By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph-area state legislators have quickly turned from the election to planning for the upcoming legislative session.
State Rep. Brenda Shields of St. Joseph expects one issue to be paramount during the regular legislative session.
“I serve on the Budget Committee and I think it will be one of the most important committees to serve on this coming year in the legislature, because I think we will have a tough year,” Shields tells St. Joseph Post. “We really will not know the results of the effects of COVID on our state budget until probably April the 15th.”
Shields says that should give lawmakers time to adjust to whatever happens to the budget.
“We will have time if the budget comes in strong to correct that, but I think that we’ll be having to look at having a very tight budget and that’ll be our top priority when we go back in January,” according to Shields.
The coronavirus pandemic at first brought down state revenue, but an influx of federal funds combined with consumer spending has helped bring state revenue back up.
State Rep. Bill Falkner of St. Joseph isn’t wasting any time, getting to work as soon as the elections were over.
“I have a couple of bills being researched right now,” Falkner tells St. Joseph Post.
Falkner says he’s interested in how tax incentives such as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), Community Improvement Districts (CID), and Transportation Development Districts (TDD) can help local economic development efforts. Falkner, the former St. Joseph mayor, will also be pushing to pass state law to require online retailers to collect state sales tax as brick and mortar businesses do.
Falkner expects workforce development to remain a major issue, especially working to train young people for various high-skill trade jobs.
“Then we’ll be working on trying to get some type of trade education in the schools or something along that line where we offer the training for the trades and try to get that at a younger age to where they can kind of step into these occupations,” according to Falkner.
Falkner says he also wants to push through the legislature bills which would allow for a statewide plumbing and mechanical license.