Bill Davis at Muncie Free Press - Delaware County Indiana | News and Information

By Rick Yencer

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Despite super majorities by Republicans in the Indiana General Assembly, there was still a great divide between money and people when the session was declared Sine Die or done on Saturday morning.

 Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, probably said it best. "The price of harmony is doing nothing."

By Rick Yencer

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -  Look for Republican lawmakers to roll out $1 billion in tax cuts when a new 2-year state budget is approved by the Indiana General Assembly in the next couple of days.

By Rick Yencer

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Gov. Mike Pence proposes to give a half a billion in income tax cuts, slightly increase education spending and fully fund the Medicaid forecast in a new two-year state budget.

Eliminating voter polls at schools also on the list

By Rick Yencer

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -  Looking to promote jobs and education, Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, also wants to eliminate polling places from public schools with her agenda before the Indiana General Assembly.

 Errington expressed confidence this week that she could work with the new Republican super majorities in the House and Senate along with Republican Gov.-elect Mike Pence when he named Muncie businessman Victor Smith as the new Indiana Department of Commerce.

 The bottom line for Errington along with other Democrats in the Legislature will be to get Republican sponsors for their bills. 

 The former state senator should not have any problem with local Republican lawmakers supporting a bill to add more tax incentives to develop and occupy the former Borg Warner Automotive plant on Kilgore Avenue in Muncie.

 "This bill is about job creation," said Errington.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN -  What Hoosiers want their lawmakers to do is not what Republican legislative leaders intend as the Indiana Senate minority leader called for a cease fire from ongoing political conflict.

 "People want a cease fire from contentious issues," said Sen. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson, who represents Muncie.

 Reps. Kevin Mahan, R-Hartford City and  Bill Davis, R-Portland, agreed that both parties had work together for the betterment of Hoosiers as Mahan referred to the Senate was the "House of Lords" while the House was more "Animal House."

 About 70 people gathered for breakfast at Meridian Health Services to get a preview of the upcoming Legislature that will consider a new 2-year state budget besides hundreds of other ideas.

 Lawmakers, including new state Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, touched on a Hoosier survey released Thursday by the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University along with WISH TV Channel 8.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN  - Some local Indiana House Republicans intend to get rid of common construction wages and oppose renewable energy mandates after they change the social fabric of the Hoosier state.

 Around 50 people, mostly partisans, attended the event at Northside Middle School. Among the political celebrities were former Mayor Sharon McShurley and Elwood Mayor Ron Arnold, both Republicans.

 Brenda Brumfield, spokesperson  for the chamber, said it was painfully apparent that no audience and no media attention made the forum a failure in some ways.

 That much of that is because big media sees front runner Mike Pence, a Republican congressman, as the next governor and Republicans keeping safe, large ,majorities in the House and Senate.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN - Muncie lawmakers, facing Muncie Community Schools administrators, had little to say about that 5,000 pound elephant in the room during a legislative wrap up on Friday.

 Rep. Mike White, D-Muncie, could not believe that the $500 million accounting error from the Indiana Department of Revenue that cost government and schools was not found by state or local officials for 14 months.

By Rick Yencer

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -  It looked like a protest right out of the 1960s when House Democrats had a sit in at the Rotunda yelling power to the people over the Right to Work fight.

 For a Jay County High School junior social studies class led by teacher Ben Dues, it was quite a lesson in democracy, says State Rep. Bill Davis, a Republican from Portland.