INDIANAPOLIS — For Madison County’s delegates to the Indiana General Assembly, the legislative body’s annual Organization Day was nothing new.
Reps. Scott Reske, Terri Austin and Jack Lutz and Sen. Tim Lanane had served in the Assembly before, all of them familiar with Tuesday’s mainly ceremonial first meeting of next year’s legislature.
“It was pretty positive and actually fairly uneventful, aside from the swearing in and folks getting a chance to meet new legislators and talk to government affairs representatives,” Austin said. “It’s just part of the initial process.”
Organization Day typically has a festive atmosphere, with families and friends watching newly elected and re-elected representatives be sworn in. It also is a time for party caucuses to meet and the House and Senate to discuss some of the issues they might come across in the session, which starts Jan. 7.
Lanane was recognized for his election as assistant minority leader in the Senate, along with other leaders in both parties of each house. He said the upcoming session would be both exciting and challenging, as Indiana had not escaped the national economic downturn and legislators must use the session to come up with the state budget for the next two years.
“Given the environment that we’re in now, there’s many challenges here,” Lanane said. “Indiana’s got to look at it as an opportunity to reposition ourselves in a changing economy and a changing world.”
Lanane said the recent election of Democrat Barack Obama for president created a need for Indiana to put itself in the best position to deal with a change in national leadership.
“The real important thing for us to think about is how we as a state can take advantage of change on the federal level,” he said.
Austin said Organization Day was a good way to talk to other legislators who might have the same goals and ideas and work together on passing legislation.
“I’m hearing a lot of support for mass transit, and I’m really hopeful that’s one of the things we might be able to accomplish this year,” she said. “The other thing I’m hearing is need for local road and street money and bridge money. Those are all things that put people to work.”
Austin spent part of Tuesday setting up her Indianapolis office and getting ready to move her base of operations there. The legislators have plenty of preparation to do before January, meeting in committees and submitting bill requests by the Dec. 15 deadline.
Lutz said he planned to work cordially with his colleagues while continuing to work on the agenda put forth by the House Republican party, including job creation through alternative energy and renewable resources and Hope Scholarships for high school students.
Reske said his concentration for the upcoming session would be economic development in Madison County and the state, and he was confident the General Assembly could help the state out of the economic downturn and pass a balanced budget.
“We’ve been handed something that no one wants to be handed,” he said. “There’s some opportunity out there. People know the economy’s in a downturn, so I’m looking forward to it.”
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Organization Day
— Shortened meeting of Indiana General Assembly, lasting about 30 minutes
— Elected and re-elected representatives and senators sworn in, party leadership announced and confirmed
— Preparation for budget session and discussion among legislators about upcoming important issues in the coming year
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