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Gov. Holcomb to unveil 2019 plan at State of the State

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Governor Eric Holcomb is expected to lay out his plan for the year in his 2019 State of the State address Tuesday night.

Teacher pay will be on everyone’s mind and the governor has suggested he will address that issue tonight. He also says he will focus on the goals of his “2019 Next Level Agenda”. 

Expect to hear Holcomb tout the surplus in the state budget that equals more than $1.5 billion.  

A year ago, Holcomb discussed Indiana’s problems with DCS and the infant mortality rate at his 2018 State of the State address. This year, Holcomb’s budget covers requests from the Department of Child Services and Medicaid. 

Democrats are upset at the lack of large increase in teacher pay. The governor said last week he is looking to reallocate $20 million dollars of a teacher grant. He specifically pointed out in his budget a two percent increase for public schools each of the next two years. 

“We’re going to continue to do more you will hear more about that shortly,” said Holcomb in a press conference last week. “We are very proud of the budget we have put together but we are going to look forward and for ways to get more dollars into teacher salaries and their paychecks.” 

Political commentator Abdul-Hakim Shabazz says expect to see some sort of proposal come out of the speech tonight. 

“I’ll be interested to see if the governor is expected to unveil some new proposals to deal with the issues of teachers pay,” Shabazz said. “What does he do? Does it involve any new money or reallocation of current dollars? That’s what I’ll be looking for in particular.” 

Teachers and school administrators should pay attention to tonight’s speech.

In addition, it could be interesting is to see how strong the governor might push for a hate crime law or a biased crimes law. Indiana is one of only five states without hate crime legislation on the books.

The governor publicly called for passage of a hate crimes law after the attack on a synagogue in Carmel.