Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb praised Columbus for its workforce development efforts while updating local Republicans on what is happening in state politics during the party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.
More than 170 people gathered at Simmons Winery Banquet Hall Thursday night to meet Holcomb and catch up on local and state politics.
About 23 people paid $100 to attend a half-hour VIP reception with Holcomb, Republican Central Committee chairman Barb Hackman said.
Holcomb noted that U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics that showed Bartholomew County was one of only four Indiana communities that enjoyed over a 4 percent growth rate from September 2017 to September 2018.
Leaders in Columbus were far ahead of other Indiana communities years ago when they recruited all entities concerned about workforce development to join forces and find answers together, he said.
It is a model that the governor said he now advocates for all over Indiana,” Holcomb said.
“Bartholomew County is the model for workforce development, and therefore, economic development,” Holcomb said. “Northeast Indiana is now doing it well, but it was Columbus that authored the original version.”
In addition to workforce development, Holcomb also talked about the amended hate crimes legislation making its way through the Statehouse, explaining his recent change of heart from wanting all the protected classes in the legislation, to supporting a version that only has some of them.
On Tuesday, the Indiana House approved hate crimes legislation that doesn’t specifically list gender identity, age or gender among its protected traits, although the lawmaker who revised the bill said it includes language that covers everyone possible. The Senate must either agree to the changes made by the House or send it on to a joint House-Senate conference committee to resolve any differences.
The House vote came one day after the chamber unexpectedly adopted hate crimes language in an amended, unrelated bill.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement that he supports and appreciates the legislation, saying that it “covers all forms of bias crimes and treats all people equally.” In January, he had pushed for more comprehensive legislation in the conservative state that would get Indiana off a list of five states without a hate crimes law.
“Now, we need to make sure we get to the finish line and move Indiana off the list of states without a bias crimes law,” Holcomb added in his statement.
A Senate committee had passed an another hate crimes bill in February, but a few days later the state Senate stripped out a list of specific protected traits, including sexual orientation, gender identity and race.
The new bias crimes language was added Monday to a bill on controlled substances in state prisons. That language refers to an existing state bias crimes reporting statute that mentions color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion and sexual orientation, but doesn’t explicitly cover age, sex or gender identity.
But the revised bill says that bias can also be considered due to the “victim’s or the group’s real or perceived characteristic, trait, belief, practice, association, or other attribute.”
Thursday night, Holcomb said the hate crimes bill that came out of the Indiana House Tuesday had an enumerated list that included sexual orientation and “any other affiliated group or characteristic.”
“I believe that covers it all,” Holcomb said. “No one is left out.”
The controversy over hate crimes legislation illustrates serious philosophical differences among Hoosiers, the governor said. While some want to ensure no deserving discriminated group is left off a hate crimes list, others want to make sure one group is not treated any differently than another, he said.
If Indiana passes its first-ever state bias crime law, it will have a positive impact few have acknowledged, Holcomb said.
While bias is currently established in the reporting phase of a trial, a bias crime law would give judges the authority to determine if a hate crime had occurred during the final sentencing hearing, the governor said.
The revised House bill has been sent back to the Indiana Senate, where it will likely be discussed sometime early next week, Holcomb said.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
