Ever wonder what shapes the education policies that impact our children? In this eye-opening conversation, State Senator Jeff Raatz pulls back the curtain on Indiana’s remarkable educational transformation and the legislative process behind it.
Joining host Michael Allen on The Hub, Senator Raatz shares his journey from picking cherries on a Michigan orchard at age 11 to chairing Indiana’s Education Committee, where he’s helped propel the state from 19th to 6th in national education rankings. With refreshing candor, he explains how precise language in legislation has revolutionized reading instruction across Indiana, ensuring more children can “learn to read by third grade, then read to learn for the rest of their life.”
The conversation also explores the infrastructure challenges facing East Central Indiana, particularly the long-awaited reconstruction of Interstate 70. Raatz proudly notes that unlike many states, Indiana pays cash for these massive projects rather than issuing bonds—fiscal responsibility that comes with both benefits and trade-offs for residents. This practical approach to governance defines his service to Wayne, Henry, Union, and Franklin counties.
Perhaps most compelling is Raatz’s discussion of workforce development and the transportation barriers preventing many potential workers from accessing available jobs. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he suggests, challenging employers, government agencies, and communities to collaborate on innovative solutions. His career coaching initiative exemplifies this mindset, helping students identify their aptitudes earlier to forge more fulfilling career paths.
Throughout the conversation, Senator Raatz demonstrates the thoughtful, relationship-focused leadership that has characterized his nine years in the Indiana Senate. Whether you’re passionate about education reform, infrastructure improvement, or economic development, you’ll gain valuable insight into how state government shapes our daily lives.
This episode of The Hub with Michael Allen is sponsored by Manpower Richmond. Listen now to understand the person and principles behind the policies affecting our region.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Hub Podcast recorded right here in
Richmond, indiana.
I'm your host, michael Allen,and on the Hub, our mission is
to share stories of peoplemaking a difference in our
region.
In addition to hosting thepodcast, I work with a wonderful
team of staffing professionalsat Manpower.
Manpower is helping companiesall over East Central Indiana
find staffing so they cancontinue to grow and thrive.
(00:24):
Find out how we can help yourcompany at mprichmondcom so with
us today on this episode of thehub is jeff rotz, uh state
senator for the 27th district,covering uh henry union and
wayne county's part of franklincounty as well.
Jeff, welcome to the hub, goodmorning mich.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Michael, I appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, I'm really excited about talking to you
this morning.
We know each other a little bit, We've had conversations over
the years and, Jeff, I got totell you I really respect how
you conduct yourself andrepresent our region and I just
thought it would be great for usjust to kind of have a sit down
and and just share aboutyourself and and the time you've
(01:09):
served our region and state,going back to 2014.
I think when you first cameinto office, and you know.
However, before we do that, Ido want to start with this our
hub tradition, and that isbecause I operate the manpower
here in this area.
I'm always interested aboutwork and jobs, and so we're
(01:34):
curious what was your very firstjob that you remember that you
had?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, I grew up in Northwest Michigan on a thousand
acre apple and cherry orchardthat my dad managed, and we grew
up literally across the streetfrom it, and so I honestly look
at my Social Security record andI'm 11 years old when I first
contributed to Social Security.
I don't think you do that today.
(01:59):
I don't know that for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But yeah, yeah, I don't know what the I mean, I'm
sure, since your father, oh, hemanaged it or owned it.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
He managed it, he didn't own it, yeah, but that
was wife certainly, but yeah,that was doing some menial tasks
in the basement of our home inthe wintertime actually that
we're setting up for the nextspring.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So you weren't actually picking cherries.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I did absolutely do that At six years old.
I remember being in the orgywith my mother, and so I
couldn't wait for my legs to getlong enough to engage the
clutch in the tractor so I couldstop doing some of those things
.
And so, yeah, no, it was agreat work.
Ethic was embedded in the waywe lived.
(02:44):
That's just so.
It started early and I don'tknow anything else.
I hope I figure it out somedaythat I don't have to work 24-7.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, we've had a strawberry patch, and now we've
got a cherry orchard, so thatjust adds to the list of first
jobs.
So that's great, I guess.
Next I'd like for you just toshare with our followers about
yourself.
Uh, you, you touched on alittle bit of as far as Michigan
, but you know where you grew up, your family, school, kids,
(03:16):
career.
Also, I think we'll kind oftouch into, uh, um, your
military service.
So anyway, I'll kind of let yourun from there.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, I appreciate it .
As I said, grew up in NorthwestMichigan and graduated from
high school and I really didn'thave any plans, except I decided
I was going to go in themilitary and I signed up for for
a couple of years.
And so I did that and came out,went back home and about a year
(03:50):
and a half later I woke up oneday and this is almost literally
the way it happened and I saidI'm going to college and I left
and went and never went.
I've never lived back in thattown.
Nothing wrong with the town.
Just when I left, I left andsubsequently met my wife at
college and we got married andstayed in a town called Muskegon
(04:12):
, michigan.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I grew up 60 miles north of there, in Manistee, and
so when I was in the military,my MOS was a 71 Lima or an
administrative specialist, andhonestly, when I look back, it's
almost identical to what I getto do today.
I was on a small base and Ispent some time every day going
(04:37):
from building to building,picking things up and talking to
people, and so it was littledid I know?
I mean, I was setting the stagewith relationships, just like
people love to talk to folks,and so anyway, that led us got
married and stayed in MuskegonMichigan, after we both
(04:59):
graduated from college and hadtwo daughters, and had two
daughters, one's 31 and 26.
And so now it was 1999, late1998, 1999, we moved to Richmond
, indiana, and actually it wasto become a part of New
Creations.
That's what brought us toIndiana and we left there in
(05:27):
2011, and that's about the timethat I decided that I was going
to seek an office to in my heartanyway, I hadn't verbalized it
much and so in 2013, alan Paulwas the senator for this
district and he decided that hewas going to retire, which, in
open seats a whole lot easierthan challenging an incumbent
(05:52):
Absolutely.
But I was incredibly green andignorant but with help we worked
really hard and won the primaryand subsequently served.
Then January that was the fallof 14 and January of 15 took the
oath of office and been servingever since.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about college, where
you went, what you decided wasgoing to be your major Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, I think it goes back, as I mentioned, some of
my work in serving in themilitary.
My degree was in accounting andit and that was at the turn of
you know that we were, pcs werecoming, becoming prevalent at
the time, and and uh, softwareto run businesses on, and so
really I got a business degree.
(06:35):
So the very first thing I didwas automate a business that was
doing everything on paper boththeir inventory and the
accounting.
The whole business was automatethem and and so I got to do that
for a couple companies actuallyokay three before before then
everything was pretty muchstreamlined and so, uh, business
is really the generallyspeaking let me say this if I
(06:58):
have a lens that I look through,generally speaking, money is
part of it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So just just because of that background, yeah, so
what, um, how long were you inthe army?
What, what?
When did you go in and when didyou come out?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
1983 1984 okay and uh , it was a two-year term and uh,
uh, as I said, uh, I went, cameback out and did a couple of
different jobs let's put it thatway and that was the impetus of
, as I said, I woke up one dayand decided I was going to move
(07:35):
to Richmond, indiana.
I woke up one day post themilitary and decided I'm going
to college.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Right.
So, you were at New Creationsfor a little while and uh what,
what position I don't.
I don't recall or remember, uhwhat your role was there at that
time I'm somewhat familiar withnew creations, because I knew
uh tim quite well and his parent.
I knew his parents and hissisters and so uh but but I
(08:04):
guess I'm curious what yourresponsibilities were there.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Sure, in the end I don't even know.
I went there to help set up theaccounting system, honestly,
and so in the end my title wasvice president of operations.
So I served right under TimCummings and took care of a lot
of uh, a lot of the day to daystuff and interviewed students
(08:30):
to participate in theorganization and had staffing
responsibilities to hire andrelieve folks and so pretty much
the whole mantra yeah, that'sum, that was really uh, um,
because that worked as anot-for-profit, yeah, and then
(08:51):
so, but I mean, that's, that's ahis vision and what he was
trying to do there.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I mean that was, uh, that's a lot to take on and make
it work financially, I'm surethat was tough.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It was, I think, in the early not think in the early
stages.
They raised a lot of money andit was very difficult to keep
the ship afloat.
It's literally living day today.
But then the Internet, theadvent, if you will, of the
(09:22):
Internet.
So now we're not only lookingregionally for students, but now
we're now we're looking acrossthe united states.
So we had students fromeverywhere.
Every state in the union sentchildren to not children, but
young adults to richmond indiana.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, I remember, um, let's make sure we get you a
little closer to the microphone.
Uh, the uh, let's make sure weget you a little closer to the
microphone.
Back in the late 70s, early 80sthey had residents there.
They were high school age and Iwent to Hillcrest Christian
(09:58):
School and we had a basketballteam and New Creations had a
basketball team.
So they were interesting.
They kind of were our crosstownrivals and you know, those
young men came from kind ofchallenging you know walks of
life and it was interestingplaying games against that group
(10:20):
and so it was.
And then there was theChristian School in connersville
kind of had the same thing, youknow rivals with them and uh,
it seems like uh, with newcreations in in connersville we
were kind of split.
You know we were, sometimes we,we would win, sometimes they
(10:41):
would win, which made therivalry even more intense you.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
That was going to be.
My question is is uh, if youcompeted with uh, whether it's
Connorsville or or new creations, were you able to compete?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
Yeah, but the uh it wasinteresting.
Um, you know, uh, it's not toget a debate on tattoos, but you
know cause they're everywheretoday.
I mean sure People are justcovered with them, and but it
was.
It was interesting back, youknow, being a young high school
in the late seventies and earlyeighties and the kids we were
(11:16):
playing from a new creation.
Some of them had tattoosalready, had all padded up, and
that was kind of differentbecause that whole culture
hadn't really emerged like it istoday in rural indiana, right,
right, yeah, exactly so I justremember just remember like oh
those
Speaker 2 (11:33):
guys got tattoos you know so that was.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That was interesting yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
In fact, I'll tell you.
One of the other things we didat new creations that was
incredible was a guy by the nameof tony cole.
Uh, his vision was to helpstudents who maybe didn't get
looks that had talent.
So not not necessarily d1schools, but maybe a community
(11:59):
college or something that had aball team.
And so we uh, we had studentscome from, we even we had the
capacity at that time to issuevisas for students to come from
overseas, and it was.
It was fun, they competed, theyplayed some junior colleges, so
they spent a lot of time on theroad, but that was a fun part.
(12:23):
That became a huge part of it,yeah, another arm of what the
ministry was doing.
So it was good.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So I guess kind of getting into you know your job,
representing our area, I guessmaybe could hit on some things.
We'll just jump into education.
Uh, some of the the some of theissues that you've been
(12:50):
involved in with that in thelast year or two, um so I don't
know.
Share, share your thoughtsabout some of the legislation
that's gone through and and whyit's important.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Sure, so I chair the education committee.
So, generally speaking, 80% ofwhat I do at the statehouse
surrounds K-12, not necessarilyhigher ed, but the K-12 space.
And so, as we look at ourgraduation rates, we look at
absenteeism, we look at thecapacity to read.
(13:25):
Is there proficiency in thirdgrade reading or sixth grade
math?
We're struggling as a countrynot just Indiana, but struggling
to get students to proficiency,and so we've worked incredibly
hard to make sure that we'redoing everything we can to see
(13:48):
kids be able to read by the endof third grade.
And so the concept is you learnto read by the end of third
grade and then you read to learnthe rest of your life Right,
and so the concept is incrediblyimportant for students to be
able to read, and so we changedcurriculum.
We changed a few things, have avery forward thinking education
(14:13):
director Katie Jenner is hername.
She's been in for oh gosh,she's probably been at it for
six years, I guess, now and sowe really work hand in hand
together, a lot of us, to changesome of the things and make
sure that we bring teachersalong as well.
They're the ones that are bootson the ground, that do the
(14:36):
actual work, and so some of thisstuff doesn't come without
hardship, because, I like to sayit this way, change is great as
long as it's you and not me.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, that's for sure .
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And so, but you know, working hand in hand.
Hand in hand, excuse me, andthere's still some angst out
there, I'm sure, but trying tomake sure that we're not
requiring things, that we don'tbring people along right to
understand why.
And so I'm proud to say thatthis last year, indiana went
(15:11):
from number 19 in the US tonumber six in the nation, and
it's done by something we callthe nation's report card, an
independent organization.
Annually Maybe it's notannually, it could be every
other year they sample studentsfrom every state and just
randomly and and give them, givethem a reading test and a math
(15:33):
test, and so we rose from, as Imentioned, from number 19 to
number six.
It's a big leap, it's huge, uhand uh, I'm proud of that.
We still got a distance to go,and then mathematics now is
coming along as well, so thatthe fundamentals, uh are are
moving forward.
We have to have an educatedsociety, right?
(15:57):
No, no, two ways about it.
There are a lot of reasons, alot of factors that that are
part of the reason why weslipped where we, the nation,
not just indiana, but the nationslipped where it didn't.
I don't necessarily need tomention them, but at any rate,
um, we, I'm incredibly proud toparticipate in that process and
help shepherd those changes.
(16:18):
A lot of work all all year longbehind the scenes to get where
we are and uh so uh, while westill have, there'll always be
difficulties to deal with if wewouldn't have anything to do.
So anyway, I'm proud of that.
Indiana's looked at around thenation educationally.
(16:39):
I was in Milwaukee this weekearlier for a couple of days on
education issues at a seminarand again people are.
They say we're we watch youguys in Indiana because you're
moving forward.
So someone has to blaze thetrail right so has.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Has there been a couple of specific pieces of
legislation that were passedthat have helped us get to that
point?
I mean specifically, was theresome fundamental changes that
happened that helped create theenvironment so that we could?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
move to where we're at, absolutely.
So what you have to know iswords mean something.
What you have to know is wordsmean something.
And so when words go into theIndiana code the first year, we
(17:39):
had gosh, I can tell you literalbattles, no one cussing, but
emotions got involved and I justsaid, look, I don't care what
you do, but get it straight.
And so that was a battlebetween an individual in the
Department of Education and wegot it.
It ended up.
But it was critical to make surethat how we defined literally
is called the science of reading, how this defining code set the
baseline for where we wereheaded.
(18:00):
And so some other folks besidesmyself were far more intricate
and understood those things.
I was basically in the middlesaying, okay, we got to get the
words correct in code to getthis ship moving forward.
And so we were able to do that.
And I think the you know, hatsoff to the teachers in the field
because, as I mentioned, changeis not easy for anybody, but
(18:25):
they've come along and we seethe results.
And so everybody in the stateof Indiana the individual
students first, the teacherssecond and everybody else will
benefit because of the work thatwas done.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I don't know if this is totally connected, but it
makes me think about the currentadministration talking about
the federal level, lots of talkabout giving away the Department
of Education on the nationallevel.
And then I think when they talkabout that, I think it's about
the states can handle it ontheir own.
(19:02):
And I mean, do we really youknow now, you've been involved
in it for over a decade now Imean, do we really need the
federal government involved inhelping the state of Indiana
educate our kids?
I mean, why would we need thatand why can't we just do it on
(19:25):
our kids?
I mean, why would we need thatand why can't we just do it on
our own?
Or are they actually?
Are things on the federal levelimpede us from doing the things
that we want to do as a state?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Is that a fair question?
Yeah, a fair way to say it anda good question.
And so there are people onevery side of this issue.
I have said personally, thestates have to be on task.
I don't think the federalgovernment really pushes.
They have mantras that they ordesires that they have, maybe,
(19:56):
and send us in a direction A orB or C, send states in that
direction.
I should say, and one of thebiggest pieces that I would say,
that they do that's necessaryfor states and that's like
funding for special needs kidsand certain things, and they
have some laws like IEPs theyhave to set up.
(20:17):
So, if Michael has difficulties, we set up a certain pattern
for you to go through to helpyou get past some difficulties
that you have in being educated.
Let's put it that way.
So what I have said, and I'dstand on this, is the money from
the federal government thatcomes to states.
Indiana is about a billiondollars.
(20:38):
Actually it's more than abillion, but let's just use that
term.
It's hard to even understand.
A billion dollars a year comesfrom the federal government.
Uh, we need that money.
We operate with that money, alot of it.
Well, let me say in theopposite side of the
non-opposite side of that.
In addition to that, uh, agreat deal of the dollars that
(21:02):
Indiana collects in tax goes toK-12.
It's a significant amount ofmoney.
It's billions as well, farbeyond what the feds send us.
But at any rate, I think thefederal government could operate
with a skeletal crew to managethe states and make sure that
(21:24):
they get the amount of moneybased on the number of students
and the need and those things.
But from a legislativestandpoint, you know, I guess we
could ask ourselves andprobably the fundamental
question I would pose back toyou and even myself standards,
right?
So do we want the federalgovernment setting some very
(21:47):
high level standards so we knowthat we're going to have
students that can read and writeand do math?
Questionable, but there's gotto be some uniformity out, let's
put it that way, right?
So we're not all over the board.
But at any rate, I don't thinkwe need the department of
education at the federal level,as we've been accustomed to.
And government, you know,inadvertently continues to grow.
(22:11):
It's just, it's the way ithappens, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
um, just the last thing about, maybe, schools, um
your thoughts about, you know,public schools, charter charter
schools, private schools, thebalance there, I mean, what's
your, what's your thoughts aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's a great question , one that will probably be
battled till the end of time.
But parental choice, I'd say ishas become the face of
education in Indiana over timeand not been easy.
I think that the first piece oflegislation was in 2011, a few
(22:52):
years before I got over thereand incrementally it's changed
and changed and changed so thatparents have opportunity to send
their son or daughter to theplace of their choice.
It gets kind of hairy when itcomes to the money factor of it.
So let's just say, here inRichmond a student wants to go
(23:13):
from one public school toanother public school, they can
go.
You want to go from Richmond,you want to go to Centerville,
you want to go to Connersvilleif you wanted to.
Now, when you leave leave, theproperty tax dollars stay local,
but the money that follows astudent from the state follows
the student.
So that's the big difference.
Property tax dollars stay inthe, in the address of domicile
(23:37):
for that student.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
so yeah, I, I, just I .
I do like the fact that thereis options where you could send,
you know, let your kids go toschool.
You know, I don't know how they, to be honest.
I mean, my boys have been outof high school for out of the K
through 12 for a long time nowand I don't know how they
(23:59):
balance the numbers.
You know, like, if there's anexodus from one school and one
has too many, I don't know howthey, how they balance all that.
I really don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
But that's a great question.
I think that the the receivingschool can say look, not because
they're being discriminatoryand say we don't like you,
michael, you can't come to ourschool, but could be because
they have limited amount ofteachers available for certain
classes and so they don't havethe capacity to take on any more
students for that year.
(24:30):
So there is certainly someblocks.
I guess, if you will, inpractical ones in place that say
look, we just can't takeanymore.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean, that's something that you're not
involved in, but it's just, it'sjust yeah it's a local thing.
It's like, if you know, if, uh,one elementary school I mean,
I'm sure each elementary schoolcan only house so many kids, if
you're trying to have so manystudents per classroom.
Yeah, I mean yeah per teacherratio whatever that is today and
(25:05):
um so yeah it's interesting,but I like the fact that you
know we lived really close the.
The distance betweenCenterville High School and
Richmond High School, where welive, was almost the same, you
know, and in some ways it wasmuch easier for um us to, for my
boys to go to centerville thanit was to richmond.
So we went to centerville, sure, and they had a great
(25:28):
experience there, uh, working.
We talked about this a littlebit before we sat down
officially started thisconversation about.
You know, politics is just so,oh, it's just, it just seems so
nasty, especially on the on thenational level, and I don't know
(25:48):
if it's truly that it seemslike it's that way, cause I hear
the words that come out ofpeople's mouths, you know, and
with all the news agencies, andit's 24 7, you know, you hear
about it all the time and, um,do you think it's the same?
Well, what's your spin on it?
(26:10):
In indiana, on the state level,dealing with people from across
the aisle and and what's thatlike that you experience in your
position?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
uh, it's far more congenial and in fact I'd even
say at even at the federal level.
So media has a desire to putforth the things that draw folks
, uh, you know, because of onething or another, and so I think
we spin this stuff and itcauses us our own problems.
Right, but I can speak forIndiana specifically.
(26:43):
I'm proud to serve with thefolks I get to serve with, and I
mean that, and that can beRepublican or Democrat.
I have relationships across theboard, both in the House and
the Senate.
A House member that's oneducation committee, when I
bring a bill for the House inthe second half to the House and
present, I can bet I'm going toget a good debate.
(27:06):
But it's an intellectual debateand some of it has to do with
the mantra ofRepublican-Democrat, certainly,
and the lens that we lookthrough from that perspective,
from a political perspective,the lens that we look through
from that perspective, from apolitical perspective.
But I love the debate piece ofit because it makes me think.
You know, maybe he's right,maybe we need to change this a
(27:29):
little bit.
You know, to go along, notnecessarily along political
lines, but to help theindividual, the student
themselves, and so I think weshould never.
There's a value in everybody, Idon't care if you're a
Republican, democrat orindependent, if we'll come to
the table with one goal in mind.
In my case that'd be to help inthe K-12 space, or maybe it's
(27:50):
the state of Indiana, right, andof course there's different
ways to do that and that's theconcept of coming together.
But I'm proud in Indiana, wherewe're at Again, relationships
on both sides, no trouble at all.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
It's good to hear.
So we still have a Republicangovernor, but we have a
different one now.
So how have things shifted orchanged, if anything, having
having a new person in that role, with mike braun now as our
governor what's that is it?
Is he bringing some differentthings to the job?
(28:29):
I mean, I would think he would,but how?
How is it different?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
so far into it that's a great question, literally,
and when I when I've watched inreal time in the last six months
unfold, and so when I first gotto the General Assembly, mike
Pence was the governor, and thenEric Holcomb for eight years
and now Governor Braun, and sothe personalities of the
(28:57):
individuals play a part in howthey actually operate, and
that's the, I think, isincredible.
Honestly, it's an eye openerfor me to stand back and look at
or compare and look at thoseindividuals and see how they
function as an individual, howthey manage from the executive
branch, how much involved theyare in legislation because of an
(29:18):
agenda they had or ran on, andso Governor Braun ran on
property tax relief and wefollowed through on that.
Now we had to be careful andstill have some municipalities
that may suffer a little bitmore than others, and some of
that's dependent upon the fiscalnature of which they've ran
(29:40):
under or have been run under forthe past.
I don't know.
Let's just say six, eight yearsor so.
However, mike Braun is going tobe far more.
He's proven he's going to beinvolved in the legislative
process because he has an agendaand he's going to work with the
legislators to get his agendadone or some form or fashion of
(30:01):
it, some version of it In thepast.
Governor Holcomb, this is notnegative necessarily, just how
he operates Again back topersonality.
He'd have four or five thingsthat he wanted.
That was it.
We didn't get lobbied from histeam to do things, and so we did
some with Mike Pence, and Isuspect Mike Braun will be
(30:26):
lobbying legislators to get hisagenda done as well.
So it's interesting to watch,honestly.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
But great question, yeah, I mean, you've been in
office long enough to have threedifferent governors, so it's
probably been very interestingto see how each one has operated
.
So I'm just anxious to see whatour new governor continues.
(30:53):
What are some things on hisagenda that you're aware of
right now, that are still kindof in the beginning stages, that
you think he's going to bereally pushing?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So, absolutely, property tax relief.
In fact, I'll tell you exactlywhat he said.
He's said this more than oncewhen you become governor he's
elected in November, takes theseat in January Well, the work,
because of Indiana being apart-time legislature, we're
working now.
I had a meeting this morning onthe way here about a piece of
(31:25):
legislation for next year, for26.
And so, because we're apart-time legislature, we're
working on legislation now andbasically there's such a tight
timeline, we have to have thingstaken care of basically by
january 1, because we hit theground running.
We've got a short window here.
We got, uh, 10 weeks or so, uh,maybe 11 weeks, uh, in the
(31:50):
short session in even years.
And so there's we, in the firsttwo weeks.
We're in that place where thedeadline is done.
There's no changes unless thereare amendments.
And so the governor I say thatto say the governor's now
working on what he wants to getdone in 26.
And so the legislative process,but he'll be involved in the
(32:13):
process on the front end and notcoming in when stuff is already
done, which is what happenedthis year, so that you know, the
legislators have already setbasically the agenda and so he
had to come in and kind of roundthose things out and gain some
ground himself one of my biggestthings.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That has been a pet peeve of mine for years and I
know there's stuff going on withit now.
But interstate 70 great questionbetween I so I mean we got work
going on, I mean, and youexperience it because you drive
over there and but I'm justcurious, how, how did we let it
(32:56):
get so bad before we actuallystarted getting things done?
I mean, it seems like to me andI'm ignorant to it and I'm sure
you're going to have a greatanswer for me, but it seems like
we wait in this state, or atleast in our area.
(33:17):
Weight in this state, or atleast at least in our area, we
it happens to us this way isthat the things have to
deteriorate to a point of justit's awful before things
actually get done.
Why can't we get more ahead ofthese projects, uh, than what we
do?
And I, and maybe you're, one ofthe answers going to be the big
(33:38):
money.
It's always about the money,you know, but I'm so anyway,
I'll shut up for a minute tellme, I'm just curious about I
have the same question.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
To be honest with you , michael.
No, no, I I do have to tell youthat I'm incredibly proud of
indiana.
Uh, we finished up the 69project south of indianapolis,
the project where we are at themoment, from the state line to
35 and then from 35 to 1, twodifferent contracts, both have
been let the work's happening,so it'll be three lanes each
(34:08):
direction.
Bridges widen and they're goingto take it down to the base,
which hasn't been done, by theway, for a while.
So a little research says youknow, if you're going to fix a
road that's gets the tractor,trailer or semi traffic on it,
that I-70 does it's, it's apounding daily and so, but but
(34:29):
here's the baseline that I wecan be proud of is we pay cash.
We're not bonding this projectout or these projects, we're
paying them in full on day one.
And so, uh, I that's a strangething, I would say, because
these are incredibly expensiveprojects Uh, so I'm I'm proud of
that and I think we should beas Indiana, that we're paying,
(34:51):
paying cash for it.
Now, that doesn't make it anyeasier to drive over those roads
, and on a daily basis either.
The other thing, that is, youknow there's been some
conversation about tolling onI-70 and maybe a couple of the
other interstates that are outthere.
That locally is not popular,and it's not just here.
(35:13):
I don't think it's popularanywhere.
But especially with Indianaonly being 150 miles from
corridor to corridor on I-70,tractor-trailer rigs can go
across and never spend a pennyin Indiana.
So in 17, I think it's the onlytime I supported knowingly a
(35:34):
tax increase, and that was a gastax increase so that we could
continue to to take care of theroads on a cash basis.
But that sense with inflationis that potential is
deteriorated as well.
So while I'm sharing underlyingthings, they all play a part in
(35:55):
why 70 turned out being kind ofthe last project on the table.
Yeah, if you will, uh, so, uh,there's some great underlying
things, uh.
But I agree, no excuse, for Imean gosh, I would call and
complain and you even as alegislator, it'd take a couple
(36:16):
of weeks to fill a pothole.
It was was taking out tires,you know, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I've definitely had tire damage from driving on that
road.
Sure and it's dangerous.
You know when you've got you'redodging these massive potholes
that you know can almost likewreck your car so bad but I mean
it's happening.
(36:40):
I'm just always it's just likeamazes me.
You know how bad it got and butI'm sure with expansions or
whatever I mean, you havethere's property on both sides,
all the way from here to Indy,and I'm sure not all of that is
public domain or you have towork out the details with
(37:03):
securing every inch of landbetween here and there.
So I'm sure there's issues likethat.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
That's a great question, because that was one
of the questions I had when wetalked about changing 70 to
three lanes in each direction.
So how much land is it going totake for us to take by eminent
domain to be able to do that?
And the answer was very, verylittle.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I think they, they, they thought well enough, uh,
when they did it, that that uh,or set up so they can, they can
basically get three lanes ineach direction without doing it.
But uh, and so we're about tomile marker 108, which is the.
I know that because that's theplace that gets to go to the
(37:44):
restroom on my travels back andforth in the morning after a
couple cups of coffee.
But so, from there to Indy now,so we're getting close.
I mean, we've got to close thegap now between one and and uh,
us1, uh, cambridge City or, uh,hagerstown exit, from there to
(38:05):
the rest area exit, that's thelast piece that's left.
And so, uh, it's, it's, uh, ifyou go to Indianapolis, enough,
and you get over there and youget on the new road, that's
three lanes in each direction.
Uh, it's, it's great, yeah, thebig, beautiful road there you
go.
Good analogy I.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
We may have touched on it and we've just been
talking a lot, but when you goback over your career so far,
what?
What's?
One or two pieces oflegislation that you've been
intimately involved in, thatyou're really proud of that?
Speaker 2 (38:40):
that you've been that was kind of a big part of what
you worked on, sure, orsponsored or wrote uh, so the
the concept of, uh, the readingportion, uh, behind the scenes
worked incredibly hard on thatand pushed hard.
And you know, occasionally youget there's pressures and so
there's arguments about things,but pushing that thing through
(39:05):
was I co-sponsored thelegislation in both cases, but I
didn't author it but a lot ofhard work behind the scenes to
make sure that it's done.
A lot of hard work behind thescenes to make sure that it's
done.
Our T's crossed and our I'sdotted, that the words that are
put on those in statute aregoing to make a difference in
kids' lives.
So that's one thing that I canstand behind and say that I'm
(39:28):
incredibly proud of.
And the last piece is somethingthat we call career coaching.
So now we're in the third yearof that, and so what that
actually does, we have acounselor shortage in Indiana
and I think in all statesactually, and so it's like one
(39:50):
counselor that I really don'tknow what.
It depends on which survey youlook at, but let's just say it's
one counselor to 500 studentsand so getting them set whether
they're going to college andthey got to take college prep,
or whether they're going offinto the workforce and they take
different shop classes orwhatever.
Helping set things up as far asthat goes is a big job.
(40:13):
A lot of it's automated now, Ithink, but nonetheless.
So we came up with this brightidea why don't we take a third
party, so an exteriororganization that would come in
and contract with a school andtake, take Michael, and set them
down a table and say you knowwhat's your, what are your
desires, what's your likes anddislikes, and maybe even do a.
(40:35):
In fact we required that thisyear not an interest survey, but
a gosh you can't think of itnow that would identify your
strengths and your weaknesses,like for me, if I took one of
those tests today, it would showadministration is high on my
(40:57):
list, maybe yours is people oryou know.
Yeah, when I figure it out I'lllet you know.
Yeah, well, and then it's adifficult thing, for sure in how
we do it.
But past interest surveys, andso I was successful in the 23
(41:17):
budget and in this last budgetto get dollars to do that and
because then it's totallyfocused, if I'm a third party, I
contract with a school to comein and I'm going to take all
your seventh graders or your10th graders and go through and
do a aptitude is the word I'mlooking for.
Aptitude survey and help aaptitude is the word I'm looking
(41:38):
for.
Aptitude survey and help themunderstand themselves a little
bit better and move in adirection that that I.
I like to say that that makesthem tick or is part of really
who they are.
And so I I was probably 25years old or something like that
when I took one I thought, oh,yeah, that's I've been doing
that.
I just didn't know, yeah,that's I've been doing that.
I just didn't know that's whatI was doing or what kind of
(42:01):
helped help me, as Jeff Rotz, to, to make the wheels spin in my,
in my heart and in my mind, Iguess, and so I'm, I'm that is
proliferating around the state.
Now we're in year three of that,so that will will help students
and I think, uh, you knowwhether they're headed to
college or or maybe they're muchbetter with their hands, and
(42:23):
today you could, you got work,ethic and and, uh, desire, be an
entrepreneur and have an HVACcompany, have all kinds of
different things that are outthere and available, and so, uh,
you like your job, you go to it, right, yeah, and so that's
what, that's what really after,and I know it's kind of
(42:43):
idealistic and maybe pie in thesky.
But even if we can get 50% ofthis of students to know what
makes them tick and whatdirection they should go, it's a
win for everybody.
The economic cycle that themindividually first, just like
education.
You got to you need aneducation, but how you function
after that you want to be happyat it and that's again kind of
(43:07):
pie in the sky.
But if you don't reach for ityou never get there.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, I'd be amiss to thank you for sharing that.
I'd be amiss not to mention alittle bit about workforce
development, given that part ofmy job running our local
manpower office, helpingcompanies with their staffing on
(43:30):
multiple levels I mean we wantmore jobs, more companies in
this area.
Now you work on a state level,but you represent our region and
you want to.
I think part of your job is totry to make sure that the area
(43:52):
that you represent gets its fairshare of opportunities,
especially as it pertains tojobs and companies.
And we want these companies, wewant these better-paying jobs.
(44:18):
And the problem is in this statewe're not really growing,
especially in this part, yourregion, our region, correct, and
we don't have a lot ofpopulation growth.
But we want the jobs.
But if we get the jobs, we'vegot to have people to do the
jobs, and so it's just thisongoing.
You know, I I just don't know.
(44:39):
I mean, what can, what can wedo to to continue to try to get
investment in this area?
But then what are we going todo to have the people to be here
to fill those roles?
I mean, it's just, it's toughit is.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
It's it's a great question and and one that's not
easily solved.
Essentially, when I describeEast Central Indiana, we had a
booming economy.
We're largely secondaryautomotive union jobs and so
they were great jobs and thatsense is all gone.
And so, coming back from thatis the issue.
(45:16):
It's like downtown is the issue.
It's like downtown.
How do you revitalize a townlike downtown Richmond, where
we're sitting today, that wasbuilt in I don't know 20s, 30s,
whatever.
How do you revitalize that andcontinue to move forward?
So it's a monumental task andyou're in the middle of it.
I think we got great folks, theChamber of Commerce, the EDC
office in Richmond.
(45:37):
They're doing everything theycan to help be a place where
people want to come and have theworkforce obviously, so
companies would look at us.
You know a couple of thingsthat we, because of our age,
don't think a lot.
I think we import more than weexport when it comes to talent
(45:59):
in Wayne County from thesurrounding counties could even,
I suppose, come from across thestate line in Ohio because of
our geographic location.
So there are good things aboutthe mobility and people today
based much different than whatit was back in the 1950s or 60s
when Richmond was booming wasback in the 1950s or 60s when
(46:24):
Richmond was booming.
So that's good, remote work,all those type of things but I
agree it's a monumental task toget past where we are.
I think Wayne County's donegood, this region's not done all
that bad, and I don't have anycriticism necessarily for
anybody that is in thesepositions either.
(46:44):
But talking spending time, oneof the things I've tried to do
as well is spend time.
I was on the governor'sworkforce cabinet and I probably
am still attached to that, butthe governor's changed some
things and so sometimesorganizations can be created,
especially at government levels,and you go and sit and listen
(47:06):
and you leave and nothing reallyhappens, and so I don't like
that.
I want to accomplish somethingif I'm going to spend my time
doing things, and so there isthings that we can participate
in.
Most definitely.
I represent Barrett myself forthis area, and some of that's
based on relationships overthere.
(47:26):
So the new Commerce Secretary,david Adams in a vertical he's
over the IEDC, the IndianaEconomic Development Corporation
, and how they interact withWayne County, and Valerie
Schaefer and her team these arethings that we have to at least
(47:47):
be a conduit that don't forgetabout East Central Indiana.
Back to your comment about I-70just popped into my mind.
Why I-70?
The last one to be fixed, youknow, or brought up to date,
can't say that but making surethat not just central Indiana or
the more populated areas getthe economic development that?
(48:14):
East central Indiana is on theradar as well, so we have to
fight and make sure we'rekeeping ourselves in the middle
of that.
Central Indiana is on the radaras well, so we have to fight
and make sure we're keepingourselves in the middle of that.
Uh, those are generallyconversations, not necessarily
uh, uh, legislative right.
You know you don't legislatewhat you're going to have to
move your company to Richmond,indiana, and so, uh, but but
there is a place and it's, whilea small piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Uh, we do have opportunity to weigh in on some
of those and continually have tokeep beating the drum and say
don't forget about east centralindiana yeah, one of the um, one
of the struggles you're not,probably you don't deal with
this and what you do maybe youhear about it but, like some, of
the biggest impediments topeople's success and holding
(49:00):
jobs is just their ability toget there.
Transportation is a realimpediment for people in this
area and I wish there was justsome way that we could.
I mean, the mayor and I spokeabout this, you know when the
last time he was here andthere's no quick answer to that,
but it seemed just somethingsomething simple, like for for
(49:25):
joe or jane employee to go frompoint a to b so they could be at
work.
That's.
That's a huge problem becauseyou know, if you're unemployed
and you don't have a lot offinancial resources, it's kind
of hard to maintain insuranceand and just to maintain the
maintenance of what it takes tohave a car that run and put gas
(49:45):
in it.
You know.
So, yes, so many people thatdon't have their own means of
transportation and and uh, andeven though we're a small
community, if you live like, say, way on the south south side of
Richmond and you're trying togo out to the industrial
industry's road, that's a haul,you can't really walk it.
(50:07):
One guy I was talking to theother day.
He said he wanted a job outthere out in that area, and so I
went and I Googled how far itwas going to take me to ride his
bike and it was going to be 45minutes and it just wasn't going
to be setting that person upfor good success to be able to
(50:30):
ride his bike there every day.
Consistently, for sure, yeah todo it, and then we really don't
have a good cab.
I mean, and that's, if you wereto to take a I don't know if
you're aware of this, but if youwere to take a cab to and from
work every day and you're doinga five-day work week, you're
it's going to cost like ahundred bucks, and uh.
(50:53):
So, and then, um, the bus routeswe get, the city buses are
somewhat we get federal moniesfor that and they can't deviate
from certain patterns of routes.
Because of that, from what Iunderstood, because I had
(51:17):
opposed the idea of like a, likea like a hub area where you,
you would go and there would be,uh, some drop-off sites out in
industries road where you couldtry to get people on the shift
changes times where they knewthat they weren't going to have
(51:40):
any more than a five or 10minute wait, and uh, but that
because the way the, the routesare laid out, or whatever, or or
you couldn't, they weren't ableto, um, dedicate a, you know, a
bust for a specific purposelike that.
So I don't even know where I'mgoing with this jeff it's just
that it's just a.
It's a problem and I wish it wassomething.
(52:01):
We got a lot of smart peoplethat are involved, but this
scene it's such a simple issuelike transportation seems like
such a very difficult uh to getgood answers to it.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
So I don't know and I wish I could say you know a, b
and c, and it would function aswell.
And I'll uh, I I'm going tocompare this back to education.
So I I looked, I pulled mytranscripts from 1982 in
michigan, from high school, anduh, it's identical to what we do
(52:35):
today.
So we're 40, 43 years past thatnow, and it's algebra one.
Algebra two biology, advancedbiology, accounting.
You know the.
I didn't do uh trig or anythinglike that, but but uh, so, so,
um, what I, what I just said wasit was time to change.
(52:56):
Right, we needed, we need, as anation not just indiana, but as
a nation to change not thefundamentals, but take a good
hard, look at what we're doing,because we're at least a half
century into this and we'restill producing the same
diplomas today as we did whenyou and I went to school.
And so that said, what does ittake today?
Can we, would employers,participate?
(53:18):
Can we go to the federalgovernment and say, look, we
need this, this and this, weneed a waiver or whatever that
looks like for some of thefunding?
And so I'm simply saying, wherethere's a will, there's a way.
And you got to get out of thebox.
And I'm not being critical byany means, but if we always do,
(53:42):
we always don't.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
We always get, we always got we got to get out of
the box, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
So, but it's not going to be easy, and so both
for the city and potentially, ifthe feds are that tight on the,
what those routes have to be.
And I understand why they dothat, because if you don't put
in things in legislation, I knowthat people were people will
begin to do things that wasnever intended for those dollars
(54:09):
.
And so then you and I struggledwith this honestly getting in
the general assembly, becausethen you tighten it down so
tight, you're making sure thatmichael can't make him, he can't
turn right here, because if hedoes, he's going to, it's going
to cost us money, so we're goingto stop him from doing that.
Well then then you, you stifleany innovation, and so that's,
that's part of the mantra whenit when it comes, in my opinion,
(54:31):
to how we write pieces oflegislation.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
But the chance you know we're developing
economically in these industrialparks, we are creating
workspaces that are further andfurther out from where people
live, but we're not giving,we're not taking that into
consideration.
Now I don't think we want afactory right in the middle of
town anymore, but they used tobe all over in the middle.
(54:58):
We can go, we can get in a carright now.
Go see all these old buildings.
You go down northeast street indifferent areas where these,
where's the industrial boom backin the heyday?
I mean they and these rows ofhouses where people just they
got out of their house and theyjust walked to their job sure
because the factory is just acouple of blocks yeah, we're not
sitting far from where the theexplosion.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
I don't even know what year that was now 69, I
believe yeah, so I mean rightdowntown Richmond making
ammunition right.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, so yeah, but I agree.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
I think you know where there's a will, there's a
way this stuff can be figuredout.
Employers might even want tocome to the table and say you
know what?
We'll give X to atransportation problem that we
have on a whatever.
So, students, my mind's eyes oneducation, so employees can get
(55:47):
from point A to point B and getto work and hopefully raise up
or give that individual theability then, over time, to be
able to afford an automobile.
So yeah, the in the insurancewhich is we know everything has
gone up including insuranceright.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
Yep Well, hey, jeff, I really appreciate you taking
the time to meet with me today.
We've kind of talked about alot of different things and I
just appreciate you taking thetime to sit down with me today
and uh so uh, now for ourfollowers.
Followers, if they'reinterested in more information
about you or what you're doing,is the indiana senator
(56:29):
republicanscom.
Is that the best place to go?
Speaker 2 (56:32):
uh, sure, that's one of the places you can go, most
definitely.
And then there's uh, there isuh uh, my email as well, which
is S, as in Sam, or S27, whichis the district at igaingov.
Okay, and there's alsojeffrotts at igaingov.
Indiana General Assembly standsfor gov.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
Yeah, the one I went to was
indianasenatorrepublicanscom andthen it was like forward slash,
is it or back?
I think it's forward slash,honestly.
Don't go on, certainly thereare ways to reach out.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
We don't hide by any means, and so I think Rep
Barrett follows the same thing.
If someone calls, we're goingto do our best to have a
conversation.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Yeah, no, you've been very approachable.
I appreciate that about you.
Uh, thank you, uh, for servingour district and the work that
you put into it.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
And uh uh, wish you the very best, the next session
starting not until january, but,like you said, you're working
right now, right, today's theday and so and thank you as well
, michael, for your efforts andmanpower and and helping folks
get get from temp service tofull-time jobs, and that's you
fill a need in the communitythat's necessary, and so we're
(57:48):
grateful for that as well.
And thanks for having me on theshow.
Speaker 1 (57:50):
Yeah, great, it's been a pleasure.
Thank you All.
Right, that's all for thisepisode of the Hub.
Thanks again for listening andwe'll see you next time for
another conversation with adifference maker from our region
.
Manpower is proud to supportthe Hub.
Find out how they can supportyour business at MPRichmondcom.
Welcome to the Hub Podcast recorded right here in
Richmond, indiana.
I'm your host, michael Allen,and on the Hub, our mission is
to share stories of peoplemaking a difference in our
region.
In addition to hosting thepodcast, I work with a wonderful
team of staffing professionalsat Manpower.
Manpower is helping companiesall over East Central Indiana
find staffing so they cancontinue to grow and thrive.
(00:24):
Find out how we can help yourcompany at mprichmondcom so with
us today on this episode of thehub is jeff rotz, uh state
senator for the 27th district,covering uh henry union and
wayne county's part of franklincounty as well.
Jeff, welcome to the hub, goodmorning mich.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Michael, I appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yeah, I'm really excited about talking to you
this morning.
We know each other a little bit, We've had conversations over
the years and, Jeff, I got totell you I really respect how
you conduct yourself andrepresent our region and I just
thought it would be great for usjust to kind of have a sit down
and and just share aboutyourself and and the time you've
(01:09):
served our region and state,going back to 2014.
I think when you first cameinto office, and you know.
However, before we do that, Ido want to start with this our
hub tradition, and that isbecause I operate the manpower
here in this area.
I'm always interested aboutwork and jobs, and so we're
(01:34):
curious what was your very firstjob that you remember that you
had?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, I grew up in Northwest Michigan on a thousand
acre apple and cherry orchardthat my dad managed, and we grew
up literally across the streetfrom it, and so I honestly look
at my Social Security record andI'm 11 years old when I first
contributed to Social Security.
I don't think you do that today.
(01:59):
I don't know that for sure.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But yeah, yeah, I don't know what the I mean, I'm
sure, since your father, oh, hemanaged it or owned it.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
He managed it, he didn't own it, yeah, but that
was wife certainly, but yeah,that was doing some menial tasks
in the basement of our home inthe wintertime actually that
we're setting up for the nextspring.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
So you weren't actually picking cherries.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I did absolutely do that At six years old.
I remember being in the orgywith my mother, and so I
couldn't wait for my legs to getlong enough to engage the
clutch in the tractor so I couldstop doing some of those things
.
And so, yeah, no, it was agreat work.
Ethic was embedded in the waywe lived.
(02:44):
That's just so.
It started early and I don'tknow anything else.
I hope I figure it out somedaythat I don't have to work 24-7.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Well, we've had a strawberry patch, and now we've
got a cherry orchard, so thatjust adds to the list of first
jobs.
So that's great, I guess.
Next I'd like for you just toshare with our followers about
yourself.
Uh, you, you touched on alittle bit of as far as Michigan
, but you know where you grew up, your family, school, kids,
(03:16):
career.
Also, I think we'll kind oftouch into, uh, um, your
military service.
So anyway, I'll kind of let yourun from there.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Well, I appreciate it .
As I said, grew up in NorthwestMichigan and graduated from
high school and I really didn'thave any plans, except I decided
I was going to go in themilitary and I signed up for for
a couple of years.
And so I did that and came out,went back home and about a year
(03:50):
and a half later I woke up oneday and this is almost literally
the way it happened and I saidI'm going to college and I left
and went and never went.
I've never lived back in thattown.
Nothing wrong with the town.
Just when I left, I left andsubsequently met my wife at
college and we got married andstayed in a town called Muskegon
(04:12):
, michigan.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I grew up 60 miles north of there, in Manistee, and
so when I was in the military,my MOS was a 71 Lima or an
administrative specialist, andhonestly, when I look back, it's
almost identical to what I getto do today.
I was on a small base and Ispent some time every day going
(04:37):
from building to building,picking things up and talking to
people, and so it was littledid I know?
I mean, I was setting the stagewith relationships, just like
people love to talk to folks,and so anyway, that led us got
married and stayed in MuskegonMichigan, after we both
(04:59):
graduated from college and hadtwo daughters, and had two
daughters, one's 31 and 26.
And so now it was 1999, late1998, 1999, we moved to Richmond
, indiana, and actually it wasto become a part of New
Creations.
That's what brought us toIndiana and we left there in
(05:27):
2011, and that's about the timethat I decided that I was going
to seek an office to in my heartanyway, I hadn't verbalized it
much and so in 2013, alan Paulwas the senator for this
district and he decided that hewas going to retire, which, in
open seats a whole lot easierthan challenging an incumbent
(05:52):
Absolutely.
But I was incredibly green andignorant but with help we worked
really hard and won the primaryand subsequently served.
Then January that was the fallof 14 and January of 15 took the
oath of office and been servingever since.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about college, where
you went, what you decided wasgoing to be your major Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Well, I think it goes back, as I mentioned, some of
my work in serving in themilitary.
My degree was in accounting andit and that was at the turn of
you know that we were, pcs werecoming, becoming prevalent at
the time, and and uh, softwareto run businesses on, and so
really I got a business degree.
(06:35):
So the very first thing I didwas automate a business that was
doing everything on paper boththeir inventory and the
accounting.
The whole business was automatethem and and so I got to do that
for a couple companies actuallyokay three before before then
everything was pretty muchstreamlined and so, uh, business
is really the generallyspeaking let me say this if I
(06:58):
have a lens that I look through,generally speaking, money is
part of it.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So just just because of that background, yeah, so
what, um, how long were you inthe army?
What, what?
When did you go in and when didyou come out?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
1983 1984 okay and uh , it was a two-year term and uh,
uh, as I said, uh, I went, cameback out and did a couple of
different jobs let's put it thatway and that was the impetus of
, as I said, I woke up one dayand decided I was going to move
(07:35):
to Richmond, indiana.
I woke up one day post themilitary and decided I'm going
to college.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Right.
So, you were at New Creationsfor a little while and uh what,
what position I don't.
I don't recall or remember, uhwhat your role was there at that
time I'm somewhat familiar withnew creations, because I knew
uh tim quite well and his parent.
I knew his parents and hissisters and so uh but but I
(08:04):
guess I'm curious what yourresponsibilities were there.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Sure, in the end I don't even know.
I went there to help set up theaccounting system, honestly,
and so in the end my title wasvice president of operations.
So I served right under TimCummings and took care of a lot
of uh, a lot of the day to daystuff and interviewed students
(08:30):
to participate in theorganization and had staffing
responsibilities to hire andrelieve folks and so pretty much
the whole mantra yeah, that'sum, that was really uh, um,
because that worked as anot-for-profit, yeah, and then
(08:51):
so, but I mean, that's, that's ahis vision and what he was
trying to do there.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I mean that was, uh, that's a lot to take on and make
it work financially, I'm surethat was tough.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
It was, I think, in the early not think in the early
stages.
They raised a lot of money andit was very difficult to keep
the ship afloat.
It's literally living day today.
But then the Internet, theadvent, if you will, of the
(09:22):
Internet.
So now we're not only lookingregionally for students, but now
we're now we're looking acrossthe united states.
So we had students fromeverywhere.
Every state in the union sentchildren to not children, but
young adults to richmond indiana.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, I remember, um, let's make sure we get you a
little closer to the microphone.
Uh, the uh, let's make sure weget you a little closer to the
microphone.
Back in the late 70s, early 80sthey had residents there.
They were high school age and Iwent to Hillcrest Christian
(09:58):
School and we had a basketballteam and New Creations had a
basketball team.
So they were interesting.
They kind of were our crosstownrivals and you know, those
young men came from kind ofchallenging you know walks of
life and it was interestingplaying games against that group
(10:20):
and so it was.
And then there was theChristian School in connersville
kind of had the same thing, youknow rivals with them and uh,
it seems like uh, with newcreations in in connersville we
were kind of split.
You know we were, sometimes we,we would win, sometimes they
(10:41):
would win, which made therivalry even more intense you.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
That was going to be.
My question is is uh, if youcompeted with uh, whether it's
Connorsville or or new creations, were you able to compete?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
Yeah, but the uh it wasinteresting.
Um, you know, uh, it's not toget a debate on tattoos, but you
know cause they're everywheretoday.
I mean sure People are justcovered with them, and but it
was.
It was interesting back, youknow, being a young high school
in the late seventies and earlyeighties and the kids we were
(11:16):
playing from a new creation.
Some of them had tattoosalready, had all padded up, and
that was kind of differentbecause that whole culture
hadn't really emerged like it istoday in rural indiana, right,
right, yeah, exactly so I justremember just remember like oh
those
Speaker 2 (11:33):
guys got tattoos you know so that was.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
That was interesting yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
In fact, I'll tell you.
One of the other things we didat new creations that was
incredible was a guy by the nameof tony cole.
Uh, his vision was to helpstudents who maybe didn't get
looks that had talent.
So not not necessarily d1schools, but maybe a community
(11:59):
college or something that had aball team.
And so we uh, we had studentscome from, we even we had the
capacity at that time to issuevisas for students to come from
overseas, and it was.
It was fun, they competed, theyplayed some junior colleges, so
they spent a lot of time on theroad, but that was a fun part.
(12:23):
That became a huge part of it,yeah, another arm of what the
ministry was doing.
So it was good.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
So I guess kind of getting into you know your job,
representing our area, I guessmaybe could hit on some things.
We'll just jump into education.
Uh, some of the the some of theissues that you've been
(12:50):
involved in with that in thelast year or two, um so I don't
know.
Share, share your thoughtsabout some of the legislation
that's gone through and and whyit's important.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Sure, so I chair the education committee.
So, generally speaking, 80% ofwhat I do at the statehouse
surrounds K-12, not necessarilyhigher ed, but the K-12 space.
And so, as we look at ourgraduation rates, we look at
absenteeism, we look at thecapacity to read.
(13:25):
Is there proficiency in thirdgrade reading or sixth grade
math?
We're struggling as a countrynot just Indiana, but struggling
to get students to proficiency,and so we've worked incredibly
hard to make sure that we'redoing everything we can to see
(13:48):
kids be able to read by the endof third grade.
And so the concept is you learnto read by the end of third
grade and then you read to learnthe rest of your life Right,
and so the concept is incrediblyimportant for students to be
able to read, and so we changedcurriculum.
We changed a few things, have avery forward thinking education
(14:13):
director Katie Jenner is hername.
She's been in for oh gosh,she's probably been at it for
six years, I guess, now and sowe really work hand in hand
together, a lot of us, to changesome of the things and make
sure that we bring teachersalong as well.
They're the ones that are bootson the ground, that do the
(14:36):
actual work, and so some of thisstuff doesn't come without
hardship, because, I like to sayit this way, change is great as
long as it's you and not me.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, that's for sure .
Speaker 2 (14:48):
And so, but you know, working hand in hand.
Hand in hand, excuse me, andthere's still some angst out
there, I'm sure, but trying tomake sure that we're not
requiring things, that we don'tbring people along right to
understand why.
And so I'm proud to say thatthis last year, indiana went
(15:11):
from number 19 in the US tonumber six in the nation, and
it's done by something we callthe nation's report card, an
independent organization.
Annually Maybe it's notannually, it could be every
other year they sample studentsfrom every state and just
randomly and and give them, givethem a reading test and a math
(15:33):
test, and so we rose from, as Imentioned, from number 19 to
number six.
It's a big leap, it's huge, uhand uh, I'm proud of that.
We still got a distance to go,and then mathematics now is
coming along as well, so thatthe fundamentals, uh are are
moving forward.
We have to have an educatedsociety, right?
(15:57):
No, no, two ways about it.
There are a lot of reasons, alot of factors that that are
part of the reason why weslipped where we, the nation,
not just indiana, but the nationslipped where it didn't.
I don't necessarily need tomention them, but at any rate,
um, we, I'm incredibly proud toparticipate in that process and
help shepherd those changes.
(16:18):
A lot of work all all year longbehind the scenes to get where
we are and uh so uh, while westill have, there'll always be
difficulties to deal with if wewouldn't have anything to do.
So anyway, I'm proud of that.
Indiana's looked at around thenation educationally.
(16:39):
I was in Milwaukee this weekearlier for a couple of days on
education issues at a seminarand again people are.
They say we're we watch youguys in Indiana because you're
moving forward.
So someone has to blaze thetrail right so has.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Has there been a couple of specific pieces of
legislation that were passedthat have helped us get to that
point?
I mean specifically, was theresome fundamental changes that
happened that helped create theenvironment so that we could?
Speaker 2 (17:15):
move to where we're at, absolutely.
So what you have to know iswords mean something.
What you have to know is wordsmean something.
And so when words go into theIndiana code the first year, we
(17:39):
had gosh, I can tell you literalbattles, no one cussing, but
emotions got involved and I justsaid, look, I don't care what
you do, but get it straight.
And so that was a battlebetween an individual in the
Department of Education and wegot it.
It ended up.
But it was critical to make surethat how we defined literally
is called the science of reading, how this defining code set the
baseline for where we wereheaded.
(18:00):
And so some other folks besidesmyself were far more intricate
and understood those things.
I was basically in the middlesaying, okay, we got to get the
words correct in code to getthis ship moving forward.
And so we were able to do that.
And I think the you know, hatsoff to the teachers in the field
because, as I mentioned, changeis not easy for anybody, but
(18:25):
they've come along and we seethe results.
And so everybody in the stateof Indiana the individual
students first, the teacherssecond and everybody else will
benefit because of the work thatwas done.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I don't know if this is totally connected, but it
makes me think about the currentadministration talking about
the federal level, lots of talkabout giving away the Department
of Education on the nationallevel.
And then I think when they talkabout that, I think it's about
the states can handle it ontheir own.
(19:02):
And I mean, do we really youknow now, you've been involved
in it for over a decade now Imean, do we really need the
federal government involved inhelping the state of Indiana
educate our kids?
I mean, why would we need thatand why can't we just do it on
(19:25):
our kids?
I mean, why would we need thatand why can't we just do it on
our own?
Or are they actually?
Are things on the federal levelimpede us from doing the things
that we want to do as a state?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Is that a fair question?
Yeah, a fair way to say it anda good question.
And so there are people onevery side of this issue.
I have said personally, thestates have to be on task.
I don't think the federalgovernment really pushes.
They have mantras that they ordesires that they have, maybe,
(19:56):
and send us in a direction A orB or C, send states in that
direction.
I should say, and one of thebiggest pieces that I would say,
that they do that's necessaryfor states and that's like
funding for special needs kidsand certain things, and they
have some laws like IEPs theyhave to set up.
(20:17):
So, if Michael has difficulties, we set up a certain pattern
for you to go through to helpyou get past some difficulties
that you have in being educated.
Let's put it that way.
So what I have said, and I'dstand on this, is the money from
the federal government thatcomes to states.
Indiana is about a billiondollars.
(20:38):
Actually it's more than abillion, but let's just use that
term.
It's hard to even understand.
A billion dollars a year comesfrom the federal government.
Uh, we need that money.
We operate with that money, alot of it.
Well, let me say in theopposite side of the
non-opposite side of that.
In addition to that, uh, agreat deal of the dollars that
(21:02):
Indiana collects in tax goes toK-12.
It's a significant amount ofmoney.
It's billions as well, farbeyond what the feds send us.
But at any rate, I think thefederal government could operate
with a skeletal crew to managethe states and make sure that
(21:24):
they get the amount of moneybased on the number of students
and the need and those things.
But from a legislativestandpoint, you know, I guess we
could ask ourselves andprobably the fundamental
question I would pose back toyou and even myself standards,
right?
So do we want the federalgovernment setting some very
(21:47):
high level standards so we knowthat we're going to have
students that can read and writeand do math?
Questionable, but there's gotto be some uniformity out, let's
put it that way, right?
So we're not all over the board.
But at any rate, I don't thinkwe need the department of
education at the federal level,as we've been accustomed to.
And government, you know,inadvertently continues to grow.
(22:11):
It's just, it's the way ithappens, right?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
um, just the last thing about, maybe, schools, um
your thoughts about, you know,public schools, charter charter
schools, private schools, thebalance there, I mean, what's
your, what's your thoughts aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
It's a great question , one that will probably be
battled till the end of time.
But parental choice, I'd say ishas become the face of
education in Indiana over timeand not been easy.
I think that the first piece oflegislation was in 2011, a few
(22:52):
years before I got over thereand incrementally it's changed
and changed and changed so thatparents have opportunity to send
their son or daughter to theplace of their choice.
It gets kind of hairy when itcomes to the money factor of it.
So let's just say, here inRichmond a student wants to go
(23:13):
from one public school toanother public school, they can
go.
You want to go from Richmond,you want to go to Centerville,
you want to go to Connersvilleif you wanted to.
Now, when you leave leave, theproperty tax dollars stay local,
but the money that follows astudent from the state follows
the student.
So that's the big difference.
Property tax dollars stay inthe, in the address of domicile
(23:37):
for that student.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
so yeah, I, I, just I .
I do like the fact that thereis options where you could send,
you know, let your kids go toschool.
You know, I don't know how they, to be honest.
I mean, my boys have been outof high school for out of the K
through 12 for a long time nowand I don't know how they
(23:59):
balance the numbers.
You know, like, if there's anexodus from one school and one
has too many, I don't know howthey, how they balance all that.
I really don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
But that's a great question.
I think that the the receivingschool can say look, not because
they're being discriminatoryand say we don't like you,
michael, you can't come to ourschool, but could be because
they have limited amount ofteachers available for certain
classes and so they don't havethe capacity to take on any more
students for that year.
(24:30):
So there is certainly someblocks.
I guess, if you will, inpractical ones in place that say
look, we just can't takeanymore.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean, that's something that you're not
involved in, but it's just, it'sjust yeah it's a local thing.
It's like, if you know, if, uh,one elementary school I mean,
I'm sure each elementary schoolcan only house so many kids, if
you're trying to have so manystudents per classroom.
Yeah, I mean yeah per teacherratio whatever that is today and
(25:05):
um so yeah it's interesting,but I like the fact that you
know we lived really close the.
The distance betweenCenterville High School and
Richmond High School, where welive, was almost the same, you
know, and in some ways it wasmuch easier for um us to, for my
boys to go to centerville thanit was to richmond.
So we went to centerville, sure, and they had a great
(25:28):
experience there, uh, working.
We talked about this a littlebit before we sat down
officially started thisconversation about.
You know, politics is just so,oh, it's just, it just seems so
nasty, especially on the on thenational level, and I don't know
(25:48):
if it's truly that it seemslike it's that way, cause I hear
the words that come out ofpeople's mouths, you know, and
with all the news agencies, andit's 24 7, you know, you hear
about it all the time and, um,do you think it's the same?
Well, what's your spin on it?
(26:10):
In indiana, on the state level,dealing with people from across
the aisle and and what's thatlike that you experience in your
position?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
uh, it's far more congenial and in fact I'd even
say at even at the federal level.
So media has a desire to putforth the things that draw folks
, uh, you know, because of onething or another, and so I think
we spin this stuff and itcauses us our own problems.
Right, but I can speak forIndiana specifically.
(26:43):
I'm proud to serve with thefolks I get to serve with, and I
mean that, and that can beRepublican or Democrat.
I have relationships across theboard, both in the House and
the Senate.
A House member that's oneducation committee, when I
bring a bill for the House inthe second half to the House and
present, I can bet I'm going toget a good debate.
(27:06):
But it's an intellectual debateand some of it has to do with
the mantra ofRepublican-Democrat, certainly,
and the lens that we lookthrough from that perspective,
from a political perspective,the lens that we look through
from that perspective, from apolitical perspective.
But I love the debate piece ofit because it makes me think.
You know, maybe he's right,maybe we need to change this a
(27:29):
little bit.
You know, to go along, notnecessarily along political
lines, but to help theindividual, the student
themselves, and so I think weshould never.
There's a value in everybody, Idon't care if you're a
Republican, democrat orindependent, if we'll come to
the table with one goal in mind.
In my case that'd be to help inthe K-12 space, or maybe it's
(27:50):
the state of Indiana, right, andof course there's different
ways to do that and that's theconcept of coming together.
But I'm proud in Indiana, wherewe're at Again, relationships
on both sides, no trouble at all.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
It's good to hear.
So we still have a Republicangovernor, but we have a
different one now.
So how have things shifted orchanged, if anything, having
having a new person in that role, with mike braun now as our
governor what's that is it?
Is he bringing some differentthings to the job?
(28:29):
I mean, I would think he would,but how?
How is it different?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
so far into it that's a great question, literally,
and when I when I've watched inreal time in the last six months
unfold, and so when I first gotto the General Assembly, mike
Pence was the governor, and thenEric Holcomb for eight years
and now Governor Braun, and sothe personalities of the
(28:57):
individuals play a part in howthey actually operate, and
that's the, I think, isincredible.
Honestly, it's an eye openerfor me to stand back and look at
or compare and look at thoseindividuals and see how they
function as an individual, howthey manage from the executive
branch, how much involved theyare in legislation because of an
(29:18):
agenda they had or ran on, andso Governor Braun ran on
property tax relief and wefollowed through on that.
Now we had to be careful andstill have some municipalities
that may suffer a little bitmore than others, and some of
that's dependent upon the fiscalnature of which they've ran
(29:40):
under or have been run under forthe past.
I don't know.
Let's just say six, eight yearsor so.
However, mike Braun is going tobe far more.
He's proven he's going to beinvolved in the legislative
process because he has an agendaand he's going to work with the
legislators to get his agendadone or some form or fashion of
(30:01):
it, some version of it In thepast.
Governor Holcomb, this is notnegative necessarily, just how
he operates Again back topersonality.
He'd have four or five thingsthat he wanted.
That was it.
We didn't get lobbied from histeam to do things, and so we did
some with Mike Pence, and Isuspect Mike Braun will be
(30:26):
lobbying legislators to get hisagenda done as well.
So it's interesting to watch,honestly.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
But great question, yeah, I mean, you've been in
office long enough to have threedifferent governors, so it's
probably been very interestingto see how each one has operated
.
So I'm just anxious to see whatour new governor continues.
(30:53):
What are some things on hisagenda that you're aware of
right now, that are still kindof in the beginning stages, that
you think he's going to bereally pushing?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So, absolutely, property tax relief.
In fact, I'll tell you exactlywhat he said.
He's said this more than oncewhen you become governor he's
elected in November, takes theseat in January Well, the work,
because of Indiana being apart-time legislature, we're
working now.
I had a meeting this morning onthe way here about a piece of
(31:25):
legislation for next year, for26.
And so, because we're apart-time legislature, we're
working on legislation now andbasically there's such a tight
timeline, we have to have thingstaken care of basically by
january 1, because we hit theground running.
We've got a short window here.
We got, uh, 10 weeks or so, uh,maybe 11 weeks, uh, in the
(31:50):
short session in even years.
And so there's we, in the firsttwo weeks.
We're in that place where thedeadline is done.
There's no changes unless thereare amendments.
And so the governor I say thatto say the governor's now
working on what he wants to getdone in 26.
And so the legislative process,but he'll be involved in the
(32:13):
process on the front end and notcoming in when stuff is already
done, which is what happenedthis year, so that you know, the
legislators have already setbasically the agenda and so he
had to come in and kind of roundthose things out and gain some
ground himself one of my biggestthings.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That has been a pet peeve of mine for years and I
know there's stuff going on withit now.
But interstate 70 great questionbetween I so I mean we got work
going on, I mean, and youexperience it because you drive
over there and but I'm justcurious, how, how did we let it
(32:56):
get so bad before we actuallystarted getting things done?
I mean, it seems like to me andI'm ignorant to it and I'm sure
you're going to have a greatanswer for me, but it seems like
we wait in this state, or atleast in our area.
(33:17):
Weight in this state, or atleast at least in our area, we
it happens to us this way isthat the things have to
deteriorate to a point of justit's awful before things
actually get done.
Why can't we get more ahead ofthese projects, uh, than what we
do?
And I, and maybe you're, one ofthe answers going to be the big
(33:38):
money.
It's always about the money,you know, but I'm so anyway,
I'll shut up for a minute tellme, I'm just curious about I
have the same question.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
To be honest with you , michael.
No, no, I I do have to tell youthat I'm incredibly proud of
indiana.
Uh, we finished up the 69project south of indianapolis,
the project where we are at themoment, from the state line to
35 and then from 35 to 1, twodifferent contracts, both have
been let the work's happening,so it'll be three lanes each
(34:08):
direction.
Bridges widen and they're goingto take it down to the base,
which hasn't been done, by theway, for a while.
So a little research says youknow, if you're going to fix a
road that's gets the tractor,trailer or semi traffic on it,
that I-70 does it's, it's apounding daily and so, but but
(34:29):
here's the baseline that I wecan be proud of is we pay cash.
We're not bonding this projectout or these projects, we're
paying them in full on day one.
And so, uh, I that's a strangething, I would say, because
these are incredibly expensiveprojects Uh, so I'm I'm proud of
that and I think we should beas Indiana, that we're paying,
(34:51):
paying cash for it.
Now, that doesn't make it anyeasier to drive over those roads
, and on a daily basis either.
The other thing, that is, youknow there's been some
conversation about tolling onI-70 and maybe a couple of the
other interstates that are outthere.
That locally is not popular,and it's not just here.
(35:13):
I don't think it's popularanywhere.
But especially with Indianaonly being 150 miles from
corridor to corridor on I-70,tractor-trailer rigs can go
across and never spend a pennyin Indiana.
So in 17, I think it's the onlytime I supported knowingly a
(35:34):
tax increase, and that was a gastax increase so that we could
continue to to take care of theroads on a cash basis.
But that sense with inflationis that potential is
deteriorated as well.
So while I'm sharing underlyingthings, they all play a part in
(35:55):
why 70 turned out being kind ofthe last project on the table.
Yeah, if you will, uh, so, uh,there's some great underlying
things, uh.
But I agree, no excuse, for Imean gosh, I would call and
complain and you even as alegislator, it'd take a couple
(36:16):
of weeks to fill a pothole.
It was was taking out tires,you know, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
I've definitely had tire damage from driving on that
road.
Sure and it's dangerous.
You know when you've got you'redodging these massive potholes
that you know can almost likewreck your car so bad but I mean
it's happening.
(36:40):
I'm just always it's just likeamazes me.
You know how bad it got and butI'm sure with expansions or
whatever I mean, you havethere's property on both sides,
all the way from here to Indy,and I'm sure not all of that is
public domain or you have towork out the details with
(37:03):
securing every inch of landbetween here and there.
So I'm sure there's issues likethat.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
That's a great question, because that was one
of the questions I had when wetalked about changing 70 to
three lanes in each direction.
So how much land is it going totake for us to take by eminent
domain to be able to do that?
And the answer was very, verylittle.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
I think they, they, they thought well enough, uh,
when they did it, that that uh,or set up so they can, they can
basically get three lanes ineach direction without doing it.
But uh, and so we're about tomile marker 108, which is the.
I know that because that's theplace that gets to go to the
(37:44):
restroom on my travels back andforth in the morning after a
couple cups of coffee.
But so, from there to Indy now,so we're getting close.
I mean, we've got to close thegap now between one and and uh,
us1, uh, cambridge City or, uh,hagerstown exit, from there to
(38:05):
the rest area exit, that's thelast piece that's left.
And so, uh, it's, it's, uh, ifyou go to Indianapolis, enough,
and you get over there and youget on the new road, that's
three lanes in each direction.
Uh, it's, it's great, yeah, thebig, beautiful road there you
go.
Good analogy I.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
We may have touched on it and we've just been
talking a lot, but when you goback over your career so far,
what?
What's?
One or two pieces oflegislation that you've been
intimately involved in, thatyou're really proud of that?
Speaker 2 (38:40):
that you've been that was kind of a big part of what
you worked on, sure, orsponsored or wrote uh, so the
the concept of, uh, the readingportion, uh, behind the scenes
worked incredibly hard on thatand pushed hard.
And you know, occasionally youget there's pressures and so
there's arguments about things,but pushing that thing through
(39:05):
was I co-sponsored thelegislation in both cases, but I
didn't author it but a lot ofhard work behind the scenes to
make sure that it's done.
A lot of hard work behind thescenes to make sure that it's
done.
Our T's crossed and our I'sdotted, that the words that are
put on those in statute aregoing to make a difference in
kids' lives.
So that's one thing that I canstand behind and say that I'm
(39:28):
incredibly proud of.
And the last piece is somethingthat we call career coaching.
So now we're in the third yearof that, and so what that
actually does, we have acounselor shortage in Indiana
and I think in all statesactually, and so it's like one
(39:50):
counselor that I really don'tknow what.
It depends on which survey youlook at, but let's just say it's
one counselor to 500 studentsand so getting them set whether
they're going to college andthey got to take college prep,
or whether they're going offinto the workforce and they take
different shop classes orwhatever.
Helping set things up as far asthat goes is a big job.
(40:13):
A lot of it's automated now, Ithink, but nonetheless.
So we came up with this brightidea why don't we take a third
party, so an exteriororganization that would come in
and contract with a school andtake, take Michael, and set them
down a table and say you knowwhat's your, what are your
desires, what's your likes anddislikes, and maybe even do a.
(40:35):
In fact we required that thisyear not an interest survey, but
a gosh you can't think of itnow that would identify your
strengths and your weaknesses,like for me, if I took one of
those tests today, it would showadministration is high on my
(40:57):
list, maybe yours is people oryou know.
Yeah, when I figure it out I'lllet you know.
Yeah, well, and then it's adifficult thing, for sure in how
we do it.
But past interest surveys, andso I was successful in the 23
(41:17):
budget and in this last budgetto get dollars to do that and
because then it's totallyfocused, if I'm a third party, I
contract with a school to comein and I'm going to take all
your seventh graders or your10th graders and go through and
do a aptitude is the word I'mlooking for.
Aptitude survey and help aaptitude is the word I'm looking
(41:38):
for.
Aptitude survey and help themunderstand themselves a little
bit better and move in adirection that that I.
I like to say that that makesthem tick or is part of really
who they are.
And so I I was probably 25years old or something like that
when I took one I thought, oh,yeah, that's I've been doing
that.
I just didn't know, yeah,that's I've been doing that.
I just didn't know that's whatI was doing or what kind of
(42:01):
helped help me, as Jeff Rotz, to, to make the wheels spin in my,
in my heart and in my mind, Iguess, and so I'm, I'm that is
proliferating around the state.
Now we're in year three of that,so that will will help students
and I think, uh, you knowwhether they're headed to
college or or maybe they're muchbetter with their hands, and
(42:23):
today you could, you got work,ethic and and, uh, desire, be an
entrepreneur and have an HVACcompany, have all kinds of
different things that are outthere and available, and so, uh,
you like your job, you go to it, right, yeah, and so that's
what, that's what really after,and I know it's kind of
(42:43):
idealistic and maybe pie in thesky.
But even if we can get 50% ofthis of students to know what
makes them tick and whatdirection they should go, it's a
win for everybody.
The economic cycle that themindividually first, just like
education.
You got to you need aneducation, but how you function
after that you want to be happyat it and that's again kind of
(43:07):
pie in the sky.
But if you don't reach for ityou never get there.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, I'd be amiss to thank you for sharing that.
I'd be amiss not to mention alittle bit about workforce
development, given that part ofmy job running our local
manpower office, helpingcompanies with their staffing on
(43:30):
multiple levels I mean we wantmore jobs, more companies in
this area.
Now you work on a state level,but you represent our region and
you want to.
I think part of your job is totry to make sure that the area
(43:52):
that you represent gets its fairshare of opportunities,
especially as it pertains tojobs and companies.
And we want these companies, wewant these better-paying jobs.
(44:18):
And the problem is in this statewe're not really growing,
especially in this part, yourregion, our region, correct, and
we don't have a lot ofpopulation growth.
But we want the jobs.
But if we get the jobs, we'vegot to have people to do the
jobs, and so it's just thisongoing.
You know, I I just don't know.
(44:39):
I mean, what can, what can wedo to to continue to try to get
investment in this area?
But then what are we going todo to have the people to be here
to fill those roles?
I mean, it's just, it's toughit is.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
It's it's a great question and and one that's not
easily solved.
Essentially, when I describeEast Central Indiana, we had a
booming economy.
We're largely secondaryautomotive union jobs and so
they were great jobs and thatsense is all gone.
And so, coming back from thatis the issue.
(45:16):
It's like downtown is the issue.
It's like downtown.
How do you revitalize a townlike downtown Richmond, where
we're sitting today, that wasbuilt in I don't know 20s, 30s,
whatever.
How do you revitalize that andcontinue to move forward?
So it's a monumental task andyou're in the middle of it.
I think we got great folks, theChamber of Commerce, the EDC
office in Richmond.
(45:37):
They're doing everything theycan to help be a place where
people want to come and have theworkforce obviously, so
companies would look at us.
You know a couple of thingsthat we, because of our age,
don't think a lot.
I think we import more than weexport when it comes to talent
(45:59):
in Wayne County from thesurrounding counties could even,
I suppose, come from across thestate line in Ohio because of
our geographic location.
So there are good things aboutthe mobility and people today
based much different than whatit was back in the 1950s or 60s
when Richmond was booming wasback in the 1950s or 60s when
(46:24):
Richmond was booming.
So that's good, remote work,all those type of things but I
agree it's a monumental task toget past where we are.
I think Wayne County's donegood, this region's not done all
that bad, and I don't have anycriticism necessarily for
anybody that is in thesepositions either.
(46:44):
But talking spending time, oneof the things I've tried to do
as well is spend time.
I was on the governor'sworkforce cabinet and I probably
am still attached to that, butthe governor's changed some
things and so sometimesorganizations can be created,
especially at government levels,and you go and sit and listen
(47:06):
and you leave and nothing reallyhappens, and so I don't like
that.
I want to accomplish somethingif I'm going to spend my time
doing things, and so there isthings that we can participate
in.
Most definitely.
I represent Barrett myself forthis area, and some of that's
based on relationships overthere.
(47:26):
So the new Commerce Secretary,david Adams in a vertical he's
over the IEDC, the IndianaEconomic Development Corporation
, and how they interact withWayne County, and Valerie
Schaefer and her team these arethings that we have to at least
(47:47):
be a conduit that don't forgetabout East Central Indiana.
Back to your comment about I-70just popped into my mind.
Why I-70?
The last one to be fixed, youknow, or brought up to date,
can't say that but making surethat not just central Indiana or
the more populated areas getthe economic development that?
(48:14):
East central Indiana is on theradar as well, so we have to
fight and make sure we'rekeeping ourselves in the middle
of that.
Central Indiana is on the radaras well, so we have to fight
and make sure we're keepingourselves in the middle of that.
Uh, those are generallyconversations, not necessarily
uh, uh, legislative right.
You know you don't legislatewhat you're going to have to
move your company to Richmond,indiana, and so, uh, but but
there is a place and it's, whilea small piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
Uh, we do have opportunity to weigh in on some
of those and continually have tokeep beating the drum and say
don't forget about east centralindiana yeah, one of the um, one
of the struggles you're not,probably you don't deal with
this and what you do maybe youhear about it but, like some, of
the biggest impediments topeople's success and holding
(49:00):
jobs is just their ability toget there.
Transportation is a realimpediment for people in this
area and I wish there was justsome way that we could.
I mean, the mayor and I spokeabout this, you know when the
last time he was here andthere's no quick answer to that,
but it seemed just somethingsomething simple, like for for
(49:25):
joe or jane employee to go frompoint a to b so they could be at
work.
That's.
That's a huge problem becauseyou know, if you're unemployed
and you don't have a lot offinancial resources, it's kind
of hard to maintain insuranceand and just to maintain the
maintenance of what it takes tohave a car that run and put gas
(49:45):
in it.
You know.
So, yes, so many people thatdon't have their own means of
transportation and and uh, andeven though we're a small
community, if you live like, say, way on the south south side of
Richmond and you're trying togo out to the industrial
industry's road, that's a haul,you can't really walk it.
(50:07):
One guy I was talking to theother day.
He said he wanted a job outthere out in that area, and so I
went and I Googled how far itwas going to take me to ride his
bike and it was going to be 45minutes and it just wasn't going
to be setting that person upfor good success to be able to
(50:30):
ride his bike there every day.
Consistently, for sure, yeah todo it, and then we really don't
have a good cab.
I mean, and that's, if you wereto to take a I don't know if
you're aware of this, but if youwere to take a cab to and from
work every day and you're doinga five-day work week, you're
it's going to cost like ahundred bucks, and uh.
(50:53):
So, and then, um, the bus routeswe get, the city buses are
somewhat we get federal moniesfor that and they can't deviate
from certain patterns of routes.
Because of that, from what Iunderstood, because I had
(51:17):
opposed the idea of like a, likea like a hub area where you,
you would go and there would be,uh, some drop-off sites out in
industries road where you couldtry to get people on the shift
changes times where they knewthat they weren't going to have
(51:40):
any more than a five or 10minute wait, and uh, but that
because the way the, the routesare laid out, or whatever, or or
you couldn't, they weren't ableto, um, dedicate a, you know, a
bust for a specific purposelike that.
So I don't even know where I'mgoing with this jeff it's just
that it's just a.
It's a problem and I wish it wassomething.
(52:01):
We got a lot of smart peoplethat are involved, but this
scene it's such a simple issuelike transportation seems like
such a very difficult uh to getgood answers to it.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
So I don't know and I wish I could say you know a, b
and c, and it would function aswell.
And I'll uh, I I'm going tocompare this back to education.
So I I looked, I pulled mytranscripts from 1982 in
michigan, from high school, anduh, it's identical to what we do
(52:35):
today.
So we're 40, 43 years past thatnow, and it's algebra one.
Algebra two biology, advancedbiology, accounting.
You know the.
I didn't do uh trig or anythinglike that, but but uh, so, so,
um, what I, what I just said wasit was time to change.
(52:56):
Right, we needed, we need, as anation not just indiana, but as
a nation to change not thefundamentals, but take a good
hard, look at what we're doing,because we're at least a half
century into this and we'restill producing the same
diplomas today as we did whenyou and I went to school.
And so that said, what does ittake today?
Can we, would employers,participate?
(53:18):
Can we go to the federalgovernment and say, look, we
need this, this and this, weneed a waiver or whatever that
looks like for some of thefunding?
And so I'm simply saying, wherethere's a will, there's a way.
And you got to get out of thebox.
And I'm not being critical byany means, but if we always do,
(53:42):
we always don't.
Speaker 1 (53:43):
We always get, we always got we got to get out of
the box, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
So, but it's not going to be easy, and so both
for the city and potentially, ifthe feds are that tight on the,
what those routes have to be.
And I understand why they dothat, because if you don't put
in things in legislation, I knowthat people were people will
begin to do things that wasnever intended for those dollars
(54:09):
.
And so then you and I struggledwith this honestly getting in
the general assembly, becausethen you tighten it down so
tight, you're making sure thatmichael can't make him, he can't
turn right here, because if hedoes, he's going to, it's going
to cost us money, so we're goingto stop him from doing that.
Well then then you, you stifleany innovation, and so that's,
that's part of the mantra whenit when it comes, in my opinion,
(54:31):
to how we write pieces oflegislation.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
But the chance you know we're developing
economically in these industrialparks, we are creating
workspaces that are further andfurther out from where people
live, but we're not giving,we're not taking that into
consideration.
Now I don't think we want afactory right in the middle of
town anymore, but they used tobe all over in the middle.
(54:58):
We can go, we can get in a carright now.
Go see all these old buildings.
You go down northeast street indifferent areas where these,
where's the industrial boom backin the heyday?
I mean they and these rows ofhouses where people just they
got out of their house and theyjust walked to their job sure
because the factory is just acouple of blocks yeah, we're not
sitting far from where the theexplosion.
Speaker 2 (55:17):
I don't even know what year that was now 69, I
believe yeah, so I mean rightdowntown Richmond making
ammunition right.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, so yeah, but I agree.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
I think you know where there's a will, there's a
way this stuff can be figuredout.
Employers might even want tocome to the table and say you
know what?
We'll give X to atransportation problem that we
have on a whatever.
So, students, my mind's eyes oneducation, so employees can get
(55:47):
from point A to point B and getto work and hopefully raise up
or give that individual theability then, over time, to be
able to afford an automobile.
So yeah, the in the insurancewhich is we know everything has
gone up including insuranceright.
Speaker 1 (56:07):
Yep Well, hey, jeff, I really appreciate you taking
the time to meet with me today.
We've kind of talked about alot of different things and I
just appreciate you taking thetime to sit down with me today
and uh so uh, now for ourfollowers.
Followers, if they'reinterested in more information
about you or what you're doing,is the indiana senator
(56:29):
republicanscom.
Is that the best place to go?
Speaker 2 (56:32):
uh, sure, that's one of the places you can go, most
definitely.
And then there's uh, there isuh uh, my email as well, which
is S, as in Sam, or S27, whichis the district at igaingov.
Okay, and there's alsojeffrotts at igaingov.
Indiana General Assembly standsfor gov.
Speaker 1 (56:55):
Yeah, the one I went to was
indianasenatorrepublicanscom andthen it was like forward slash,
is it or back?
I think it's forward slash,honestly.
Don't go on, certainly thereare ways to reach out.
Speaker 2 (57:08):
We don't hide by any means, and so I think Rep
Barrett follows the same thing.
If someone calls, we're goingto do our best to have a
conversation.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Yeah, no, you've been very approachable.
I appreciate that about you.
Uh, thank you, uh, for servingour district and the work that
you put into it.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
And uh uh, wish you the very best, the next session
starting not until january, but,like you said, you're working
right now, right, today's theday and so and thank you as well
, michael, for your efforts andmanpower and and helping folks
get get from temp service tofull-time jobs, and that's you
fill a need in the communitythat's necessary, and so we're
(57:48):
grateful for that as well.
And thanks for having me on theshow.
Speaker 1 (57:50):
Yeah, great, it's been a pleasure.
Thank you All.
Right, that's all for thisepisode of the Hub.
Thanks again for listening andwe'll see you next time for
another conversation with adifference maker from our region
.
Manpower is proud to supportthe Hub.
Find out how they can supportyour business at MPRichmondcom.
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