The issues that face Hoosiers, and America as a whole, are complex and they are all interconnected. The challenge is to find and cure the root causes and not just treat the symptoms.

Hoosiers in small towns and rural areas face declining populations as area jobs are being lost. Since 1980, Delaware and Jay Counties have lost around 12% of their population, Randolph has lost 18%, and Blackford has lost 22%. Furthermore, Randolph, Blackford, and Jay Counties have between 10-15% of their populations who hold college degrees. People who hold college degrees have 65% higher salaries on average. This makes the tax burden on those who live in our counties higher because there are fewer people who make lower wages pay for the necessary services the county must provide. How do we encourage people to move to our counties?

Economic Development

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided rural/small town communities unprecedented opportunity to grow economically. In my job, I have spent the last two years making it possible for thousands of employees to work remotely from home. We are now seeing that many big companies are choosing to reduce their building footprints and moving most employees to “work form home” status permanently. If people can work from the cul-de-sac communities of suburban big cities, they can do the same from our counties if not for one thing. We do not have the reliable rural broadband internet infrastructure to provide for this. To this point, wireless broadband is an option for some, although not good options. First of all, the service towers need to be working off a fiber ring, which many are not. Secondly, the “microwave” option requires line-of-sight to the tower which trees will interrupt. Then with cellular options such as 4G and 5G, the service providers have data limits on each service when their devices are used at hotspots, most at 15 GB per month which is about what streaming a 2 hour movie in 4k uses. There is money coming from the federal government to build our internet infrastructure. As a state, we need to ensure this money is distributed to rural and small town areas and spent to build reliable broadband internet infrastructure properly.

Education

Several years ago, I changed jobs in my company to IT systems support. The district manager asked me if I had any concerns about moving into the new job, and I said yes; I was concerned that they were entrusting IT support to me when I didn’t have a degree or much training in IT at all. He said to me that if you get what you should from education, the ability to reason and problem solve, you will be able to do anything you want to do. This put words to my philosophy on education.

No matter what you learn in school, you should learn problem solving. Whether you are a medical scientist trying to find a cure for cancer, a carpenter trying to build something to fit into a certain space, or factory worker trying to optimize workspace to bring down task time, problem solving is a part of everyone’s daily life. We need to be loading people in our schools with these critical thinking skills as well as the framework required to meet this need. We need to ensure that we have available the classes for college preparation as well as classes in trades such as shop, auto mechanics, agriculture, and home economics. Beginning in their pre-K years, students should start building a strong background with language and mathematical skills being formally taught . The importance of education is undeniable. My family is full of educators: from my mother who taught elementary school in Albany and Desoto for 30 years, my sister who is the librarian at Blackford High School, and my wife who taught at Head Start and other preschools. We need to make certain that college and trade schools can be affordable after graduation from high school so that we produce young adults who are ready for the workforce.

In the 2021 session of the General Assembly, HB 1134 is quite possibly the most destructive piece of legislation to education to ever come out of Indiana State Government. As said above, critical thinking and problem solving are key to education. Ignoring knowledge and facts hinders this outcome. HB 1134 creates a system where this will actually become the norm. Scientific method will not be taught. Historical facts will be ignored. Literature that stimulates minds and thinking will be banned. It prohibits a teacher from assisting a child who is dealing with emotional issues which could be life threatening. And it disarms our teens from having an education about human reproduction which will decrease our instances of child abuse and unwanted pregnancy. All in all, this bill will have terrible effects on Hoosier education.

Agriculture

I grew up on a family farm. My ancestors who pioneered the area were all farmers. My great grandfather plowed his fields near Desoto with a team of horses. We are far from the days when “40 acres and a mule” was enough to sustain a family. Gone are the days of my youth when our family put thousands of bales of hay in the hay mow and a family farm could sustain themselves on 300 acres. Today we are looking at a family farm requiring over 1000 acres of tilled ground to sustain a single household. If we are talking about a father/son farm with two households, that number is doubled. The cost of grain, chemicals, fuel, and equipment continues to rise as prices farmers are paid for their product continues to fall. The main cause for this is that the markets have become monopolized. In any given sector of the agriculture markets, four corporations control 75% of the market. This causes farmers to get paid less for their products as competition for those products has been eliminated. Families have filed for bankruptcy at an alarming rate over the past decade. Their land has been sold to corporate agriculture which is destroying our farming communities which have existed since our pioneer days. We need to fight for our rights to enforce anti-trust laws at the federal level. We need to provide programs that can keep the family farm alive while the monopolies are brought into control. We need to limit the expansion of factory farming. We need to ensure that as technology becomes available to create better productivity, it is available to small farming families. As electric technology replaces liquid fuel based equipment, we need to be sure that liquid fuels are available at affordable prices as this changeover will not be quick. We will require the need for better rural broadband as new equipment will require it for efficient production. Regardless of talking points, broadband needs to be seen as a utility and made a priority just as providing electricity to rural areas was 90 years ago. And as a state government, we need to be working to make policy that strengthens family farms and stops the monopolization and consolidation of our most precious resource of food production into corporate entities. Increasing competition for our agricultural products promotes better capitalism, and this is what Hoosier farmers need to start prospering again.

Health

We are in the midst of the greatest health crisis in a century. COVID-19 has caused unprecedented hospitalizations, deaths, and economic issues. It has changed our world in fundamental ways. And we still have no clear path to move beyond its affects as the virus continues to mutate into new strains with increasing disregard for treatments. Our medical staffs are exhausted Regardless of how weary we are of wearing masks, social distancing, and , we cannot strip the tools from ourselves to protect others. The fact that this has become a political issue is a very sad statement on our times.

In the meantime, we need to ensure that people still have adequate access to affordable heath care even with the huge costs of treating COVID-19. We need to ensure that getting sick doesn’t bankrupt entire families. Health care includes mental health and addiction treatment.

Environment

Wind and solar power have been installed in much of District 33 and plans are underway to expand what we already have. Windmills bring badly needed income to rural areas and provide additional electricity to our power grids. Energy costs are going to continue to rise as fossil fuels become scarcer. We need to balance the plans for additional installations with environmental and safety studies to ensure the least impact to our communities.

Cannabis

District 33 shares almost 35 miles of border with a state where cannabis is legal to purchase. Thirty-three states now have legal sales of cannabis products. This means that our district is located where it is very easy for people to drive just a few miles to legally buy cannabis products, and they do even though it is illegal here. I do not personally use cannabis products, but there are many reasons we should consider making it legal here. We could have businesses collecting revenue and collecting taxes from its sale. We could regulate the products. We could reduce the strain on our courts and prison systems. In sum, it makes economic sense to consider legalization of cannabis in Indiana.