Despite some small hiccups, the 2012 legislative session finally got underway after Gov. Mitch Daniels gave his final State of the State Address on Tuesday night. His speech was nothing short of inspiring and helped set the tone for this session for all legislators. He compared Indiana to the rest of the nation, explaining how Indiana continues to time and time again pull through this recession. Indiana has a balanced budget, a strong reserve in our state’s savings account and the first AAA credit rating in state history. While other states are raising taxes, closing parks, delaying tax refunds and ignoring unacceptably poor service levels, Indiana continues to make history with its improvements. We are setting national standards for efficiency. We have the fewest state employees per capita in the country. Our parks have never been in better shape, our tax refunds come back twice as quickly as they used to and the average customer gets in and out of a license branch, on average, in less than 14 minutes. Seventy-seven percent of Hoosiers last year described their state government as “efficient”—far above most states and the second-highest rating in the nation. Indiana has become a premiere example to other states of how to effectively conduct a state and its programs. Other states throughout the country have followed our lead and I believe that imitation is truly the most sincere form of flattery. In addition, more people are moving to the Hoosier-state. Thousands of college students moved into our state last year than moved out. There is no better indicator of economic promise in today’s world than success at attracting top talent, which Indiana is. We have much to do in order to continue making improvements. The governor did a tremendous job at not only listing our past improvements, but also our future goals—job creation being everyone’s top priority. We passed several pieces of legislation last year that are beginning to already show results. I was extremely fortunate to have a piece of my legislation mentioned during his address. House Bill (HB) 1220 would require the Commission for Higher Education to evaluate the credit hours required for varying higher education degrees. As the Vice Chair of the House Education Committee, something I have heard a lot about is the concern that state universities are requiring excessive credit hour requirements for graduation. As a result, students are unable to finish school in an appropriate amount of time that it would traditionally take, making them incur additional expenses in pursuing their degrees. I know many of the state universities are already addressing the issue themselves. As Gov. Daniels mentioned, it will limit the “credit creep” that increases both time and expense imposed on students in order to graduate from our state’s universities. HB1220 will simply ensure that everyone is on the same page and working together to ensure that a college education is affordable and effective. Indiana’s commitment to education and job creation is not only high on Gov. Daniels list of priorities, but it is also recognized on a national level. We are receiving praise throughout the country for our public education reform and job creation incentives, but again there is always room for improvement. |
