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Indiana Statehouse
Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston announced his largely unchanged roster of Republican committee chair appointments Thursday morning.
The sole new face is Rep. Jake Teshka of North Liberty who will lead the Financial Institutions Committee. Former Rep. Mike Speedy left the House after last session.
Committee chairs for next session:
- Rep. Michael Aylesworth: Agriculture and Rural Development Commerce
- Rep. Bob Morris: Small Business and Economic Development
- Rep. Wendy McNamara: Courts and Criminal Code
- Rep. Bob Behning: Education
- Rep. Tim Wesco: Elections and Apportionment
- Rep. Heath VanNatter: Employment, Labor and Pensions
- Rep. Alan Morrison: Environmental Affairs
- Rep. Dale DeVon: Family, Children and Human Affairs
- Rep. Jake Teshka: Financial Institutions
- Rep. Doug Miller: Government and Regulatory Reform
- Rep. Martin Carbaugh: Insurance
- Rep. Chris Jeter: Judiciary
- Rep. Chris May: Local Government
- Rep. Shane Lindauer: Natural Resources
- Rep. Brad Barrett: Public Health
- Rep. Ethan Manning: Public Policy
- Rep. Jim Pressel: Roads and Transportation
- Rep. Ben Smaltz: Rules and Legislative Procedures
- Rep. Karen Engleman: Statutory Committee on Ethics
- Rep. Ed Soliday: Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications
- Rep. Steve Bartels: Veterans Affairs and Public Safety
- Rep. Jeff Thompson: Ways and Means
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Kiss better roads in Marion County good bye. Pressel is part of the problem.
Eh, I’m happy that Pressel is back. We’re at the point where IN’s government only works because of a handful of semi-reasonable, moderate committee chairs. Pressel is one of them.
I was furious with Pressel’s decision to pass Aaron Freeman’s Blue Line killer out of committee; however, it seemed as if Pressel was acting on higher orders (aka from Speaker Huston). Huston probably just wanted Aaron Freeman (and friends) out of his hair, because the bill was quickly amended to save the Blue Line after it made it to the full house.
Freeman had tried to poison pill the Blue Line three of the previous four years (or something like that), and the only year that he didn’t try to pass a direct Blue Line poison pill, he wrote legislation that gave pretext for his Blue Line attack the following year. Every version of the bill prior to last session was killed by Pressel. It was time for Huston & the full house to stop years of chaos and resolve the ‘issue’. (And I assume that the Senate would’ve retaliated on some other bill had Huston not done what he did.)
Anyway, I trust that Pressel will be one of the more reasonable Republicans regarding road funding when the Legislature addresses the issue next year.
Sorry. Pressel thinks we have plenty of road funding as a state. He’s wrong. Leave aside Marion County, bridges across the state are crumbling. And his idea is toll lanes on highways?
The answer is higher taxes and a move away from user taxes. Not popular, but it’s necessary.
https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/05/05/after-passing-gas-tax-increase-lawmakers-to-tackle-long-term-road-funding/