Budget Passes

The 2009 Special Session of the General Assembly is over and the budget is passed and signed into law. Thank you to every one of you who got involved, called the Speaker’s office and exerted significant pressure to get a budget passed before the State shut down.

There’s good and bad in every budget. I didn’t write this budget nor was I at the table, as a minority House member but there was a great deal of collaboration between the House Republicans, Senate Republicans and those Democrats that wanted to be involved. The budget puts us in a stable position as our economy continues to fluctuate. More importantly, this budget does not set us up for a massive tax increase by spending down every stabilization fund. It also has cut nearly 10% from every State agency, which I believe is important. Thanks again to all of you for getting involved in the process, it made a difference!

Just a reminder: I will NOT be in the Walkerton Parade this weekend, on Friday, July 3rd. I had to previously cancel my spot in the parade because we were told to cancel ALL plans and plan on being in Indianapolis all week and possibly into the weekend. Thanks to those of you who were going to walk, but I will not be there this year.

The next parade is the BIG one at the Elkhart County 4H Fair on July 19th. I need as many walkers as possible there. Either call my voicemail at 574-293-6622 or email Rebecca@faulknerstrategies.com to confirm for that parade!

Thanks again and have a GREAT 4th of July weekend!

Jackie Walorski
State Representative, District 21

CANCELLATION NOTICE

Due to the uncertainty of being in session I will no longer be attending the Walkerton Parade this weekend. Pat Bauer has yet again brought session to a screeching halt. I will continue to do my best at keeping you informed on whats going on during special session! Thank you to everyone for your continuous support. Please stay tuned for the next parade date!

URGENT

URGENT: Please call Congressman Joe Donnelly right now and urge him to vote NO on the Cap and Trade bill, which will be voted within the next hour! This bill is a HUGE utility tax increase for all Hoosiers and completely hurts our State’s job forecast. I hardly ever ask you to get involved in a federal issue but this is critical and so is Obama’s health care plan. I’ll send more on that as that vote gets closer. But, today, if we stand together and reach out to ALL of our Indiana Congressmen, but especially in Northern Indiana, ask Joe to vote NO.

Also: for those of you who heard me LIVE on WFRN this morning, we have a new abortion clinic opened in Fort Wayne, Indiana that is performing “chemical” or “medical” abortions using RU486 and a combination of drugs that induce miscarriages to be done at home. This “take home abortion kit” has successfully skirted virtually all of Indiana’s laws that protect young girls and adult women from the risks of infection and complications that arise from botched abortions. Stay tuned on further legislative measures that we will be taking to change this situation.

Finally: Call House Speaker Pat Bauer and tell him to QUIT playing political games with YOUR tax money and to get a budget passed and END this special session of the General Assembly!!! The Governor has now embarked on a mission around the State to ask House Democrats to vote with their districts and not their “boss” so we can pass a responsible budget that doesn’t raise taxes.

This is an important hour for America as we look squarely at the Cap and Trade bill, a HUGE utility tax increase and at the State level…another giant tax increase if we don’t pass a responsible budget NOW.

I have already called Rep. Joe Donnelly and am hoping you will do the same. This is important.

Thank you very much.

Jackie Walorski
State Representative

Special Session Update & Parade Walkers!

Today is Monday, June 22 and we were just notified that the House will be in session tomorrow at 4:00pm. The Indiana Senate is voting, and will probably pass, the Governor’s budget tomorrow afternoon. Once that budget is passed, it will go to a Conference Committee, just like a regular session where the “negotiating” or “compromising” begins. Currently, the House Democratic budget that they passed last week, on a party-line vote, is unbalanced and spends down all of the State’s reserves AND the Major Moves Trust Fund. There are rampant rumors floating around that House Speaker Pat Bauer intends to drag out this Conference Committee and refuse to settle on a responsible budget that will protect Hoosier families. If we don’t have a budget passed by the end of June we, again, float in “unchartered” waters into more political mud. My goal is to have a budget that is honestly balanced that does not set us up for a tax increase next year. I’ll keep you posted this week as events continue to unfold.

On another note, summer parades begin!! I would enjoy the opportunity to have you join me in walking or riding bikes for the upcoming parade season! Saturday, June 27th, is the Lakeville Parade, and lineup is at 8am, and the parade begins at 9am. The parade lines up behind the Subway Shop on US 31 South and ends at Newton Park. The following Saturday, July 3, the Walkerton Parade is an evening parade, line up at 6:30pm, parade begins at 7:30pm, and begins at Urey Middle School and ends at the High School. Sunday, July 19th the Elkhart County 4H Fair Parade is HUGE and begins at Noon at the Linway Plaza in Goshen. I might be riding my bike this year in some of the parades but we’ll have a truck with water for the walkers and candy for the kids. It’s always a lot of fun!

Please RSVP for any parades to Rebecca@Faulknerstrategies.com or call and leave me a message at 574-293-6622.

Thanks and stay tuned!

State Representative Jackie Walorski

Update #2 from State Representative Jackie Walorski

Today we were actually in session over an hour! Unreal, since the last two days were six minutes total. We’ll be voting on the House Democrat’s, horrific, unbalanced, one-year budget tomorrow. They spend down all of the revenue, the reserves AND the Major Moves Trust Fund and set up Hoosiers for a HUGE tax increase in 2 years. Needless to say, I will be a resounding “NO” vote!



We also found out that there is a tax increase coming into St. Joseph County through a new Regional Transportation Board AND we beat down an amendment offered by a local House Democrat that would have had a $2million dollar earmark for another Community Center in South Bend. I, along with 5 other Republican colleagues, raised so many questions and objections to “earmarking” when we need to be “cutting” that Bauer killed Niezgodski’s amendment by pulling it off the table.



We are back in session tomorrow at 10 am and it will be interesting to see what the vote is on this first round of a horrible budget. I will be shocked if the Democrats have 51 members to vote on a bloated, overspent, pork barrel budget. We’ll see.


Thanks for all of your comments and feedback. By keeping up the pressure on lawmakers, especially the Speaker, we can make a difference in these next 2 weeks!



Thanks Again and Stay Tuned!



Jackie Walorski

State Representative

District 21

Special Session Legislative Update

Dear Hoosiers,

The Special Session of the General Assembly has become a 3-ring circus….under the direction of the ringleader himself, Speaker Bauer. It is due to his theatrics during the regular session that we’re even in Special Session….costing more taxpayer dollars. Now, he’s in charge of yet another 3-ring circus and this one is in full swing.

Let’s be clear why the Governor called the Legislature into this session…to pass a balanced budget. To simply pass a budget that only spends as much money as it takes in. Instead, Bauer has brought other issues to the table that absolutely could and should wait until January. One ring of the circus is going to introduce and debate a CIB bailout bill that will include more gaming in Indiana and they might even have a gaming bailout bill. Another ring is taking direct fire at FSSA and the Governor, again wasting more time and taxpayers money on an issue that could and should wait until January.

While the rings are spinning the clock is ticking. Monday, Day 2 of session, the House was due to convene at 1:30 p.m. but the Speaker didn’t “convene” us until 4:50 p.m.…we sat there in Indianapolis, at taxpayer expense, for 3 ½ hours! So, when we did convene we said the pledge, signed in our attendance and adjourned in 4 minutes.

One might think that perhaps the Speaker of the House is intentionally wasting time and money so that it will be impossible to have a budget by the end of June and then blame the Governor for shutting down the State of Indiana. I can assure you that if he keeps wasting time and money and we have no budget…the blame will end up squarely on the shoulders of the Speaker who seems to be orchestrating pure “chaos” for the sake of political gamesmanship.

Hoosiers should be outraged. I am. Yesterday, I left my house at 9:00 a.m. and returned home at nearly 10 p.m. and was in session for 4 minutes. It’s these kinds of antics that erode the public’s trust in government and lead to higher taxes and less accountability.

Stay Tuned,

Jackie Walorski

2009 Legislative Recap

Well...it's not over yet!! The 2009 General Assembly is going into overtime because I, along with more than 70 other House members, voted to kill a budget that overspent your tax dollars by nearly $1Billion dollars!! With the confirmation yesterday of the latest revenue forecast, showing Indiana losing another $255 million dollars, had that budget passed, we would be looking at a $1 billion dollar structural deficit in the next budget cycle. This is YOUR money and I not only voted NO but led the charge in our House caucus to vote NO.

Unlike our friends at the federal level, we absolutely cannot SPEND our way out of the financial tight spot we are in...the only way to balance the budget is to spend less than we are receiving in revenue, which means cutting more spending out of the plan. I believe taxpayers have had enough of government spending their hard-earned money!

At the hands of the Speaker of the House, businesses also got blasted this session with the largest tax increase in the history of Indiana ! During a recession and a 20-yr. low in the economy....this Democratic House voted to INCREASE taxes on ALL businesses by $315 million next year and $365 million dollars the following year to "aid...not FIX" an ailing Unemployment Compensation Fund. I voted NO to protect the struggling companies in Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties ...we MUST do a better job of protecting and creating jobs!!

The Speaker of the House was also successful in killing any conversation about property tax caps, the protection of traditional marriage amendment and he killed ALL pro-life bills.

The Governor will be calling the Indiana House and Senate back into session in the next few weeks to hopefully pass a leaner budget that protects taxpayers.

There were a variety of other bills that passed this session. I co-authored HB 1468 which has become known as the "puppy mill bill". I had worked for 6 months to craft legislation that would bring some accountability to the "bad actors' in the commercial dog breeding world while not promoting heavy-handed government. We were able to deliver on that by giving the Attorney General the authority they needed to seek uncollected or unpaid sales and income tax on this multiple billion dollar industry. We also included in that bill increased animal cruelty statues that will allow local prosecutors to handle complaints of animal cruelty and neglect. That bill generated more input from Hoosiers than any other bill including the budget this session. People are passionate about their animals...on both sides of the issue.

Thanks again for all of your comments and concerns this session. If you want to give me input on the upcoming special session, as it pertains to the budget, please do! I am coming down on the side of "less spending"....I hope you are too!

Stay tuned.
Jackie Walorski
Indiana State Representative