what do the NCAA basketball tournament and the Indiana state legislature have in common?

>> We both are heading to their own final four this weekend.

That would be four teams for the tourney and four weeks for the General Assembly and there is a lot of action on the courts as well as in the chambers of the state House and we will get a legislative update on at next on this week's PrimeTime time.

Perfect time.

And good evening.

I'm Chris Hayes with us.

Today is 15th District Republican state senator and Assistant Majority Floor Leader Liz Brown and we invite you to join our conversation as well.

You can call in your questions and comments by using the number that you see on the screen.

>> And Liz, thank you.

Welcome back.

Yeah, thank you.

Nice to be back.

Appreciate it.

I wanted to start was something that was kind of a way of perhaps giving our viewers a picture of what may well be the rhythm of these days.

The Indiana Capitol Chronicle had run an article about a day in the Life and the talked of Wednesday as a ten committee day for the Indiana General Assembly.

>> 150 lawmakers dashing from room to room to hear testimony explain Bill's broker compromises then add in caffeine and sugar from the snack shack and you have a typical Wednesday right now you're in the second half of the second half.

>> What kind of a piece of things is it for you?

>> It's gotten a little more hectic.

I always bring my coffee mug in my thermos for the day so I'm self-sufficient.

But yeah, I mean we're getting close to figuring out the budget and education funding and road funding.

There's plus just the regular legislation that's flowing.

>> So yeah, it's all moving and the movement is the key thing.

Oh yeah I actually was running back and forth between meeting rooms because I had to vote and I had to go to another one.

>> Yes.

>> And in fact the article gave high credit because you were at a health meeting on the fourth floor and then down to a judicial committee meeting in the basement of the state house.

>> Yes.

And you were there at one thirty?

Yes.

I try to start on time.

>> Yes.

And it's important to see how timely some of that business was in judiciary.

>> Joanna King, Representative King was here last last week saying additional magistrates were needed to improve some of the efficiency of the court system and this was one of the bills that Judiciary had picked up which I think is now in appropriations.

>> Yes.

Now that we're here this week with seven days difference, is there an update on that?

Yes.

So the way that works is because we're going to be funding more courts because the state pays for the judges salaries.

It has to go through appropriations after we passed it in committee and we only adopt New courts if we have a formula and it shows that there there's a need and they weigh them by misdemeanor cases and you know, murder cases, felony cases, things like that.

And so we've done that consistently since I've been there and but now this will be the first year where we take a look at all of the courts and all the counties and decide where we need to start making some cuts and that's that's something we probably should have done a while ago because the way it works is, you know, every court every county has to constitutionally have a circuit court so every county has one court but some of them have superior courts and magistrates, et cetera.

And so we need to make sure that they're all working at capacity because you know, that's that's a burden to the taxpayers ultimately because it comes out of our general fund and so because of a money factor, this is why appropriations needs to weigh in on that.

>> Yes.

Yes.

Because we're adding I think nine positions.

>> OK, yes.

Total I also could appreciate that.

I think all of us you can see when it is a budget building session you didn't just have many budget hearings.

>> You had many, many budget.

>> Yes.

You said recently on the state budget bill it's a tight year and there's a tight deadline.

I think April 10 is something coming up soon for a Senate bill to to to come forward to the Senate's version of ten to one.

>> Yes, but if you have any bill that has to come through the Senate has what we call fiscal in other words, money is expected to be spent, you know, for something whether it's education or project or roads.

>> It has to be recommitted before April 3rd and then it has to get on the appropriation calendar and then that day the appropriations meets on Thursday and that day everything has to be done by I think it's twelve thirty.

So I've been here and sometimes we might have ten fifteen bills that day and so it's we'll start you know at eight thirty but we're going to be moving and if people have been lollygagging and they haven't moved their bills through committee then it doesn't matter how great it is if it has a a fiscal to it then it doesn't get hurt if they haven't moved it through.

So I tried to to move my committee hearings, you know, put things in and I deliberately had that courts bill on Wednesday knowing I had a two week you know, or week cushion to get it straight before we go on appropriations and I'm recalling off notes but I hope I have this right that you're also involved in a committee regarding school funding.

>> Yes.

Speaking of deadlines, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a that's a school implication that is huge.

You know, education funding is fifty percent of our budget and so of the appropriations there are three of us that just look at K-12 funding and so we're looking at the what we call the foundation what every school gets per student and then we look at, you know, what we call the complexity which is we we understand that lower socioeconomic factors typically those children you might need a little more money to help them, you know, keep stay on track and then things like special ed needs and some of the things to eat.

So we got to figure out where to put that money and that is definitely moving pieces on the board.

>> Oh yeah.

Well and this is where April disappears from the calendar because you have April 3rd you mentioned April 10 then we have the revenue report that comes out about April 15.

>> Well I'm hearing it might be later than that and that's a problem we thought we would be we have to constitutionally be done by April twenty ninth to have our budget.

>> You have to have budget and we will it'll be a balanced budget but I've been hearing that it might be later the the forecast and so we can't really plug all the numbers in.

You know Medicaid's an issue until we actually know what we're projected to have and we know it's going to be tight.

As Senator Mitchell said before, appropriation budget hearings if you're not in the budget is going to be hard to get in and if you're in you might so not stay in you because and we've been we've been actively looking at programs and processes to streamline.

>> So one additional complication perhaps certainly something that planned on Tuesday of this week Indiana health officials received word of the federal government pulling back on about 11 billion dollars nationwide that had been sent to states and health departments during the covid-19 pandemic.

That's about forty million dollar loss or so for Indiana.

And I think in a hearing on the Health and Provider Services Committee this this came up what kind of impact does the loss of forty million have?

>> It would seem on the surface a lot.

Yeah I could I mean I think I've heard that it doesn't really affect our own county but that doesn't mean you know, there aren't some programs out there I haven't heard yet which programs have that you know, had anticipated that money are not going to be funded.

But at the same time we're waiting to hear what the feds are going to do and Medicaid because we have different Medicaid programs and we have what's called an enhanced match for some of them where it's up to higher match in the dollars that the state puts in.

We we draw down from the federal government to fund our Medicaid program.

So that's another big problem because we know we are about four to five hundred million dollars short and what had been projected in the current fiscal year on Medicaid our current budget.

So yeah, a lot of unknowns right now we are talking with Indiana State Senator Liz Roe and time if you'd like to join us, you see the phone number on the screen, please call in as you say dial in but you can plug in to this modern era.

One of the things that comes to mind in legislation that you and Senator Glick brought forward eyewitnessed identification procedures is the is the yes call of Senate bill one forty one and immediately you flashed to all TV dramas where there's a lineup at the police station.

>> Yes.

Tell me a little bit about the background and maybe now then the the forward movement of of this measure.

Yes, actually last year was flipped Senator was the lead Senator Sue GLAC from up in Steben and then I was second this year because we added and ay ay ay ay ay ay component to it.

>> There was a concern in other states where some police departments not here in Indiana had used an AI process to sort of create a mug shot out of whole cloth and actually use that to arrest someone.

So we wanted to make sure that didn't happen in the state of Indiana.

And so that's that's primarily what that bill does tighten up the lineups and you know, we had great support from state police and other law enforcement.

You know, they want everything to be by the book as well.

So but yes, they they did point out that the original draft of the language is you know, that's really how we do it.

>> Right.

So we don't actually put people in lineups anymore, right?

Yeah.

it's back to the Senate for consideration.

>> So it's its journey continues.

Your parental rights bill was debated in the House Judiciary Committee on Monday.

>> It gained its committee approval, moved to the full House.

It's being described as a measure to strengthen parental rights in Indiana law.

>> How so?

Yes, you know, it's we had some tough testimony starts in the Senate was my bill the Judiciary and we had some really, really tough stories from parents involved in DC whether they were foster parents or parents who frankly I think DC US would admit had mistakenly sort of captured them and so it's just giving the parents more rights.

It's not saying obviously that you can abuse your children or anything like that, but there were instances where docs wouldn't even tell the parents who eventually it was found that there was no abuse.

It was turned out for several cases it was they didn't understand the child had a connective tissue disorder which caused the child to have some bruising, et cetera or some nutritional issues with some liver undiagnosed liver issues where they had some bruising and therefore by our mandatory reporting pediatrician reports babies are taken away, you know, eventually going back.

But there were times when when those babies were out of the parents arms, they didn't even tell the parents what medical treatments they were receiving .

And you know, these are not parents who are losing rights to their child.

They receive their tarmac's you know, we didn't have a whole lot of pushback and and the stories were pretty tough to listen to.

So I think it just sets it right that yes, we want parents to be the fundamental decision makers for their children.

>> So and this is a bill we've we've heard before but this is a chance to get it over the finish line.

>> Yes.

Yes.

And I'm pretty confident that as well we did not have time in your first visit.

>> I think this happened shortly after your February appearance but you had a cybersecurity bill passed the Senate that would establish a cybersecurity insurance program.

>> How does that work now?

Quiet insurance.

So actually I had an eye test for cybersecurity together a couple of years ago and it actually the cybersecurity piece was brought to me because it was for some school systems their insurance rates were going up and so can we create a pool where if there's ever money and there's not in the bill if there's ever money, could it help offset their premiums?

We're not trying to create an insurance plan on our own but could we help but then with that we've also decided we need to we need to still make sure that our local units of government are have best practices in this space.

Right.

We don't want our students data.

We hacked.

>> We don't want our utility systems to be hacked, et cetera.

Right.

And shut down and there and there have been a few in the state.

>> So you know the insurance piece that comes after the fact when there's been a hack or ransomware, we don't really even want that to happen.

We want there to be best practices ahead of time.

So the bigger part of the bill is really saying units of government you have two years you know, whether it's a school system or the city of Fort Wayne and I didn't at any pushback from any anybody like we can't do this.

I think they're all all want to be on board and we have the Indiana Office of Technology that's there ready to help them figure it out.

So that's that's really the crux of the bill saying we're going to try to make sure that all of our units have our data right in so many ways that they're they are performing the best that they can in the cybersecurity space keeping our data secure.

>> Got it.

So many different measures is a different species.

There's like a quilt of legislative activity taking place within the session as we move forward.

>> And one of those we talked about in February and so we can get an update to on this as well the IC 3.0 Senate bill for seventy three.

>> First explain to the group what what extent it was and why we're in three diverters.

>> I know it's such a large bill.

This is the third year I've had it I I kind of have getting increasing access to care for Hoosiers everywhere I think so we don't typically have bills that have so many different health different issues in it but they just are so important and they really did these different issues.

The the point was to make it easier for providers, people who are providing some kind of health care to actually do it without the red tape.

People who wanted to be a provider like a CNA, you know those sorts of things try to make it easier for them to get their licensing and at the same time sometimes in you know, whether the person receiving the care treatment how can they get it easier so we we streamline the CSA program.

We helped long term care facilities hopefully actually get paid when they're supposed to sooner.

>> So yeah, there's a lot of moving parts so and as of now three each one of these builds on the other.

>> Yes, it sounds like yes.

And some of them are you know I mean nobody was really pushing for example, to streamline the CNA licensing and and how that all worked.

But those those people are so valuable in our system and you know, the home health kids health care aides center so we were overdue and so you know, sometimes these things stand alone in a bill.

You know, people might think there's something more important.

I just thought this would be really important to try to move as many as these sort of smaller issues over because it's all good for those of us receiving the care.

>> It's in the House Committee on Public Health .

Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

I think we just heard it last week so OK, very good.

>> We welcome Lee to the program who has called in with a question that we can discuss and it's one that comes up every year about now this could you please address the discontinue creation of the Daylight Savings Time bill?

>> Yeah, I don't know if there was even a bill this year.

I know there was not one filed in my committee.

>> I will confess that we since we live by our cell phones we did not change our clocks and had to go to church later which has to happen in years.

>> So I sympathize but I don't know if if there's the I wasn't in the legislature when it happened the first time but my understanding that it was quite the battle and so I don't know if there is the the will I mean I'd be interested in discussing it for sure but it's one hundred and forty nine of the people you have to convince so yeah, it is always a reminder to change your smoke detector battery to yeah.

>> Doing all of these things at the same time we thank you very much for reaching out.

We're in kind of a lightning round segment here in a way because there are a couple of other pieces that are worth a moment.

House Bill Tenno for price caps on nonprofit hospital charges.

>> Yeah, I was pretty vocal in committee.

I voted no I'm not a fan of price caps or anything.

I don't think that's a fiscal conservative Republican value.

However, I understand health care costs are pricey in Indiana.

So I think particularly Senator Tyler Johnson has been working very, very hard in this space and on that bill and we just had a big he called an all stakeholders meeting the other day and I think we will get to a better place.

But it's complicated.

I mean there's there's a you know, you have the federal government involved in Medicare payments, Medicaid patient payments.

The state gets to set Medicaid.

So there's a lot to figure out because you know, we don't want people to lose access to care either.

>> And you know, personally I think up here in northeast Indiana we've been blessed with great health care systems so.

>> Right.

Yeah.

And staying in the health field set the bill for even prior authorization that usually gets everyone's attention those two little words.

>> Yes.

Yes.

I mean what could be more painful than thinking you're going to have, you know, whatever bunion surgery or major knee neck back surgery and then find out the day before nevermind it's been canceled.

So that has been something that has really bothered me.

I carried legislation early on trying to fix that space center.

Johnson again is doing a great job and we definitely it just wastes everyone's time, right?

I mean physicians are waiting.

They can't do the procedure.

So now the surgical suite is empty, wasted you know, somebodies time and at the same time a patient may be in pain trying to get back to work and get something fixed.

So hopefully we can fix that too.

I think Senator Johnson again he's working very hard in that bill and I'm confident that it's it's moved out of the Senate that will pass the House.

>> Uh, one that passed early I think in this session was minor access and use of social media, said Bill.

>> Yes, I heard that right out of the gate.

Senator Bacik was the lead from Michigan City area I I agree with him one hundred percent we didn't really get pushback from parents.

But I think that when you look at what our children are exposed to, these apps are really good at figuring out how to manipulate kids I think and also what they claim is age appropriate.

I don't think all of us necessarily think that.

And so his bill was just saying you're going to give parents more rights and control and if a parent says I don't care if my kid, you know, has full access, then they can do that.

But I think it's been held up in the House and I think Senator Bacik is trying to figure out a way to amend it into another bill.

>> So I hope you success successful go moving to something that is a tough Segway but a very positive cause Senate bill for eighty the skills training pilot program this is now in House Ways and Means and Workforce Development connected.

>> Yes, this was brought to me late in the last year and it was I think I was probably the least experience of this area.

>> I'm not on those committees but they needed someone to bring the legislation and I really admire the Department of Workforce Development and the people brought this to me.

They're just looking for innovative ways to get people to work.

And part of the idea is, you know, there's this cliff so people on benefits can only work so much and we want them to move to full time employment and better credentials so they can live and get off of some of the the services that we provide.

But they're between a rock and a hard place.

So that's one of the goals of this.

Again, the funding of it is an issue but I'm confident it's moved already through our side and the House committee.

So I'm confident and I sent it to a brand new legislator, Representative Lopez, but this is his area of expertize so if anyone can get it done he will go somewhere in the program had to be the reference to property tax reform.

>> Of course the other well there if you have the top five it's in there somewhere.

We last had a proposal from Senate Republicans House Ways and Means Committee Chair Geoff Thompson, one from the governor.

>> What is your sense of where we are now with property tax?

>> Yeah, I think that I think the Senate bill one is was introduced was an ambitious plan from Governor Brons office but it was for billion dollar hit to the locals and it wasn't a long term fix anyway.

And so I don't sit on tax and fiscal which amended the bill but we also knew that the House members, particularly Representative Thompson has been working on this a long time and understands as well that we need a long term fix not just you know, one time fixes.

And so I'm confident that he'll figure out a way I think they're working on a formula and part of it frankly is you know, we have some good local units of government and not so good.

And part of the problem is is some of the local units government understand if they keep their debt up then they get to, you know, take more out of the property taxes called the levy and it's one big pot.

And so for example, if the city of Fort Wayne takes too much which they haven't thank goodness, then the airport authority or the library gets less or Fort in commuter schools gets less.

Right.

However that works.

So we need to make sure that our locals understand their obligations to their own taxpayers but also that they affect everybody so that's not something I'm working on but I'm definitely watching.

>> Yeah, one thing I want to touch on them with less than two minutes it's almost unfair to to ask you this but earlier this month Indiana became the eleventh state to issue an identical call for a convention to amend congressional term limits in the US Constitution.

>> What's your understanding of this and why should or shouldn't this happen?

>> Well, I supported that resolution.

I also heard that through my committee and when I first got elected to this office I met with the convention of states individuals and you know, there are different ways to amend our Constitution.

Right.

And this is us calling ourselves in and having this convention and I fully support it and I think there are several other states that have to sign on before we can actually move forward with this.

But there is some consternation by some they call runaway delegates.

They think that, you know, if we have this convention in states then all sorts of crazy people will come amend our Constitution in different ways.

There are a lot more controls on that.

But I think we the people should have the opportunity instead of waiting for example, from Congress to.

So I think it's a good start and I think people are frustrated with Congress and the federal government and the lack of , you know, really getting things done.

So this Ellspermann may be the best wishes for the rest of the journey as we go.

>> Clearly a lot in a short space, lots of information available and I think that Gov.

Under General Assembly that's where you'll find the Liz Brown and assistant majority floor leader state senator for District 15.

>> Thank you for being with us.

>> Thank you very much for having me.

And thank you for watching as well for all of us with prime time.

I'm Bruce Haines.

Take care and we'll see you again here next week.

>> Good night