Steve Hinnefeld
It’s often said that people with weak stomachs shouldn’t watch laws or sausage being made. The Indiana General Assembly provided unsettling examples of the former in its 2022 session.
Blessed with a large and unexpected budget surplus, our legislators could have taken real action to improve the health, education and well-being of ordinary Hoosiers, many of whom have struggled through two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they pursued an agenda of tax cuts and other breaks for the rich and powerful while trying to divide the rest of us with culture-wars distractions.
Some powerful lawmakers used cynical and secretive tactics, often keeping the public in the dark about what they were doing and why. They made consequential decisions and held important debates behind closed doors, sidelined the minority party and pushed through laws with little public scrutiny.
This is not acceptable. Hoosiers will thrive when we have a say in decisions that affect us. We deserve a legislature where issues are debated and decisions are made in public. We won’t always get our way, but we should all have a say in how our government operates.
For example, the pandemic created a full-fledged eviction crisis for Hoosiers who live in rental housing, but the legislature did almost nothing to help. Indiana’s eviction rate is nearly double the national average, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. A big part of the problem is that renters have far fewer rights in Indiana than in most other states. But a bill to adopt basic tenant rights and require “habitability standards” for rental housing was shelved without a hearing.
Reporting by the Indianapolis Star and other media revealed problems with Indiana jails, where more than 300 people have died since 2010. Many inmates are jailed because of substance use disorders or mental illness. Yet legislators passed politically motivated restrictions on charitable bail organizations, making it more likely the Hoosiers will languish in jail without having been convicted of a crime.
Recent reports from the Brookings Institution, Ball State University and others show that Indiana has fallen behind in education, and the Hoosier economy limps along as a result. But legislators wasted time on divisive efforts to politicize school board elections and restrict teaching about race, gender and other topics. At one point, more than 200 citizens showed up to speak about a controversial education bill, but fewer than 40 were allowed to testify.
Why does the legislature seem out of touch? One problem is a lack of political balance at the Statehouse. Gerrymandered election districts have cemented supermajorities, with one party controlling 78% of seats in the Senate and 71% in the House. The majority party can ignore the wishes of nearly half of Hoosier voters. A loophole in Indiana’s Open Door Law bars the public from party caucus meetings where strategy is discussed, and “strategy” easily expands to include anything important. As a result, consequential decisions are made in secret meetings of the majority party.
The process reaches its worst near the end of the session, when House-Senate conference committees are supposed to bridge the gaps between different versions of legislation. In those committees, deals are cut in secret and representatives of the minority party are pushed out of the room. Language appears, disappears and reappears, with disparate measures joined in so-called Christmas tree bills.
Ordinary Hoosiers are left out in the cold.
The 2022 session of the Indiana General Assembly was messy, confusing and secretive. Elected officials looked out for their own power and the interests of their donors. They used wedge issues to divide us, did business behind closed doors and thumbed their noses at democratic participation.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The 2023 legislative session will be here soon and lawmakers will be making decisions that affect every Hoosier, including approval of a two-year budget that spends billions of state dollars. We should insist these decisions are made in public and that they reflect our values.
