By Losing a Little, Everyone Won Big This Session
It is customary at the end of the legislative session to do a postmortem and talk about how lawmakers did, or in some cases, didn’t do. So as I join the list of political prognosticators, allow me to offer my opinion. In this case, everyone won big, ironically by losing a little. Let’s walk down the list…
Governor Mike Pence
- Although he did not get his full 10% income tax cut that he asked for, he got half of it, 5%. But even better for the Governor, he got a total $1 billion tax cut. In an era where states are either raising taxes or sinking under a backlog of debt and unpaid bills, Pence can claim a billion dollar tax cut, while at the same there is increased funding for roads and schools, workforce development, state debt is being paid off and Indiana is still keeping its surplus.
Statehouse Republicans
- For the same reasons as Governor Mike Pence, by giving up a little on the income tax cut Statehouse Republicans can claim a major fiscal victory. But I would argue the even bigger victory this session was the fact that while they could have literally ramrodded anything they wanted to, they did not. And by showing some self-restraint they demonstrated to Hoosiers than they can govern with a super-majority without some of the political insanity that goes along with it.
Statehouse Democrats
- Albeit, they are the party of the super-minority, Democrats can still claim a victory or two, while they lost the fight for their big issue, they can claim victory when it comes to the career and work councils. Those are the panels that will look at help putting Hoosiers to work by closing the skills gap and getting people back to work.
Education Reform Advocates
- No, they didn’t get the expanded vouchers they wanted, but more was added to the pie and more children are eligible to take advantage of them. The jury is still out though on the Common Core. Although lawmakers voted to put its implementation on “pause” there is still a question about whether that applies to what has already been done or just on any future implementation.
Mass Transit Advocates
- They may have lost by not getting mass transit through the legislature, however they got it further this time than in any other in previous history. Last time mass transit didn’t even make it out of committee. This time it passed the House before being sent to study committee in the Senate. However, there is plenty of time for it to make it on the referendum in 2014. And who know, an even better plan may come out of committee this year. And they didn’t lose any state funding this year.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard
- The Mayor of the state’s largest city got a big win with SB 621 which reorganizes Marion County Government by reducing the size of the City-County Council and giving him more authority to deal with overspending in the budget. The Mayor did not get as much authority as he asked for, but at least he can put the brakes on a vehicle that was running the city towards a fiscal cliff because certain county officials couldn’t keep their hands out of the taxpayers’ pockets.
Political Pundits
- The only thing we lost was sleep. But we won a lot of great issues and stories to write to about and pontificate. Now we get to spend our summer following up on all these issues and writing about how they impact you. And then comes the Fall where we start getting candidates who are announcing for 2014. Joy! Rapture! Divinity!
