Indiana’s legislature is preparing for its 2026 session. Despite the Indiana Senate’s recent, surprising show of integrity in refusing to bow to Trump’s gerrymandering order, my expectations remain low.
For the past several years, Rightwing Republicans (a large number of whom are White Christian nationalists) have enjoyed a super-majority in Indiana’s General Assembly. They haven’t simply ignored the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment’s Separation of Church and State, they”ve also demonstrated their total disdain for federalism–the constitutional division of authority that accords different powers to those managing local, state and federal jurisdictions.
Indiana’s legislators seem unable to grasp the fact that they are state legislators, not mayors and/or city counselors.
The Indianapolis Star recently shared research by the Indiana Coalition for Human Services, research that focused only on policies regarding the “social determinants of health.” The report included analysis of things like economic stability, health care and public safety, and the researchers found that roughly three dozen so-called “preemption” laws have been passed since 2010. Virtually all of those measures are examples of our radically Rightwing legislature stepping in to overrule policies our legislative overlords consider progressive or–horror of horrors–“woke.”
As Gary Snyder recently wrote on his “Snyde Report,”
Indiana lawmakers keep insisting they believe in “local control,” right up until a city tries to do literally anything remotely progressive. A new report finds the Statehouse has quietly stacked more than 50 laws designed to block cities like Indianapolis from raising wages, protecting renters, regulating guns, or extending basic protections to LGBTQ Hoosiers — all in the name of making sure nobody accidentally improves quality of life without legislative permission. Since 2010, roughly three dozen of these preemption laws have been passed, part of a national trend where Republican supermajorities treat local governments less like partners and more like misbehaving children who need their policy toys confiscated.
The official excuse is “business-friendly uniformity,” but the results look a lot like wage stagnation, housing shortages, and two in five Indiana households unable to afford the basics where they live. Cities can’t raise the minimum wage, require affordable housing, or even ban puppy mills without the Statehouse swooping in to say no — yet lawmakers remain baffled by Indiana’s poor rankings on gun deaths, pollution, voter turnout, and overall quality of life. With a fresh wave of bills queued up to crack down on immigration, ban ranked-choice voting, police homelessness, and even let legislators impeach locally elected prosecutors, the message is clear: Hoosiers can have local government — just not local solutions.
My only quibble with that summary would be with its last sentence. Thanks to a legislature that refuses to stay in its own lane, Hoosiers don’t even have genuine local government–we just elect local “functionaries” who must obey the dictates of their legislative masters. As the Coalition for Human Services found, Indiana’s state lawmakers have repeatedly used the doctrine of preemption to target policies that could help lower-income Hoosiers and others in vulnerable groups, but sometimes, the reasons for preempting local government decisions don’t seem ideological–why, for example, did the legislature overrule at least 20 local ordinances meant to combat puppy mills? Is saving puppies “woke”? (My best guess: lobbyists and contributions from the owners of those establishments.)
In 2016, I was infuriated when Indiana’s legislators banned local governments from restricting the use of plastic bags at stores. The law prohibited local governments from banning (or taxing or placing fees on) plastic bags and similar single-use “auxiliary containers.” In a measure that clearly demonstrated that “home rule” is a fiction in Indiana, the law amended Indiana’s toothless home-rule statute to expressly bar local units of government from adopting “any prohibition, restriction, fee, or tax on items like plastic bags, paper bags, cups, boxes, or other one-time use packaging at stores.”
In Indiana, local governments retain that mythical “home rule” only so long as our legislative overlords approve of their “home rules.” Since our legislature is filled with MAGA Republicans who refuse to believe that climate change is a real thing, efforts by local folks to ameliorate environmental threats–even through such modest steps as banning the use of plastic bags–simply cannot be tolerated.
When you live in a Red state, you soon learn that your legislature considers federalism–along with the protections of the Bill of Rights– optional.
Indiana, Texas and other states of fealty have become part of the cult of MAGAism – irrespective of Trump. Every since Nixon’s embrace of the Powell philosophy (He made Louis Powell a SCOTUS Justice) of fascism, the Republican party has descended the shit-covered slope to oligarchy and corporate rule of government.
Even when Trump, Vance, et. al., are gone from the scene, these billionaire operators will continue to try to have government their way. Since it won’t happen in school rooms, teaching civics to our citizens falls on us, the “woke” people who actually know what the Constitution says and what the rule of law means.
As a former public school educator, I saw how civics was trivialized and populated with coaches as teachers instead of actually qualified, knowledgable men and women imbuing the history and struggles of our once-great nation.
But as we see in those red states, the “legislators” are too busy posting religious signs and claiming to get prayer “back” into schoolrooms. Thing is, prayer has always been the purview of churches, hasn’t it? Does this mean that it’s not working in churches and that brainwashing children has to occur on the taxpayer dollar too?
As one of my favorite political writers has said many times: “Everything Republicans touch dies.”
You forgot to say that our state lawmakers are hypocrites and liars. ALEC and other Koch forces govern most of the Red States in the US.
As for denying puppy mills, you are correct. A brief AI scan, and it was the Indiana State Breeders Association that basically wrote the legislation. And some lawmakers claimed it would destroy jobs and tax revenue from the large breeders.
Money over morals is the Republican way from Trump on down. The Democratic Party is much the same way, but they make “progressive noises.” Everybody is hoping for a blue wave in 2026, which I expect too. However, very little will change. Mike Johnson claims the Ds will impeach Trump and his idiot gang – we’ll see.
What’s amazing is that, depending on political preferences, the economic predictions for 2026 I’ve read vary WIDELY!! They are now praising Trump for the continued growth in consumer spending, which is driving our economy. Still, with tariffs, we are basically buying the same goods and services at higher prices (i.e., through inflation). And the chart they don’t include in their analysis is consumer debt, which is growing unsustainably. I’m hearing that consumers are using credit cards to buy groceries. What happens when they reach their credit limits?
We are debt serfs.
Very interesting discussion,Shiela. Pundits refer to evidence and legislative research that report North Carolina as one of the strongest battlegrounds supporting state law of preemptions to curtail if not control local home rule. So Hoosiers are not alone. Tarheels may be one up on you.
Perhaps the real reason for the Indiana Republican Legislature’s use of the doctrine of preemption is that it insures them of the continued flow of campaign donations to the Republican Party and thus that party’s unquestioning support of all things “commerce”.
I would call this corruption by design.
In Bloomington, we listened to our constituents who were concerned about environmental threats and started to move a ban on single use plastic bags. As soon as the General Assembly caught wind of it, they rallied with the plastic industry to preempt the effort. I fought hard on the City Council to ban local pet stores from selling dogs from puppy mills and unscrupulous breeders and we succeeded. Only to have our local ordinance overturned by
State legislators. Home rule? Not so much.
Did anyone in Indiana ever question the move of our Public Employee Retirement Fund (PERF) funds from control for disbursement in Indianapolis to State Street Bank Retiree Services in New York City in 2017 along with the move of former Governor Mike Pence to his first year of Vice President to Trump? Did Pence buy his way into the White House with Indiana’s retirement dollars; it had to be approved and moved by the Legislature. Just askin’
We have been fighting the Legislature ever since to retain our full Retirement benefits; this year’s battle here, after passage which omitted the start date of returning our 13th Check which returned the Bill to the Legislature, they refought the battle resulting in lowering the number of years of service and the amount of the 13th Checks. During President Biden’s administration, after Trump’s bank fraud convictions, the funds were moved to another New York City bank.
“When you live in a Red state, you soon learn that your legislature considers federalism–along with the protections of the Bill of Rights– optional.”
Protection of our Indiana retirement funds, like protection of our Social Security funds is at the whim of the Red States and the Red Nation this is fast becoming. The current corruption levels at federal and state level makes the Nixon days look like a picnic.
My son and his family live in Indianapolis. One of the first times that I visited, I mentioned the state of Indianapolis’s roads. That’s when my son explained to me that the city has no real Home rule ability. They have to apply to the state for funding for roads, funding for schools, And other funding that might be needed. I am amazed that the state legislature in Indiana would allow its capital city to present itself with potholes in the street and a general feeling of neglect. Indianapolis has a professional football team and a professional basketball team and a very prestigious car race every May. All of which I know you all know. But I’m just amazed that the state legislature would let this city be presented to people coming in from the outside and such a state. I can’t believe that they’re willing to let people from other states and other countries see this all to score political points.
It’s like that all over the state, Jane. The money raised in Indy goes toward paving roads in poor rural Indiana. It’s stealing. Also, all those professional teams you mentioned have access to stadiums or arenas. Who pays for those facilities that owners utilize?
Meanwhile, Braun and the state legislators brag about a $2 billion surplus, which will grow to $5 billion. If you have a surplus, it means you are either skimping on services or raising taxes too much, or sometimes both!
Joann unfortunately there aren’t any local banks that handle trusts as big as PERF. I would suggest that you watch whoever manages the trust to ensure that they are investing your money wisely. They should be sending you annual reports at the very least. The funds must be earning enough to cover anticipated inflation and provide enough that earned payouts. If it’s all t-notes or t-bills your return on investment won’t provide the money needed to add additional retirees, putting your fund in the same position that social security is in now.
At that point you send a letter to the New York Times,
“federalism–the constitutional division of authority that accords different powers to those managing local, state (, county, ) and federal jurisdictions.”
The IN GOP’s success is due to keeping Hoosier voters ignorant of the fact that their legislative decisions are what keeps Indiana poor, sick, and ignorant. Until we find a way to cut through the mis-and dis-information and make it clear to voters that it is the lawmakers and the corporations who own the lawmakers who are responsible for the low quality of life in Indiana, and that there is a better way, we will remain at the bottom of the heap.
From The Criterion – Archdiocese of Indianapolis (Ed. Note- the Catholic Church is an authoritarian organization)
“Indiana Catholic Conference, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Indiana…one example of ICC’s outreach is the annual Catholic legislators’ dinner…,
sponsored by business, including members of Legatus”, a group founded by Tim Busch who has a business school named after him at Catholic University of America.
Americans should read the info at the ICC site about the legislation regarding birth control and about carve out exemptions for faith-based hospitals (one in 6 US hospitals are Catholic).
The public understands the term, “Christian” as Protestant as in Christian v Catholic schools.