INDIANAPOLIS – Senate Democratic Leader Tim Lanane (D-Anderson) released the following statement after the Indiana Senate adjourned sine die Thursday evening.
“Our state faces critical challenges and we largely failed to meet them this session.
“Instead, we pushed off difficult decisions for another year. Kicking the can that much further down the road.
“We failed to absorb the difficult lessons learned from the fight over RFRA. For another year, it remains legal in some areas of the state for LGBT Hoosiers to be married over the weekend and fired for it on Monday.
“Optimists would describe the short-term, stopgap road funding bill passed as minimal, but it raises more questions than it answers.
“Questions like will Hoosier actually notice a difference in road quality as a result of this bill? Will they be any safer? Will we ever tackle this issue with a perspective that looks beyond the next election?
“During this session alone we watched 2,100 Hoosiers lose their jobs – shipped to Mexico.
“Some lawmakers expressed their ‘profound disappointment.’ Democrats wanted more than talk. We offered language requiring corporations that take pubic incentives then move jobs out of Indiana to refund taxpayers’ money. Republicans quietly removed it.
“The uncertainty these families now face is a feeling too many of our neighbors have known in past years. What do we tell Hoosiers who have lost their jobs, whose skills no longer align with the workplace? That we didn’t have time for them this session?
“We tout Indiana, but we’re not the most skilled, not the healthiest, and not earning nearly enough.
“We had an opportunity to face these challenges head-on this year and the Legislature largely whiffed.“
