needed to have the possibility of a referendum for everyone.

So the new bill that was passed includes Stuben County, DeKalb County, Allen County, all three will have to have a referendum this November to see if the voters are open to having right.

So let's say we are.

So it's on the ballot in November.

We all vote on it.

What if all three counties vote to have the the casino in their in or in their area?

>> I think there's going to be some work to do in the statehouse.

Well, you're not you're not you're nodding.

>> Yeah.

That's a big problem, right?

Well it's a big problem but it's a problem.

I think all three counties would like to have at least some of the economic development be sure.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

So you meant you brought up the immigration bill that was very contentious and and we talk a little about where do you think the bill arrived at and how that's going to affect us?

>> Well, I do think you know, this is around the country we see the nationalization of state politics and clearly there are a couple of big ones immigration one that's been talked about because it happened earlier more more recently also is empowering the governor to have a military police force they're calling it exactly.

>> And you know that has more ramifications probably than what we see now.

It makes sense on its face in some except for the local community doesn't have to necessarily ask for it and it also might be in the Situation Room to be seen around the country where local and state officials don't want a president to say this now a president of the same party can easily have the you know, governor do this and say well, it is under the governor's control.

>> You're absolutely right.

Thoughts on the optics of something like this in lieu of Minnesota and everything that's gone on there, the optics of having a military police force for Indiana, I don't see the necessity we have a National Guard right.

Uh, I don't we have a Indiana state police by the way, this is a I don't know a subset is the right word for it but it is it will be made up of National Guardsmen.

>> All right.

I just don't see any legitimate situation in where that would be needed when we have police forces in counties and cities and the state has its own I think we're covered .

>> Yeah, I I think it's likely unnecessary to the men and women in the Indiana National Guard.

They have other jobs who when they are asked to be pulled off or something that is nonmilitary as as these would be these instances that have been cited that is taking their time away from them now probably what a lot of them entered the Indiana National Guard to do the federal federalization of numerous things that has been kind of a hallmark both of this last year on the federal level.

But a lot of these bills the state I think are going to have some real ramifications.

All right.

I want to go back to the immigration issue, but I want to invite our public and our viewers into the conversation.

Our phone line is open right now at two six zero (969) 27 two zero and you can also text us at (969) seven two three zero when you text please give us your first name and where you're texting from so that we know how to identify you.

The immigration bill is different than the military police bill, right that that forces municipalities to cooperate I guess is the right word or cities to cooperate with the ICE forces when they are when they're having operations in the area.

>> Do they not do that now?

Was there a need for something like this to maybe even do punitive actions towards the municipality if they don't they don't cooperate with ICE forces?

I think there's been more cooperation than the conventional wisdom was even around the United States went home and went to Minnesota.

He said well I guess we're cooperating which they always have been except for one county.

So I do think that there's you know, the perception and where we're at is a little bit different.

And the other thing about the local government that I think it is it's it doesn't specify municipalities necessarily.

It could be other local forms of government, maybe school districts and others which is I think where some of the controversy might be.

>> All right.

Let's move on to the Chicago Bears.

>> All right, everybody everyone loves Bears but this is a big investment for the state of Indiana a billion dollars to to help fund a stadium in the northwest corner of the state and for Rich sports owners to to bring their team thoughts on whether this is a wise investment for the state.

>> I have no idea I don't know why they would want to get into this but OK.

>> Yeah, and I don't know for being leveraged buy by the state of Illinois or the Chicago Bears against against the state of Illinois.

I was in the legislature when we approved the construction of the RCA Dome and we didn't have the NFL team at that time.

Well they did within a year when Bill Hudnut sent the Mayflower moving trucks to Baltimore and and since then the RCA Dome has been replaced with the Lucas Oil Stadium.

These are huge projects and there certainly is a lot of mixed mixed research on the economic development effects of that.

Frankly, I don't think the results of that research are to mix.

They've tended to be uniform but in northwest Indiana I just came back from Chicago.

Listen up how people talked it's interesting.

Is it a big topic of conversation in Chicago?

I think they're I think they're getting tired of the family that owns it.

Right.

And I did learn that I thought it would be a boon with the double tracking of South Shore Railroad but it's evidently a 30 minute walk from from where they have their stop to get to where this proposed stadium is to be.

>> So that that's not that's not so convenient.

Right.

Let's see the taxing is, you know, restaurant and and beverage as well as hotel tax but includes Porter County which is pretty far east of in is unlikely to see much benefit .

So there are some local county governor government people that don't like to be included in that, especially if there's, you know, hotels right over the Michigan border or something that might you know, be poaching on the benefits of this development as well.

>> Mike, as an educator, what are your thoughts on the idea of banning cell phones throughout the school day?

>> You know, clearly this is something that's been pretty popular around in Indiana was out front, you know, and for weight to give for women it was a way to test on this.

So so I think the results, you know, have largely been supportive of continuing this how they do it.

You know, as somebody who has a high school child right now and you know, we'll see.

But look, you know, we've got to try something.

There's other things in here about, you know, a big thing that also passed about, you know, social media today which I think was pretty bipartisan too.

I think they're trying to do something when we're a little bit behind the times so I give credit explain that that bill that that legislation really is going to regulate any social media company that has over a billion dollars worth of revenue that you know, they have to put their algorithms up and limit parental consent and age so you know, other states have done this and Indiana is catching up on that.

But I think there's an overall concern about this addiction, you know, and other you know, high profile cases in Indiana of things going wrong social media wise.

>> Yeah.

The another bill that stood out to me I'm not sure how it's going to play out is this one about no sleeping in public places which is in many ways targeting homeless people.

Any thoughts on on on how that bill is going to actually work out for us?

Is it I know I know we're trying to get ahead of the situation, the homeless situation, you know, other places, Los Angeles, other states have really struggled with this with this problem.

But to put homeless people in jail I guess is that seems like that's going to affect the the the penal system in a big way.

>> It wouldn't be the first thing.

I mean I think the bill stipulates that the first interaction with police would be like a warning the second one is like you've got to be 60 feet away from where you are.

>> I do think the legislation is puts a lot of of onus on the police to make decisions on the fly and I think that most police departments are going to be sympathetic.

I know ours will be because they've been dealing with homeless people all all year.

>> So I know what they're trying to do but it's pushing against making homelessness illegal and I know that that sheriffs do not want homeless people just taking up jail space.

>> Our jails are already overcrowded.

>> Right.

The the idea of of making it a crime right.

As opposed to assistance I guess is where you know, you can have different philosophies about that.

All right.

We have a question here from Mike in our audience who wants to know our thoughts on Senate bill to the township reorganization which we were just talking about in the kitchen back there before we came onto the set.

>> Who wants who wants to take a stab at townships?

Please go ahead.

Well, you know, I mean obviously there's always looks to how we can do things and performance measures is always good in government whether these are the ones that we should be necessarily focused on because township demands and what is Wayne Township versus very rural township is very different.

>> So folks who are not totally familiar with that the idea the what's the issue here that that's some of the smaller townships barely cities are not are just disorganized or they're not they're not providing services.

What's the problem?

I would say each year when the state board of accounts issues information to local prosecutors to proceed it's a township it's a town clerk treasure somewhat that is because they've state board of the council doesn't do the same work that they used to do with larger cities and towns.

They've sort of said if you hire professional accounting firm and the city council signs off on it, we're not really going to come visit.

So they're really concentrating on some of these smaller units and the skill sets that some of these office holders have very widely around the state there are fiscal mismanagement concerns and I think that's part of this.

A wholesale elimination of townships I think is just been pointed out some of them are doing really good jobs in terms of poor relief and getting people plugged in social services Adams Township would be another one.

I think this isn't going to be fully operational twenty twenty eight so expect legislation next next year.

>> Right.

And the idea is not to get rid of them.

Right.

It's to consolidate some with others right.

To kind of merge some merger some corporate mergers well and mergers between townships and the cities that largely occupy them or towns.

>> Yeah they occupy so much space.

I think there are a lot of unanticipated consequences that lots of folks are going to sort through over this next few months.

How do you guys think the the the assembly measured up against the big agenda items that they went into it into the session with affordability, you know, kind of kitchen table issues?

Do you think they were successful in addressing some of those housing the costs of housing?

>> They certainly changed, you know, local governments ability to put regulations.

So now it's much more wide open and less regulation so localities can't, you know, opt out.

I would say this kind of housing so they've attempted to do it.

Now there's some controversy on that what that means over whether there's sufficient regulation I think so we'll see.

But I mean they certainly did address that issue and I think that's a recurring issue around the US.

So it's not something that can be and there are cases where localities can put restrictions in that and limit what the development is.

And we've seen around the country Minneapolis, Los Angeles and other places really make drastic reforms to try to curb the housing costs.

>> I guess one of the issues you know, one of the the counterarguments to that is that there's no guarantees that those savings that the developers get trickled down to the one passed down to the buyers.

>> Right.

Because the housing is so expensive although although one of the one of the good research projects recently said if you build more housing it lowers rents.

It doesn't matter what kind of housing or what income level it's at.

If you provide more housing it will have an effect throughout the throughout the housing system and it doesn't make a difference of how expensive the housing even even expensive housing freeze housing for people who are trying to move up.

>> So yeah, he's right.

It works interesting.

You know, we began a little bit Mitchell, you began with a conversation or talking about how these uh how this recession has affected the legislators themselves.

>> Do you think there's some, you know, hangover or residual effect from the redistricting in December that has trickled into into the session and and you know, colored what it got through what didn't get through?

Well, I think it's trickled into the Republican Party around the state the Republican Party is going to have its state convention here in Fort Wayne this year.

That ought to be interesting for for the local media.

>> You've got some highly we've got some statewide elected officials who are up for election, particularly secretary of state who've been somewhat controversial.

I think it's I think there is a hangover effect and it's being played out and Saturday breakfasts of party members and so on and so forth.

You know, fundraising for these challengers is going to be very interesting based on some of this and it was going to be interesting anyway.

I think the you know, establishment versus the more Maggard group the party provides a lot of opportunity for four challengers here and we're going to see probably a pretty significant voter turnout in November if we're going to have a referendum on the casino.

>> Mm hmm.

You think that'll be the driver?

I do.

And the fact that look, Democrats have done a good job of recruiting candidates for primary elections, you know, whether or not they're in a super majority state, whether that ends up producing competition in a midterm election year, we could see you know, November might be very interesting.

>> The top race in the state as secretary of state for the first time in a very long time the Democrats are going to have a very well-funded challenger if Bobbye wins their state convention and that changes the dynamics of voter turnout as well.

I think Democrats will be out and I think they're motivated to go out knocking on doors this year.

>> You know, we there are other bills that any other bills come to mind that that that that have passed to the governor.

Do you think the governor will sign all these bills that you think he's going to push back on any of these?

I think you know, I think the one that challenges executive orders and that has the NSA tell whether or not the expansion is going to be within seven days, he might he's not going to do anything to pass passing uniformly and overcome.

You know, it's easy to overcome a veto anyway.

So in this state it is OK and he didn't take long but he took a long time last year signed bills.

>> I think that's right.

This year is going much quicker.

>> OK.

He doesn't have seven days.

Is that is that the rule?

Yeah.

This is a law or a rule.

So you know, one of the other bills that that passed that I thought was kind of interesting is SB one ninety nine which is a directive to sort of I guess second look into low earning college degrees and try to do away with them.

>> How do you feel about that?

You know, there's been a lot of micromanagement higher ed we have great university system in the state that is regional to as we know from Purdue University, Fort Wayne , Indiana University for Wayne that the Commission of Higher Education will be looking at this.

So it hasn't mandated this but there's been a lot of changes at the higher ed level and it's very difficult.

I can tell you from the administrators over here to the faculty members it's been a tough couple of years trying to keep up with this and there are some potentially low earning degrees that might be second degrees for somebody that might actually promote them, you know, into a higher position so that saving on their own they're not high earning degrees but they're their cumulative to their to their skill set.

If you cut those then then you're right by the way, I was the more research I did on this I couldn't find any degree actually singled out what are some of these low low earning degrees?

>> Well, I know that social workers are paid poorly.

I know that a child early childhood education yakkers are paid or poorly and these are two areas where we have a severe deficit in in workers and you know, this is the kind of law that could could put us even further behind and I think there was a piece by Michael Hicks from Ball State that he said there is no degree that someone can earn or in college that would would make them on level with somebody who didn't go to college.

I just I don't think that's that's true.

So every degree will get you higher.

I think so over time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean they're comparing it to the what a high school just somebody who's completed high school would earn on average here in Indiana there there was some I like the SB forty and that's the tax deductions and Penny Rounding Act of certainly the tax deductions will be popular.

Right.

I think for on overtime and tips and if you're buying an American car the interest on your loan is going to be tax deductible but then the then we get into the you know, companies have the choice to round up you know, up to the penny or down to the penny.

Apparently the government agencies have to round down and that could cost millions of dollars in taxes over time.

>> I didn't realize it would be so much it would be tough as a business person I think to round up every day.

I think he would lose business for rounding up.

So I think most people will be rounding down.

Yeah, particularly I mean some a lot of businesses have used the rounding up as a as a charitable you want to round up and that goes to so and so how do you separate that if you're not got your usual practice is it going to be rounding out?

>> Yeah I think you're right on that.

The local government they're already cheesed off about what happened last year and this is you know, that's just another one.

>> It's like this like drip, drip, drip.

We'll see the next year and in a longer session we'll see I think some pressure from the local governments and a lot of this we've got a couple of minutes left each from each of you.

>> You know, what do you see the you know, if we put ourselves six months from now, what do you see as the outcomes from this session?

Things that you'll remember, things that will really impact people in the future?

>> Um, I think the utility bill, um, will will affect people's costs and I think that they will come down over time.

I know that the Citizens Action Coalition, which is a Tildy opponent usually they were very enthused last week about the bill.

They had some problems but they were very happy and the bill automatically levels payments.

Is that is that what you would be everybody would be enrolled automatically make plan Automat but within six months you know you can get off right.

>> OK, so yeah.

Mitch well I think there's a lot more information to come about utility costs.

>> It's an issue that is not Democrat or Republican.

Yeah, we've seen this in other states but the controversies over data centers and the location of the centers will continue and the effect it's going to have on electricity and water quality it's going to continue.

Ohio just issuing new EPA regulations.

>> It said discharge can go into any stream without treatment.

I mean these things are the big things.

These are big things that are that people are talking about and they don't really cut on a partizan rival one consequence and I think there's going to be people who are looking at their utility bills and it's going to be their own experience that counts that you have the last crystal ball I would say this child care we're trying to put money in the low low low income child care again.

>> All right.

Hey, thank you all all of you for being on the show.

It was a great conversation.

I want to thank my guests, former state Representative Mitch Harper from the Journal Gazette, Jeff Kovaleski and from Professor Mike Wolfe.

I'm Ed Leeann, I want to thank you all for watching prime time.

We'll see you next time.

Thank you for being here