By Jerry Curry, Staff Writer

United States Congresswoman Erin Houchin, representing Indiana’s 9th District, took time out of her busy schedule to give Salem High School’s “Jobs for American Graduates” (JAG) members a brief overview of her past careers. She spoke to about 120 students on Tuesday, Sept. 3. The majority of the students are in the JAG  program.

Tara Kritzer is a teacher and coordinator of the program. Also on hand was the JAG regional manager Jeff Hester.

Houchin started out saying that her dad was a dentist, and they lived in Scottsburg. Her dad was a good example, as he worked his way through dentistry school.

She added, “I had no interest in politics until I reached college.”
While attending I.U. and working on a degree in Psychology, she applied for a job in the state senate. This meant she had to leave school just six credits short of compleing her degree.

Later she received a job offer to be a legislative assistant. She held that job for eight years.

She said the employer fired one employee a month. This ruined her fondness of politics. She moved back to Scottsburg and drove to I.U. Bloomington to finish her degree. She only lacked two classes for six hours of credit.

She then got married and now has three children, ages 20, 18, and 15.

Early in her marriage to her husband Dustin Houchin and nine months pregnant, she got a job offer from U.S. Senator Dan Coats. He offered her a job as Southeast Indiana Regional Manager. That job encompassed 24 counties. She was the first female and first intern to get this job.

She then started a public relations company and worked at that a while.

Houchin then ran and was reelected to the  Indiana State Senate. In 2016, she defeated a powerful 26-year incumbent that she had worked for until 2022.
She represented the 47th District in the Indiana Senate from 2014 to 2022.

She stated, “I saw lots of good you get to do.”

Then she ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Indiana’s 9th District.  She was elected in 2022 and continues to represent those constituents.

One enjoyable project Houchin pursued was the robot, Milo. She worked on getting Milo while in the state senate. Milo was a robot that worked with autistic kids. The theory was the children would be more prone to work and talk to the robot than to other people. 

When asked about jobs of the future, she stressed the importance of trying to get a job that you are passionate about. Jobs in the future will deal with AI, advanced manufacturing, and general skills.

She opened the end of her discussion for questions from the students.

One question was,” How much do you make?” She answered $174,000 a year. Other questions dealt with how do you handle hate, do you have any helpers, how divided is politics? On the last question she said, “It’s not as bad as you think. There’s a lot of laws that are made”.  

On an age-limit question, she said, “No age limit on the supreme court.” SalemLeader.com enquired about her future political aspirations; she replied she may pursue other endeavors if there was a need.

Houchin closed by saying, “Do the best job you can.”

Houchin serves on the following committees in her present position— Committee on Education, Committee on Financial Services, and Committee on House Rules. She was a very articulate speaker.

She lives in Salem. Her son is a student at Salem High School.

By Becky Killian, Staff Writer

A public hearing was held for the county’s proposed $27.1 million 2025 budget.

No members of the public opted to comment on the hearing, which was held Tuesday, Sept. 3, during the Washington County Council meeting.

The proposed 2025 budget represents an increase of $1.6 million over the current year’s budget.

The Council will likely adopt the budget during the Monday, Oct. 7, regular meeting. It will then be sent to the state for review.

By Becky Killian, Staff Writer

Officials have approved a $2 million loan to pay for the ongoing work at the new Washington County Highway Garage facility. The vote was made during the Tuesday, Sept. 3, meeting of the Washington County Council.

Representatives from First Savings Bank detailed how the loan will work:
The loan collateral will be $2 million in existing funds the county has and that will be invested in either a treasury bond or a certificate of deposit. The county will earn interest on the investment and the amount earned will depend on which type of investment officials choose.

The seven-year loan will have an estimated annual payment of about $350,000. The county has earmarked about $375,000 in existing County Economic Development Income Tax that will be used for the loan payment.

The loan interest will cost about $439,000 over the seven-year term.

“We’re not going to be raising taxes,” Commissioner Todd Ewen said. “We’re just trying to get this thing built.

Ground has already been broken on the $4.8 million highway garage. The project was undertaken as a Build-Operate-Transfer process (BOT), which Indiana law allows as an alternative to the traditional government building process that requires the government entity to get a design from an engineer, then seek bids, and obtain a bond to pay the costs. With the BOT, the county selects a developer who shoulders all costs until the project is completed to the satisfaction of the county. The developer is then paid a guaranteed pre-determined project cost.

Commissioners have pushed for the project, saying the highway department’s current facility is in a poor location and has insufficient room for supplies and equipment.