TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– As a new legislative session gets underway in Indiana, local lawmakers fielded questions from the public on a wide variety of topics at the Vigo County Public Library on Saturday.
It was a part of the first legislative crackerbarrel session of the year, featuring State Representatives Bruce Borders and Tonya Pfaff, alongside State Senator Jon Ford.
Pfaff said it’s a great way to see what the major concerns of her constituents are.
“We’re not always in tune with what everybody is passionate about. I think these are great opportunities for the public to come out and say, ‘can you hear my concerns, let’s try to fix them,’” Pfaff said.
Multiple people posed questions about different legislation and issues regarding education, and education spending. Ford said he was focused on increasing the budget for higher education institutions.
“We’ll work on hopefully the higher education budget, putting more money to higher education so we can continue to attract employers to our community,” he said.
Pfaff wants public education spending to continue to increase– something she thinks will be beneficial for employees at schools, as well as the students themselves.
“My goal is always to get as much funding as we possibly can for public education because, when I say raise teacher salaries, we’re talking about everyone, the cafeteria workers, the bus drivers, it takes a village to raise these kids,” she said.
Another topic that was addressed– housing in the area. While some concerns pertained to city government, Ford said a housing study was being completed by Thrive West Central, with the results coming next month.
“The goal of the study is to let everybody know where we are now, and what our needs are going forward,” he said.
Pfaff said the issue needed to be addressed as the region looks to grow.
“We have some great opportunities but we also need housing,” she said. “One of the things we need to do as a state is to try to figure out how to bridge that affordable housing gap.”
The next session will take place at the library on Saturday, Feb. 11th, at 10 a.m.
