Holcomb defends record, looks ahead to final budget session

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Gov. Eric Holcomb on Thursday mentioned he stands behind his dealing with of hot-button points that got here out of the legislature this 12 months.

The governor’s feedback got here throughout an end-of-year one-on-one interview with Information 8 in his workplace on the Statehouse. He mentioned 2022 was 12 months for Indiana, pointing to the various jobs bulletins the state noticed.

State lawmakers waded into a number of social points all year long, sending Holcomb bans on abortion and transgender ladies taking part in on ladies’ Okay-12 sports activities groups and making an attempt to ban the educating of important race principle in lecture rooms. Requested if it was proper for the state authorities to get entangled in such points, Holcomb mentioned it’s lawmakers’ proper as elected officers to champion causes their constituents are captivated with. The governor mentioned he stood by his resolution to signal laws to remove the necessity for a allow to hold a firearm regardless of vociferous opposition from Indiana State Police Supt. Doug Carter. He mentioned he needed to steadiness regulation enforcement’s wants with constitutional rights in that occasion. Holcomb mentioned he and lawmakers would proceed to work with regulation enforcement on methods to take care of the brand new permitless carry system.

Holcomb was the primary and, thus far, solely governor to signal an abortion ban after the Supreme Court docket’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. The regulation is at present unenforceable as a result of two separate court-ordered injunctions. Holcomb mentioned be believes the regulation is constitutional.

“Simply as earlier than this regulation was put into place, there have been critics and there have been those that disagreed with it, and so they championed coverage that will be nearer to their aligned view,” he mentioned. “And the identical will probably be true after the court docket decides on each of those instances the place we go from right here.”

Democrats roundly criticized Holcomb’s resolution earlier this summer season to not droop or freeze the fuel tax within the face of document fuel costs. Holcomb mentioned the state needed to proceed to make good on its commitments to street enhancements. He mentioned the choice to make use of an computerized tax refund allowed the state to maintain its street initiatives shifting whereas nonetheless offering some reduction to taxpayers.

“A 20-year plan, a $60 billion dedication, the very last thing we wish to do is abandon that dedication and say these gadgets can wait as a result of we’ve established it’s a precedence, and you may’t have each,” he mentioned.

Waiting for the 2023 legislative session, which will probably be his closing funds session as governor, Holcomb mentioned he’ll prioritize schooling and well being care applications in his spending proposal. He mentioned the state can’t afford to miss any inhabitants when it comes to geography, demographics or instructional attainment when employers are determined for good staff. Requested about Home Speaker Todd Huston’s name for a significant overhaul of the state’s highschool curriculum, Holcomb mentioned any adjustments have to be structural moderately than taking a scattershot strategy. He mentioned lots of the forms of applications the state wants already are in place in some faculties and easily have to be scaled up.

“All INdiana Politics” airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on Information 8.