Will the Real Indiana Legislature Please Stand Up
As someone who describes his personal politics as fiscally conservative and socially libertarian, I can honestly say this past session of the Indiana General Assembly made me a very happy camper and also managed to annoy the hell out of me at the same time. For every bill that gave Hoosiers more freedom or put more money back in their pockets there seemed to be some silly idea that managed to get traction, but should have never seen the light of day.
Let’s start with the money.
If you are a big fan of economic freedom and lower taxes, then this was the session for you. Lawmakers passed a bill that phases out the inheritance tax over the next ten years. So if you work hard and accumulate wealth you can actually leave it to your children and not to the government. If you like your money a little sooner, you’ll be eligible for a taxpayers’ refund when the state surplus gets 12.5% above revenue. And the nice thing about that is that it doesn’t matter what your income is, you pay taxes, you get your money back. Please point to me a state government north of the Mason-Dixon line and east of the Mississippi River that is not only cutting taxes, but giving back the taxpayers their hard-earned money. And let’s not forget the 800-pound legislative gorilla in the room, right to work. You remember the bill that says you can’t be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of your employment. Yeah, that one. The same bill which the unions filed a lawsuit to stop. They even asked for a temporary restraining order to stop the legislation from going into effect and impeding current contracts. They later had to withdraw their request because one of them actually read the bill and found out the law only impacts those contracts created or modified after March 14. Workers should be free to choose whether they want to be part of a union.
Lawmakers also made my day with their work on education: more money for full-day kindergarten, multiple count days for school enrollment so money more accurately can follow the child, and a cap on college credit hours (120) for graduation, unless colleges have a good reason to do otherwise. Throw in a reasonable smoking ban and some anti-nepotism at the local government level and you have the making of a pretty cool legislative body.
Unfortunately, for every moment of universal joy, there is also some universal pain. There were some things lawmakers did that make the social libertarian in me cringe. For example, does anybody really think it’s a good idea to mandate creationism be taught in school? It’s one thing if we were talking multiple theories from different world perspectives, but we all know what was really going on here; Adam, Eve, Cain, Able and the snake. My kingdom for the giant spaghetti monster theory to be taught in school. And if that wasn’t enough, we got into a silly debate over whether an organization that supports gay youth should get a license plate. Really? How many organizations get license plates in this state? It’s stuff like this that makes a place look really backwards and lands you in federal court staring down the barrel of a first amendment lawsuit. However the granddaddy of all bonehead moves out of the Indiana General Assembly had to be Representative Bob Morris’ comments that the Girl Scouts were a pro-abortion/pro-lesbian organization. The only thing worse than his comments was the fact that would not exercise the better part of valor but kept talking about it. The irony of it all was that Bob probably did more to sell Girl Scout cookies than he could have possibly imagined. I even bought extra boxes from my nieces just to show my frustration.
A couple other bills that sort of fell in the middle of good lawmakers/bad lawmakers were mass transit and the right to resist illegal police entry. It would have been good had lawmakers voted to allow Marion and Hamilton county residents vote on whether they want a tax increase to pay for mass transit. Such is the curse of an election year. In addition, thanks to Senate Bill and Hoosiers being given the right to resist law enforcement due to an illegal entry, I worry about picking up a newspaper and reading about a dead police officer who was shot serving a warrant because the homeowner “thought” he or she was entering the house illegally. I can respect the Castle Doctrine, but the last thing I want is open season on law enforcement. Unfortunately, we usually don’t know if an entry was illegal until after we get to court.
Overall, I think lawmakers did well this past session. Legislation that gave Hoosiers more economic freedom and put money in their pockets got to see the light of day while some pretty bad ideas went by the wayside. I guess, if the real General Assembly had to stand up, it was the one that passed the former and let the latter die on the vine.
