(STATEHOUSE) January 11, 2007 – Indiana House Republicans today announced their priorities for the 2007 legislative session. House Republicans will aggressively pursue goals they shared with Hoosiers throughout the state in a series of Pledges for Indiana’s Progress made over the past seven months. Led by House Republican Leader Brian Bosma, the group pledged to put their vision in action in a bipartisan, cooperative fashion.

“We have spent several months and hundreds of man hours formulating a plan that will set Indiana on the right path, not for the recent election, but for the next generation,” said Representative Bosma. “It is time to make our pledges reality, continue the course we set over the last two years, and accelerate Indiana’s progress.”

House Republicans held a dozen town hall forums, meeting with thousands of Hoosiers across Indiana to discuss a 12-point plan that includes over 50 policy initiatives. House Republicans will pursue each of these items, with a concentration on the four areas of tax protection, education reform, job creation, and crime prevention.

Hold the Line on Taxes

 House Republicans propose that the 2008-09 state budget is balanced honestly, as was done when Republicans controlled the process two years ago, with no general tax increases (sales tax, income tax, corporate tax) and no accounting gimmicks or dedicated fund transfers to artificially balance Indiana’s books. In addition House Republicans will advocate a cap or even a cut in homeowner property taxes.

Reform Education

 House Republicans call for a comprehensive discussion on education reform. House Republicans will begin this debate with proposals for more teacher incentives and accountability, more options for Hoosier families, advocating that tax dollars follow children directly to the classroom, and to allow local school corporations to make the decisions necessary for their schools, whether that be full-day kindergarten or other programs that are more essential. In addition, House Republicans will propose to make our schools safer by requiring federal background checks on anyone being considered for a position in a classroom and will work to reform ISTEP+ by moving the test to the spring and by providing schools with options for shorter tests throughout the year.

Create Economic Opportunity for Every Hoosier

The House Republican goal is to create economic opportunity for every Hoosier. Over the past few years, Indiana has had a great deal of success on the job creation front. From January 2005 through December 2006, nearly 38,000 new jobs have been announced from plant openings or plant expansions with approximately 80,000 more Hoosiers working today than in January of 2005. House Republicans will accelerate that success with plans to target Indiana’s small business growth and development while protecting and building on the job creation successes reached in the last two years.

Get Tough on Crime

House Republicans will propose a truth in sentencing law that will make it a requirement for violent offenders to serve at least 85% of their sentence before they become eligible for release. House Republicans will also propose the death penalty or life without parole for anyone who is found guilty of killing a police officer in Indiana. House Republicans will propose registries for violent offenders and Meth dealers so that Indiana residents are aware of potentially dangerous convicted felons or those convicted of Meth-related crimes that live in their neighborhoods. Other items include measures to protect against identity theft by allowing consumers to place a security freeze on their credit report, requiring complete background checks on home and group home caregivers, and increasing penalties for those who prey upon children over the Internet.

“Our pledge for this legislative session is to roll up our sleeves and work in good faith to make Indiana the state we know she can be,” continued Bosma. “Now is the time for partnership, not partisanship, cooperation, not conflict and discussion of policy over politics. House Republicans will work for a better Indiana by accelerating the progress we have already made and continue the positive direction that we have already set forth. We pledge to bring vision, action and partnership to the debate. Indiana’s future depends on it.”

Accelerating Indiana’s Progress, the complete House Republican 2007 Legislative Agenda, is available here as a .pdf file.