With the most recent legislative session coming to a close, Representatives Ben Carpenter and Justin Ruffridge, along with Senator Jesse Bjorkman, all joined KSRM’s Soundoff with Duane Bannock to discuss their thoughts on the session.
Rep. Carpenter is extremely proud of their ability to form a majority in a relatively short time period. He mentions that in previous legislatures, he served in the minority and wanted to be as prepared as possible heading into the majority. To do this, he sought guidance.
“I contacted former Speaker Newt Gingrich at the beginning of the year, and I asked him if he would consider spending a couple of minutes with us as a majority before we actually formed to help us and frame the conversation as we went an organization, and he was gracious enough to spend about 45 minutes with us on the phone as a caucus, just kind of framing things because he had some experience that was lacked. So I was glad that we were able to spend that time and I think it was helpful when I was forming a majority. And well, he’s a smart man, and he’s had his challenges with forming organizations or getting things done,” said Rep. Carpenter
Rep. Ruffridge expressed great joy in being back home. He also reiterated to Rep. Carpenter that forming a majority early on was a big success. One of the bits of wisdom that the former speaker told them is that when it comes to selecting an issue to address, it’s critical to pick the topic that the vast majority is interested in.
“And I think we did that actually, in the last three months. I don’t think we expected to have to deal with correspondence on or homeschool study programs, with education by the end of session. I do think we did that. We sponsored a bill with House Education Committee that ended up making it to the finish line. That gives some stability at least for the next year for homeschool families to be able to homeschool their kids and do so at a high level for at least the next year. Until we go back and and deal with that again. But that was a I would call it a Herculean effort required a number of people to be involved both on the House and Senate side. And being able to get that across the finish line and have the administration support for that was was a really big deal and a really big highlight,” said Rep. Ruffridge.
And as for Senator Jesse Bjorkman, he’s proud to announce that the legislature was able to work together as a team and were able to make some big accomplishments for the state.
“Other than that, personally, I was glad to have 10 of the initiatives or bills that I introduced, passed this year. And so some of those bills passed on their own, some of them passed inside of other bills but my my farm tax bill that passed along with my ban on transfer taxes so folks don’t have to worry about sales tax being placed on the sale or transfer of real property. That, and among many other things. I’m happy to have accomplished for the people in the cabinet for this year,” said Senator Bjorkman.