(Greensburg, IN) – Three lawmakers who represent all or portions of Decatur County at the Statehouse gathered at the Greensburg City Hall Multipurpose Room Saturday morning for the 2024 Legislative Update.
Senator Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg), and representatives Alex Zimmerman (R-North Vernon) and Jennifer Meltzer (R-Shelbyville) each talked about bills they are authored, supported, or opposed during the just-concluded legislative session before the floor was opened to questions from those in attendance.
State Rep. Lindsay Patterson (R-Brookville) was not present due to illness.
Leising says the bill signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb banning China, Russia, and other adversarial countries from buying Indiana farmland and within 10 miles of military facilities is a key issue.
“I really think that people need to be aware that China, especially, has really, really been trying to make deals with Indiana, make deals with individual property owners, but we’ve got to get this under control right now because they are an adversarial country,” Leising said.
Zimmerman echoed Leising’s thoughts, but says one issue they didn’t have the opportunity to discuss at the event was expansion of work based learning opportunities for high school students who don’t go on to higher education but instead go straight to the workforce.
Meltzer says s the new law requiring third graders to meet reading standards before moving on to the fourth grade is one of the key pieces of legislation passed this year that will affect a lot of Hoosiers.
“The bill has a lot of protections to make sure we’re not holding back the wrong kids and to make sure we are getting kids reading by third grade,” Melzer said. “It’s not meant as a punishment, it’s meant as an incentive.”
The event, which was originally scheduled for last month but postponed due to snow, was presented by the Greensburg/Decatur County Chamber of Commerce.
Jennifer Sturges served as the event’s moderator.
