Caucus Leaders Lay Out Legislative Priorities

The Indiana Chamber of Commerce laid out their top five priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

All four caucus leaders weighed in on the issues.

While not all of the topics are top priorities for lawmakers some of the topics were.

Caucuse leaders discussed their priorities for the upcoming general assembly, along with the the indiana chamber of commerece today.

I sat in on the discussion to see what both democrats and republicans think should ba priority.

These are the priorities of the indiana chamber of commerce in the upcoming legislative session.

Lawmakers from all four caucus weighed in on the issues.

While not all of the topics are top priorities for lawmakers.

Legal liability protections for hoosier businesses for covid-19 is legislation both sides are willing to take action on.

"we need to be thoughtful we need to get this done we need to provide the protections necessary to get people back to work and back to work safely."-house speaker todd huston "it should be written tightly and just to covid issues only with regard to the immunity."-house minority leader phil giaquinta house and senate leaders also agreed on increasing the cigarette tax.

But they said they need to decide how the extra tax dollars will be used.

"we want it to be directed very specifically to try and improve some of the health standards that we are most lacking here in the state of indiana."-senate president pro tem rod bray "if you are fiscally responsible you better not think about using that as a source of revenue for the general fund because its fluctuating."-senate minority leader greg taylor lawmakers also discussed the possibility of creating a workshare program.

Workshare programs are an alternative to layoffs employees work reduced hours while collecting unemployment benefits to supplement their lower wages.

Senate president pro tem rod bray said it's something republicans would consider.

"having an opportunity to really get that issue to a full hearing so the pros and cons can come out and we can decide as a body what that looks like and weather its the right way for the state to go i think it's time to do that."-rod bray democratic leaders say this conpt needs to be embraced, especially during trying economic times.

"maybe not make up the whole 100 percent of what they are losing but suplement what they lost by going home.

The business community could be a huge benefactor of that."-greg taylor another priority that lawmakers touched on was the budget, as well as the redistricting of the state.

The senate will also be capping the number of bills a member can introduce to 10.

That's because they anticipate work at the statehouse will take longer than normal due to the pandemic.

The purdue university senate passed