INDIANAPOLIS –In the governor’s opinion, this year’s session of the General Assembly was a “win for Indiana” – but following the embarrassing RFRA mess and no protections for the LGBT community, only a short-term infrastructure plan, and politicizing ISTEP’s replacement process, how is it a “win” for the state?
“Hoosiers are going to have to drink a lot of green beer this St. Patrick’s Day to believe that this legislative session was a ‘win’ for the state. Instead, Pence continues to put Indiana’s ‘Crossroads of America’ and ‘Hoosier Hospitality’ reputations in jeopardy,” said Drew Anderson, communication director. “Hoosiers want results and commonsense ideas that would lead Indiana into the future – and those ideas were offered by Democrats this session. The only thing Mike Pence did this session was show Hoosiers that in an election year, he’s willing to put his out-of-touch agenda ahead of Hoosiers.”
| In Mike Pence’s World | The Hoosier Reality |
| Mike Pence completely ignores the issue of LGBT protections for state. [Pence Op-ed, 3.15.16] | After 174 days of “studying” LGBT rights, Mike Pence continued to place Indiana’s “Hoosier Hospitality” reputation in jeopardy after causing an economic panic by signing the embarrassing RFRA law. [Indy Star, 1.13.16] |
| “…we were able to reach an agreement to commit more than $1 billion dollars to improve state and local roads without raising taxes. This road funding bill will help communities throughout our state by making nearly $900 million available for local road and bridge improvements over the next four years.” [Pence Op-ed, 3.15.16] | After first being late to the game, Mike Pence and Statehouse Republicans listened to Democrats and passed an infrastructure bill with no tax increases. [NWI Times, 3.10.16] |
| “We took a step back from ISTEP, began a process to review standardized testing in Indiana and ensured our schools and teachers were not negatively impacted by the transition to a new, more difficult test.” [Pence Op-ed, 3.15.16] | Creates a committee to replace the ISTEP, but picks a political appointee as chair of the committee instead of Superintendent Ritz, further thwarting the will of voters. [Indy Star, 2.22.16] |
###