Ken de la Bastide column: How will legislation impact Hoosiers?
Now that the Indiana Legislature has concluded the 2025 session, it will be interesting to see how their actions will impact Hoosiers.
One bill that will have long-range implications enables school board candidates to declare a political party. Heretofore, school board elections have always been non-partisan in Indiana.
It certainly appears that the Republican Party majority at the legislature is attempting to give school board candidates that declare the GOP label an advantage.
In the past, voters would have to research the political leanings of school board candidates. Now a voter can just cast a ballot based on the political party declared by school board candidates.
Will this take some interest away from school issues? Also, will it affect potential funding for school systems, sending more money to schools with boards controlled by the party in power at the Statehouse?
It's similar to legislation that was proposed by local lawmaker Sen. Mike Gaskill to move municipal elections to the same year as elections for state and federal offices.
Gaskill's proposal was assigned to a study committee that will make a recommendation to lawmakers in 2026.
If the change is eventually adopted, it will take the focus away from local issues in municipal elections, instead encouraging voters to cast ballots based on state and national concerns.
Lawmakers were also informed that Indiana is expecting to see a decrease of $2.4 billion in state revenues over the next few years.
The two-year budget passed for 2026-27 is $45 billion, with funding reductions in several areas, including the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and local health departments.
Spending for public health was cut from $100 million annually to $40 million.
Lawmakers also approved a $2 increase in the state's cigarette tax to $2.99 per pack starting July 1. The anticipated $800 million in additional revenue will be used to help cover the state's Medicaid costs.
I suspect many people will consider kicking the smoking habit when a pack of cigarettes will cost close to $12. At least for a brief time, cigarette companies will probably offer discounts on the price in an effort to keep people purchasing their products.
The good news from the General Assembly is that lawmakers defeated an effort to criminalize homelessness by making it illegal to camp on public grounds.
Although the intention of the bill was to help the homeless get needed services, the reality is that it would not have been effective.
Over the next weeks and months, local residents will learn of the impact new legislation will have on county and city government operations.
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Politico
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New York Post
44 minutes ago
- New York Post
Democrats are in the polling dumps — fighting America on this key demand
The Democratic Party has never been more unpopular — yet no Democrat seems to understand why. Some say they're not fighting President Donald Trump hard enough. Others say they aren't messaging their agenda well enough. In reality, they're fighting too hard for an agenda that Americans reject, with a central demand of welfare for all. Thirty-two years after President Bill Clinton promised to 'end welfare as we know it,' no idea unifies the Democratic Party more than the belief that welfare should be never-ending. This vision of government dependency spurred their most notable policies of recent years, and explains their intransigent opposition to Republican reforms. While some Democrats show an increasing willingness to compromise on other leftist priorities, such as biological men in women's sports, the party brooks no dissent on welfare — even though Americans want to fix the system's many failures. Consider the ongoing federal budget battle. House Republicans have put together a reconciliation bill that would slow the rate of Medicaid growth — from a projected 59.6% increase to 40% — over the next decade. Democrats oppose even that, including GOP attempts to end waste, fraud and abuse. Yet the latest federal data show that 22% of Medicaid payments and 12% of food-stamp payments went to ineligible recipients. More than 70% of likely voters want to protect taxpayers from fraud and abuse, polls show, yet Democrats essentially deny there's a problem that needs to be solved. In fact, when the Trump administration proposed a rule in March to end $11 billion in improper ObamaCare subsidies — aiming solely to curtail fraud — Democrats immediately opposed it. Democrats are just as adamant when it comes to work requirements for welfare recipients. My organization, the Foundation for Government Accountability, recently found that six in 10 able-bodied adults on Medicaid don't work at all, hoovering up resources that would benefit the truly vulnerable. When voters in purple Wisconsin were asked two years ago if welfare recipients should work as a condition of receiving benefits, nearly 80% said yes — but national Democrats now say no. They also reject Republican attempts to block Medicaid payments for illegal immigrants, which would save billions of dollars over the next decade. More than 70% of voters don't want illegal immigrants to receive government benefits, yet Democrats bizarrely disagree. But it's not just Congress; Democrats are striking the same strange tune in state capitols. Over the past 10 years, virtually all Republican-led states have taken steps to purge waste, fraud and abuse from welfare programs. By contrast, Democrat-run states have expanded illegal immigrants' access to Medicaid and pushed able-bodied adults onto welfare programs. In recent months, Democratic governors in Kansas and Arizona have vetoed Republican bills that would ban food-stamp purchases of soda and junk food — a reform that could lower state and federal Medicaid spending and encourage healthier choices. Democrats have a long history of supporting restrictions on consumers' options, but as soon as welfare enters the picture, they oppose it. Apparently limiting freedom is fine by them, but limiting federal welfare is unthinkable. The left's unwillingness to support even modest welfare reforms reflects the reality that government dependency is the biggest thing Democrats now offer Americans — even beyond limitless immigration and the Green New Deal. The Affordable Care Act, the central achievement of Barack Obama's presidency, dramatically expanded Medicaid while creating a new welfare system for the individual health-insurance market. Joe Biden enacted a work-destroying child tax credit and sought perpetual expansions of Medicaid and food stamps under the guise of pandemic relief. A slew of Biden regulations made it easier for people to abuse the taxpayer's generosity, from Medicaid to food stamps to free school lunches for rich kids. Democrats' end goal is clear: Get every American on the dole. Yet insisting that government dependency is always the answer means Democrats can't publicly admit that seemingly infinite welfare has any shortcomings. In fact, the left's agenda of welfare-for-all is profoundly harmful, and voters know it. Democrats have built a welfare system that taxpayers can't afford while pushing millions of people out of the workforce — a dual assault on the economic growth. They've left fewer resources for disabled children and the elderly by prioritizing able-bodied adults and illegal immigrants. And they're corrupting the foundational American belief that welfare is temporary assistance whose recipients should work to get back on their feet. No wonder Democrats are so unpopular: They're fleecing taxpayers, crippling the economy, hurting the truly needy and giving handouts to those who don't deserve them — none of which has Americans' support. The first Democrat who wakes up on welfare will be the hero their party desperately needs. Hayden Dublois is data and analytics director at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
