Heath VanNatter has struck a notable balance between two life roles – one as a member of the Indiana state legislature and one as a local home builder.
Rep. VanNatter (R) entered home building through a summer construction job in high school, which led him to enroll in a vocational program. He founded VanNatter Construction in Kokomo, Ind. two years after his completion of the program, and soon thereafter became a member of the Home Builders’ Association of Howard County. He has since served as president of the association, and currently serves as a life director.
He has also lobbied the government as a member of the BUILD-PAC, and it was this role that led him to run for office in Indiana’s 38th congressional district. He currently chairs the Indiana House Committee on Employment, Labor and Pensions, in which he hears and gauges workforce development legislation. Earlier this year, the National Association of Home Builders honored VanNatter as a Young Professional of the Year.
Here, BUILDER talks with VanNatter about his work, about his goals, and how his roles as a home builder, a small business owner, and a lawmaker have informed each other.
What are your goals in the legislature?
One of my goals coming in was to make Indiana a right to work state [that doesn’t require workers to join unions] , and we’ve done that. And that has led to a lot of growth in Indiana. I’ve looked at everything from a tax and regulatory standpoint, coming in as a business owner, so we’re still continuing to work on the regulations, trying to streamline and make it easier to run a business, to make it tax friendly. We’ve done a lot of it, but we still have some more work to go. So I imagine that we’ll continue down that path, lowering taxes and making the Hoosier state a better place to raise a family and run a business.
How do you balance your roles as a builder and a lawmaker?
It’s tough to balance them. I currently have seven houses under construction, and I’m in Indianapolis three days a week. We’re in session Monday through Friday, so I’m back and forth, checking up on jobsites, doing my job as a lawmaker. Weekends I spend doing a combination of town halls and then working as well. So it’s a challenge sometimes, depending on how many houses I have going. Indiana has a short session and a long session, and we’re currently in our short session so it’s a little bit easier to get out in the middle of March. In long sessions you run until the end of April, so it’s a little more challenging because in March and April things start ramping up and getting really busy, and I’m still down in Indianapolis working.
What is your vision for Indiana’s workforce development, especially the construction workforce?
To get the vocation trades back in the schools. That’s where I got my start. I think that we’re pushing too many kids to go to college. There’s a lot of trade schools, and certificates that students can get. They can go out and earn a great living working in the trades, working in the construction industry. So we have several workforce policies we’re pushing now, and we’re trying to train the teachers in schools to do more for the workforce training. As opposed to trying to force everyone to go to a four year college.
What are your plans and goals for the future?
To be honest, the last five years have been really good. I would love to see it stay like it is, and continue down this path. I’m at the point where I can’t take on any more work. As long as I’m in the legislature I want to focus as much as I can focus on work. So I want to continue to make Indiana the right place for people to raise a family and have a foothold in the housing market.
