Gregg talks economy in Distinguished Speaker Series presentation

John Gregg’s return to the T. Furth Center for Performing Arts featured the gubernatorial candidate discussing his plans for Indiana’s economy.

Gregg, the Democratic Party candidate for Indiana governor, spoke Thursday, Oct. 27, in the second installment of Trine University’s Distinguished Speaker Series for 2016-17. The first Distinguished Speaker Series event featured Republican candidate Eric Holcomb on Sept. 13.

It was not the first time Gregg had been inside the building — he said he had attended the funeral of state Rep. Orville Moody, R-Angola, in 1989 when the Angola Christian Church was housed there.

Gregg, who served as a member and later Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives and also was the Democratic Party nominee for governor in 2012, encouraged Trine students in attendance to be involved and engaged in the election process.

“This election is really about you,” he said. “This election is about the future for all of us and the type of job that many Hoosiers will have going forward. It’s about whether we have good roads, whether we have safe communities, and clean air and good drinking water and the types of jobs all Hoosiers will have. It’s just not about the next two years … it’s about the next 40.

“Elections do matter, and so do the policies and priorities of those we elect.”

While touching on various issues related to the campaign, Gregg gave most of his attention on the state’s economy.

“My running mate Christina Hale and I both believe that it’s time to refocus state government on the big mission, and that big mission’s the economy,” he said. “If we talk on the economy everything else is going to fall in line.”

Following his address, Gregg took questions from the audience. Trine President Earl D. Brooks II, Ph.D., closed the event by asking the candidate if, as governor, he would continue Indiana’s Regional Cities Initiative, established last year to financially support projects that will increase regional economic and population growth. Trine University received $2.8 million in Regional Cities funding in August toward the construction of the Thunder Ice Arena and MTI Center.

Gregg responded that if elected, he would continue the program.

“When something’s been done right, we need to keep it going and improve on it, and I think the Regional Cities program has worked well,” he said.