Statewide – Governor Eric J. Holcomb announced his 2021 Next Level Agenda on Thursday, which is focused on safely navigating out of the pandemic and emerging as a stronger Indiana.
The 2021 Next Level Agenda includes five pillars detailing both legislative and administrative priorities for the year ahead. His five main points on the agenda include:
• Cultivate a strong and diverse economy by calling for legislators to pass the state’s ninth straight balanced budget and by expanding the Manufacturing Readiness Grants to enable companies to modernize their operations.
• Maintain and build the state’s infrastructure by growing his nation-leading Next Level Connections Broadband Program with legislation to better reach additional areas of the state that are unserved or underserved with higher internet speeds.
• Education, training and workforce development by ensuring that K-12 schools receive 100 percent of their funding for the second half of the school year and working to increase K-12 funding in the next biennial budget and at a minimum restore higher education funding cut in the last fiscal year due to the impact of the pandemic.
• Public health by being committed to the goal of becoming the best state in the Midwest for infant mortality by 2024 by protecting pregnant workers by providing more workplace accommodations. Using lessons learned in the pandemic, the agenda calls for reforming long-term care services to be outcome and quality-driven, and for initiating a comprehensive assessment of local health departments and state delivery of public health services.
• Deliver great government service by expanding telemedicine services, making virtual meeting options permanent, and providing businesses and schools with coronavirus liability protections
To watch Gov. Holcomb’s agenda speech, click here.
