Sen. Andy Zay and Rep. David Abbott

with the Indiana General Assembly has completed another work week at the state House now the Senate's budget amendment to the proposed House passed state spending plan isn't expected until mid-April but meanwhile bills continue moving through committees and onto the House and Senate floors.

Those measures include topics such as public pension funding, income tax exemption for military pay, small modular nuclear reactors, auditing of prescription drug costs for the Medicaid program and an energy audit of Indiana's state government campus.

Our guests this evening are familiar with this partial legislation list and will get an update on these bills and more on this week's prime time .

>> Good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines with us today is 17th District Republican State Senator a.D.A and 18th District Republican State Representative and House Assistant Majority Caucus Chair Dave it and we invite you to join the conversation with your questions and comments.

>> Just call the number that you see right there on the screen as we widen this we tend to do and welcome senators say Representative Andy and Dave.

>> Thanks guys for being here.

Good to be with you this evening.

We appreciate it.

Pleasure.

We're not so far into the second half as to still be able to think about the first half.

But even in totality we're almost staring at the last week month of it all in April.

>> So Andy, where are we in the session for you?

How do you feel it's going so far?

Well, things are moving quickly and in the second half it's always a little more dynamic from the standpoint that you still have your committee duties in your body.

So I I serve on four committees in the Senate Utilities, Commerce, Environment and Pensions and Labor.

So you're attending those committees and reviewing the House bills that come in those committees but then you're also chasing your bills and representing those that have moved on over into the house.

So it's it can make for a pretty hectic day.

The other morning I had three three bills I had to present before noon and so you were I was literally running all over the building to do that and then meet with other constituents and stakeholders throughout the day.

>> So the days now are very full.

I mean many times starting at seven thirty in the morning and running until 10 or 11 o'clock at night.

So yeah you get your rest when you can.

>> Yeah.

And then you get a lot of attention at the state House to go from chamber to chamber and so Dave fewer bills in the second half but still as senators mentioning still a lot of call of duty, a lot of call of duty and you know you find the bills are snog getting closer to the finish line so there's a lot more push with lobbyists and special interest groups.

So you have a lot of meetings.

There's a lot of back and forth negotiating trying to get your bill in a place where it's able to pass.

So there's a lot of amendments and he worked really hard on that.

That's that's a full time job in itself.

>> As Andy said, you and your committee meetings, you're working on your bill, the bills you've coauthored and doing everything else you normally do in session voting on all the bills.

>> So it's it's hectic now job one, that big bill is the state's spending blueprint for the coming two years beginning in July.

>> We didn't really get a chance to talk about the House passed package because it was still in the act of coming together.

>> So Dave, let me start with you your sense of the governor's plan and we'll see how it's doing in the opposite chamber.

>> Well, as you know, the budget starts with the late summer, early fall.

They have Budget Committee hearings and the governor formulates his budget.

We use that as a template and of course the budget starts in the House and goes to the Senate.

But we start out with a template basically the governor's wish list or his his priorities and we work we build from that.

So we add and take away and we review what what we need to add and there's a lot of other things that get added into the budget at that time.

>> Of course, you know a school education of school funding we're adding about two billion dollars additional this year for the next biannual there's police pension funds we're looking at raises for public safety, health care.

There's a lot of issues with health care we'll be addressing all of these in the budget.

It's a long list and we all have something we want.

I'm working on the state museums right now.

We have a historic site.

It's just kind of a personal thing for me.

We're looking for almost 15 million dollars to upgrade one of our historic sites that we don't want to lose.

>> So you know, there's this the the template of the budget main items and then everyone has items that are of interest to them and so this is all cumulatively kind of created in the House and then we once we get that done and passed out, the Senate takes over and now it's it's resting in committee and appropriations.

What first of all are your personal takeaways from the governor's plan and where you see it going from here?

>> Well, I think the thing we really need to speak about Indiana is we are approaching 20 years of balanced budgets and with reserves and that's very intentional.

It's been very intentional for the Republic Republicans and the Republican caucus to do that very thing.

And so it's always a great place to know that you're going to start there.

>> One thing that's particularly exciting for me and my colleagues in the Senate is we've been working on a pension liability that's kind of been hanging over our head for the last many years.

It was projected when I was on appropriations a few years ago that we might have that commitment fully funded by the year twenty thirty eight and with some prepayments of that liability we're actually looking down the road here within this decade we will have that pension liability fully funded and what that really means and what it should with taxpayers need to understand is that a billion dollars each year that we're taking out of our our tax revenue to commit to paying that down.

So we've paid that forward in some ways that we're looking at a really bright future and having that capacity to have that two billion dollars to give back to Hoosiers to the hard paying workers and or to invest in programs and double down on some the commitments we've made and the financial fine tuning continues when that next revenue report comes out about the middle of next month.

>> Yeah, the magic data if I'm correct I think is April 15th we will be getting the kind of the last revenue report and that will that will dictate the last the dots, the last two zeros, the last dollars and where those will be applied throughout the budget.

The priorities are pretty well set in you know, get down to a lot of wish list of all the legislators on different programs that either we're working on now and legislation or are already in in the budget in some form or fashion.

>> Yeah, so much is related to education as we look at the budget and a question about education and school vouchers primarily Leslie is joining us on line three Leslie.

>> Good evening.

Welcome to the program.

Go ahead with your question or comment.

Yes, I see that in your one traditional public schools increases five point three percent or four vouchers.

The increase is seventeen point one percent in year to the increase for public schools is one point one percent and the increase for vouchers is thirteen point eight percent.

In addition, we're asking public schools to pay for textbooks.

Could you explain the difference between seventy point one for vouchers and three point I'm sorry five point three percent for public schools?

>> Thank you.

I might just clarify one thing.

The textbooks are going to be the cost is going to be absorbed by the state that was the plan is we want to have free textbooks to the students so they shouldn't have to pay for that anymore.

Most of the states most a great number of the states are not doing that anymore.

but that will be one point of it.

Now to your point on the vouchers.

Yeah, we're raising the right now you're eligible for voucher up to 300 percent of the free for all the free, free and reduced lunch program is going to increase to 400 voucher four hundred percent and yes, that will carry an additional burden.

But the reason we're doing this and this is this is important to understand is we want to give children a choice.

Parents should have a choice and yes, that is going to add to it.

But the percentage of the I'm trying to remember the budget I don't recall what those percentages were.

I think it's around 93 percent I believe is funded to all.

Let me be Andy fill in on that.

But let me go back to what the purpose is is we want the money to follow the child and we feel that especially in today's day and I know it's a controversial issue but we want children to get the best education they can and we don't want the children to be punished because of , you know, the income of a parent.

So that I know and I understand that is a contentious issue but we really want to improve education, make it competitive and we provide opportunities that has been an ongoing priority for the state.

I know the the House in particular and I'm sure it's the same way we believe very strongly on that and the dollars are being increased quite proportionately to the public schools.

>> We're paying down the teachers pension fund.

We're adding about two billion dollars in the biannual budget to schools some that most a lot of that going directly to tuition support and all the oh I'll leave it at that and let Andy follow up if he wants to.

>> Well, Leslie, thank you very much for the question and I think what I the way I like to speak about school scholarships is to parallel K through 12 with higher ed.

The state of Indiana commits hundreds of millions of dollars in various scholarship programs to any of our institutions of higher ed and those scholarships stick with the student and go right through to the schools of higher ed whether they're private schools or public schools throughout the state of Indiana and we're really trying to mirror that in the K through 12 space.

And what I mean by that is we want parents to choose where their children go to school and the money follows the students and the biggest choice in the state of Indiana is not from public to private schools.

It's from public schools to public schools and the value of the scholarships.

I'm not quite sure what you mean when you talk about the 70 percent but scholarships school scholarships for K through 12 are funded I believe in about 85 to 90 percent of what traditional a.T.M is for all public schools and their IDM count.

So the school scholarships for K through 12 are actually less than the full IDM that most that all public schools get for their student count.

>> Leslie, thank you very much for your call and you're welcome to join us as well.

If you have a question or comment for our guest Senator say Representative David Abbott here on prime time we're live tonight.

One of the things that had been noteworthy as we were going through the sessions is realizing that in both I guess both chambers half of the top 10 bills in the House and Senate have been health related.

It's a big year for mental health or health care costs or health care plans, one of those that's not in the top 10 but was of interest to me.

And Andy, let me ask you to comment.

Is the notion of auditing Medicaid program prescription drug costs, which is a bill you've authored?

>> Absolutely.

This is something I've been working on for about four or five years.

It took me a few years to get it into statute and we actually got it passed a few years ago and it was to audit the Medicaid and Medicare plan and in relationship to pharmacy benefit managers and this is and people need to understand that pharmacy benefit managers like 10 years ago really didn't even exist and now it's a half trillion dollar industry.

>> So it really speaks to how much cost is being taken out of what I call Main Street and we're paying those costs either through the co-pays that we pay or through our increased cost in our drug formularies on our health insurance plans.

>> So what because those plans are protected by Rissa because a lot of employers are self-employed now we can't really look under under the hood they're as we say but in the state plan we can and so there's a black box in there between the drug formulary and the drug companies and what we're paying and we want to see where the rebates that the manufacturers of those drugs are going.

Are they going to the pharmacy benefit manager where they are greatly benefit financially?

Are they going to the employer?

They're going to the people.

Is it being passed through?

And so I think to regulate in this space to know what to do better we have to see what is going on in that space and it's really just creating transparency to give us a better understanding of that marketplace that we will be able to expand that out and really ideally create great savings for all consumers of drugs.

And we've seen a lot of push and pull and that is just recently with some of the big drug drug companies really cutting the cost of insulin and that's a good example of just having these conversations and beginning to initiate this transparency where we're really beginning to make a difference and it's a hard it's a hard path.

It's a tough, tough slog to go down.

But you know, we're in the process of doing that.

So essentially what I'm doing this year is just moving that audit which was not done by the state board of accounts over to the attorney general's office where they'll be able to fully do that audit and give us as legislators an idea of what's going on in that space so we can either leave it alone or fix it or perhaps put some guardrails on it to better protect those cost to all Hoosiers.

One of the measures that is actually engendering conversation and additional pushes for transparency is one that Dave when you were here last year it was Bill HB sixteen thirty nine but technically on watershed development commissions that was working its way through and your involvement with natural resources as vice chair of that committee in the House.

Give us an update on where all that stands on the second hand.

Well on the 16 thirty nine that's gone through some amendments and currently it is in the Senate and I believe it was in committee got that a hearing?

I think it was just Thursday I believe Wednesday Thursday.

So it's passed through the House.

It's moved to the Senate like all the bills have done and it is in I think it's in agriculture and it is probably scheduled for another hearing early next week and which it is moving in then there it's a matter of what map are we following I believe or the encouragement for development that's going to 40 to 42 excuse me.

>> That's correct.

Yes.

That one is a very interesting bill that goes back to 2019 when the DNR created their own floodplain maps and I know as counties have signed on to the National Floodplain Insurance Program that one of the one of the understandings by and that would make floodplain insurance available to homeowners and businesses when they purchase properties that might need floodplain insurance.

Unfortunately that rolled out in a way that a lot of homes were built and they did not have the knowledge that these new maps were out.

So they were built to the FEMA maps and currently the floodplain insurance is based on the latest data which is a floodplain for FEMA maps.

Well, what we're doing in this bill is we are saying and then the problem was because these homes were having to be tore down or razed because they were based off an older version and it came out in a way that the new maps came out in a way that most of the floodplain managers a lot of in the counties didn't know about it.

So what they did is they issued building permits.

The DNR came in and told me I had to tear them down or raise.

That caused a lot of grief across the state.

So what we wanted to do rather than carve out these individual homes going forward we had had a clear path.

So 242 what it does basically says you can use the latest the FEMA maps or the latest floodplain we're leaving that as an option out to the counties.

They can pick whatever map they want to use national floodplain insurance from what we understand is honoring the FEMA maps.

So now we put it in the locals control if they want to use the FEMA maps where these homes can stay and these people don't have their lives disrupted and I think going forward well we'll look into this deeper.

>> I want a special drug or drug drainage task force.

We'll look into that and then we'll decide what we need to do going forward.

Let's go back to the phones and welcome Fred to PrimeTime this evening Fred, go ahead with your question, sir.

>> Yes, I have been watching the IG website.

>> It's my understanding that the parties and school board bills are dead and if so I appreciate all the work everyone did on that effort.

And finally we misrepresentative Abbott in Eagle River Township Fred.

Thank you, sir.

Let's get reaction.

Evy, let me start with you.

Well, Fred, your checks on the way and David Abbud appreciates that shout out for him and all your support.

But now that was that was the partizan school board issue I think was in both chambers and yes, at this point has subsided and I think that in both chambers it's it's a challenge.

But I think when you get to the local level and I served at the township level the the partizanship and partizan races are difficult.

I mean many times we're just looking for people to fill those roles.

So to bring that in makes it more of a challenge in some of the bigger communities does help identify, you know, some of the ideology of people that want to serve on the school boards and those sorts of things.

There was a push in some of the metro counties to have that in play.

But I think for now it's something we'll continue to look at and study going forward.

But we certainly received a lot of support really kind of both ways on that and I think for for this year yeah, I think as you say there they are no more.

>> And Dave, any thoughts from you, sir?

I would echo Randy on this one there was a lot of debate about it.

Some people thought that the time had come that politics had gone into schools and that's why there was a lot of push that we want.

People wanted to know what their policy was and what their politics were because the issues they were dealing with were more than just reading, writing and arithmetic.

So with that said, there was a lot of discussion both ways.

So I think the decision was made in all fairness and the best thing going forward is just let's drop it for now and look later if it comes up.

>> One other piece on transparency and David, let me start with you and then I'll share with Andy but this is House bill eleven sixty seven about transparency about the live streaming and archiving of public meetings.

>> Yes.

Yes.

That the author on that was Ben Smaltz reference Representative Smalls I'm the coauthor on that .

>> And yes, the idea is that we want and I and a local government guy we used to be in meetings that would be two or three people at times we'd have them at five thirty six o'clock.

>> People either couldn't be there or maybe they just didn't have a way to get there.

They were at work.

So this is a this is a transparency bill and what we want people to do is to be able to from home or wherever they can't make it to the meeting which we encourage them to be there in person.

>> They will be required recording.

It can be at smaller towns that don't have that ability.

They don't have the technology that maybe they don't have the Wi-Fi and broadband ability.

They can just have to record the meetings and then it can be made available to the public larger communities have the capability for the Internet or a Web site that will be videotaped and will be archived for 90 days and it'll be available to the public that way everybody can participate either live stream or look at a recording.

It's more it's all about more engagement with the public and transparency on what these meetings are.

So everybody has access to it.

And speaking of online, I was thinking of a bill that Representative Judy had authored and you're sponsoring and it's one dealing with a cyber civilian corps program advisory board which sounds pretty interesting.

I got that bill got changed a little bit so we're just working on the advisory board portion of it now.

But Representative Judy is a veteran and has worked with the military and kind of being the host of this cyber of civilian volunteer corps and I mean it deals with cyber security and helping out our towns, our public institutions as their cybersecurity attacks which numerous now throughout our state and throughout the country.

And it's just an opportunity to begin to train people upbring well-trained people in the understand that world very well and allow them to respond more efficiently and more effectively to trying to deter some of that.

And what came out in some of the conversation in the hearing that we had just this week is just kind of having that available and having that going on in our state can be a bit of a deterrent because the hackers are going to want to take the path of least resistance.

So knowing that we have others out there kind of watching things going on, they may not go through the trouble here and they'll go to another state or another area where maybe they don't have those kind of , you know, firewalls to stop some of that.

>> Let me give you each a minute on this question which is among the remaining bills that have passed through the first half filter, they're still alive and well.

What what one or two pieces are you still keeping an eye on either of your own or within your chamber as we move between now and the end of the session ?

Well, I'll never get my eye off the breaded Tenderloin bill, but unfortunately I don't think that's going to come to fruition.

But we may slip it in somewhere here before the end.

But I don't think that'll have too big a big of an impact on the state except for the excitement behind it.

But I'll seriousness aside, I had a good hearing this week on a on a bill that is really just kind of common sense and we see it allowed in our schools and our communities throughout the state where they are doing what's called energy audits.

Are they using the most efficient lighting and they say heating cooling system performing at its efficiency and the state house is a beautiful building and we light it up like a Christmas tree every single day.

There are so many lights in there both in the public sphere as well in our office setting.

And the question that I wondered was how you know, how are we looking in our own backyard?

Are we leading by example in the state house and doing an energy audit of our buildings down there?

The state house and the government center?

And so I had a bill and utility committee in the House that we passed out of the Senate this week that we're moving forward that I think you know, can show some great promise and once we do that we can expand it out to all state facilities whether it's the not, you know, regional facilities or other the bureau motor vehicles.

But I think we should lead by example in this world where we're talking about greener, cleaner, more efficient energy and it's been fun to watch it through a broad support on that.

And you know, that's that's a kind of a common sense thing that I've been moving forward.

>> And Dave, how about you, sir?

Well, of course malaria grant funding bill is looking good running it's going to it got passed out of committee.

It was reassigned to appropriations.

It passed our appropriations.

So it's going on to seconds on Monday and if it passes thirds probably on Wednesday next week or Tuesday it will go to the governor's desk.

Hopefully so.

But in a real quick plug I just want to say it's not a plug really but it's really to me it's one of the most important things that's happening is our property taxes.

>> We're going to be hitting with a really anywhere from single digits to up to I've seen over thirty two percent increase in the tax bills and this is this is House bill fourteen ninety nine if anybody wants to follow it it's very important we've got provisions in there that are going to limit how much the county governments can raise their levies every year.

It's going to give some tax breaks.

It's going to combine our mortgage exemptions with our homestead credits.

It's going to reach out and try to do some temporary relief for property owners.

I just can't say enough on on how this is going to impact really hard when you see your bills we'll stay in touch with it and other issues as we move through the weeks to come which will also evaporate like this half hour together here on Prime State Representative David Abbott, state senator and D.C. gentlemen, thank you very, very much and good to be with you as well.

Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your day and for everyone with prime time on your hands.

>> Take care.

We'll see you again next week.

Good night