Indiana Black Caucus to host town halls to educate, learn from citizens

The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus will hold a series of town halls around the state, beginning this Saturday in Indianapolis.

The events are meant to help lawmakers both educate and learn from citizens.

One of the primary goals of the annual town halls is for the caucus to tell people about what happened in the most recent legislative session.

Black Caucus Chair Earl Harris (D-East Chicago) said this year, that will include a particular focus: property taxes.

“Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis) will be giving a presentation about what we passed this legislative session, because property taxes are going to affect everyone, no matter where you live in the state of Indiana,” Harris said.

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Harris said the town halls also help inform future legislation.

“Whether it’s someone directly saying, ‘Hey, what about this?’ or ‘Have you considered this?’" Harris said. "Or sometimes it’s just multiple people at multiple sessions talking about a particular issue.”

Harris emphasized that the town halls are welcome to everyone and that they've had Republican legislators attend in the past.

The schedule for the town halls is:

• Indianapolis, June 3 at the Julia Carson Center

  300 E. Fall Creek Parkway N. Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46205

• Evansville, June 8 at the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Library

  200 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Evansville, IN 47713

• South Bend, June 24 at the UAW Local 5

  1426 Main St., South Bend, IN 46613

• Fort Wayne, July 29 at Purdue University Fort Wayne's Walb Student Union Classic Ballroom

  Walb Student Union, Union Cir Dr, Fort Wayne, IN 46815

• Gary, Aug. 5 at the Indiana University Northwest's Bergland Auditorium,

  3400 Broadway St., Gary, IN 46404

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

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