State Rep. Lyness, State Sen. Maxwell Speak at Post Legislative Luncheon

Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 4:12 PM

Former State Senator Chip Perfect also made an appearance.

State Rep. Randy Lyness (left) and State Senator Randy Maxwell at Thursday's Post-Legislative Luncheon at Ivy Tech Community College. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - State Rep. Randy Lyness (R-West Harrison) and State Senator Randy Maxwell (R-Guilford) were in Lawrenceburg on Thursday to give their thoughts on the 2024 Legislative Session.

The Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce hosted the Post-Legislative Luncheon at Ivy Tech Community College's Riverfront Campus. The event was free for community members to attend thanks to the sponsorship of Duke Energy.

For Lyness, it was his last legislative session. He announced last December that he would be retiring from the legislature after serving eight years in the House of Representatives.

On the flip side, Randy Maxwell just completed his first legislative session. He won the Senate 43 Caucus last September after Chip Perfect's resignation from office.

This year's legislative session was a short one considering there were no budget talks. That will come in 2025.

Lyness opened up the luncheon by running down the number of bills that were drafted in the House (446). Of those bills, approximately 25 percent made it out of the house, and 95 ended up on the Governor's desk.

In total, there were 739 bills filed this session with around 23 percent being passed into law.

According to Lyness and Maxwell, maybe five of the new laws have any sort of impact on southeastern Indiana.

New laws that were mentioned included Senate Bill 146 and House Bill 1001. Senate Bill 146 allows a person who is at least 18 years of age to ring up a sale of alcoholic beverage in the course of the person's employment. It also allows a waiter, waitress, or serve at least 18 years of age to serve alcohol in a dining room of a restaurant or hotel under certain conditions.

In addition, Senate Bill 146 provides certain exemptions from the employment of minors law.

House Bill 1001 allows money from the 21st Century Scholars program, or a Freedom of Choice grant to be used to pay for a course, certificate, or apprenticeship after a student graduates from high school. The bill allows the state to train academically oriented individuals and those who are not academically oriented.

Both Lyness and Maxwell were asked a two-part question regarding the main issue facing the state and the main issue facing the district.

Lyness' answer for both was, "workforce, nobody has enough help."

Maxwell was honest in saying, "I don't know the answer. I haven't been around long enough." He took a page out of Lyness' playbook from past legislative luncheons, saying "we have it really good here," using Madison as an example after Historic Madison was named by USA Today the #1 Small Town in the Midwest.

"It's kind of a little gem for my district, the whole state of Indiana and the whole Midwest, and they feel forgotten by Indianapolis just like we all can feel. I don't feel forgotten by Indianapolis. We have to make our own road," said Maxwell.

Also speaking at the luncheon was former State Senator Chip Perfect, who spoke as an attendee. Having a unique perspective about the inner workings of the statehouse, Perfect gave a response to the "biggest issue" question. In his opinion, the growth of Medicaid will be the biggest issue facing the state, which he believes is related to workforce.

"When people are on Medicaid, they're not typically in the workforce," said Perfect. "I think the projection a year ago when I was there, that in five years that if the rate of Medicaid continues it will consume the entire budget."

Locally, Perfect things the biggest challenge moving forward is making the transition to a next generation of leadership by getting people involved, continuing the good things going on, and looking for different ways of doing things.

Perfect also made comment about job Lyness and Maxwell have done.

"We need to recognize how fortunate we are to have these guys representing us," said Perfect. He alluded to Randy Lyness' ability to build relationships in the House and Maxwell's ability to quickly pick things up at the statehouse.

Going forward, State Sen. Maxwell looks forward to learning more about the financial workings of the state leading into a budget year. In terms of filing and passing legislation, he filed two bills this session. He will be willing to file more legislation if his is personally passionate about a particular issue or the people he represents give him good reason to do so.

On his first day at the Statehouse, Maxwell said the picture below was sitting on his desk. The more engrained he became in the legislative process, the more he saw "that's how it really works."

The luncheon concluded with Eric Kranz, Dearborn County Chamber President and CEO, thanking Randy Lyness for serving the people of southeastern Indiana.