Lawmakers have been out-of-touch

In an effort to win back control of the Indiana House of Representatives, Republicans promised they would seek caps on state spending, an increase in drilling in off-shore areas and in Alaska, as well as offering two years of free community college tuition.

This agenda for the 2009 legislative section is, according to House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, focused more on issues most important to voters – taxes, jobs and education.

Notably absent from the to-do list were constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage and initiatives to crack down on illegal immigrants.
It’s about time.

The Indiana General Assembly has a history of being fantastically out-of-touch with the needs of the people it represents. Just in the past year, this translated into a mediocre legislative session marked by occasionally ridiculous and unconstitutional bills designed to pull in quick votes without  delivering any service to constituents.

Last year, the legislature wasted time trying to pass failed amendments to the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage when state law already prohibits it and to restrict state residents’ access to contraceptives by allowing pharmacists to morally object to dispensing birth control.

Worse yet, legislators passed a vague law requiring bookstores to register if they sell any sexually explicit material and pay a $250 fine. After the constitutionality of the law was challenged by a myriad of plaintiffs including Boxcar Books in Bloomington and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, it was struck down on the first day it took effect and became a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars and a clogging of the state bureaucracy.

Indiana does not need additional regulation of private morality. It’s important to keep in mind that many Republicans have said issues like same-sex marriage could still come up in the next legislative session despite a shift in focus.

Furthermore, one has to wonder if using Indiana government to lobby for more offshore, out-of-state drilling is really the best use of our limited resources. While such an effort might eventually bring a reduction in prices we pay at the pump, it seems odd the Indiana Republicans are now so interested in drilling.

Still, this shift in focus is an improvement. In a state sustaining one of the lowest personal-income growth rates in the nation, we need a legislature that takes all the action it can to promote economic growth. 

This agenda is better than past ones, and it will be the responsibility of the Assembly to actually take action on some of these propositions when the legislative session starts up.