Indiana’s outgoing Governor is Eric Holcomb. Holcomb has always seemed like a nice guy, and has mostly governed like a throwback to the time when Republicans were a political party and not a MAGA cult. (Mostly, but not always–when our demented, ideologically extreme legislature sent him the ban on abortion, for example, he caved and signed it. On the other hand, he did reject a piece of mean-spirited anti-trans legislation that our Christian Nationalist General Assembly then passed over his veto.)
The Indianapolis Star recently did a typical “retrospective” with the Governor as he leaves office. it was the usual sort of puff piece, and it began with a quote from Holcomb:
When I took office as governor in January 2017, I was determined to pick up where my predecessors had left off and make our state an even better place to live, work, play, and stay. I said we’d take Indiana to the world and the world to Indiana, and over the past eight years we’ve done just that.
How? With civility and a common sense approach, along with the collective efforts of Hoosiers from all walks of life. We’ve turned the Crossroads of America into the No. 1 state for infrastructure, with projects like double tracking the South Shore Line and completing Interstate 69 from Evansville to Indianapolis, and I’m grateful to INDOT and a labor force of thousands who built them.
Holcomb is either willfully blind or delusional.
Indiana routinely ranks at the bottom when states are rated on quality of life. Physical infrastructure is certainly important–although I might point out that our state roads are hardly models of competent maintenance–but when it comes to the governmental responsibilities that matter most to citizens, state government continues to fail. Miserably.
Quality of life indicators typically focus on education, the economy, the environment, social and health conditions,
public safety, culture and recreation, and civic participation.
Our radical legislature has waged a persistent and successful war on public education–a war that continues to see college graduates leave the state. Economists tell us that war has hampered economic development, since businesses looking to locate new enterprises typically seek out places with highly educated workforces.
Thanks to our lawmakers’ numerous misplaced priorities, the Hoosier economy is–at best–mediocre, and it’s not improving.
When it comes to health, Indiana’s abortion ban is currently driving ob/gyn doctors out of the state, exacerbating longstanding health delivery problems that include closings of rural hospitals and underfunding of Medicaid budgets and mental health programs.
Indiana state government is actually an impediment to environmental protection–lawmakers oppose even eminently reasonable environmental measures. (Indiana legislators recently tried to ban early coal-fired plant retirements that had been proposed by the utilities.)
When it comes to civic participation, Indiana is pathetic. We rank at the very bottom for voter turnout in general elections, and according to last year’s Civic Health Index, Indiana has consistently placed in the bottom 10 of all states on midterm voter turnout since 2010.
Thanks to extreme gerrymandering, the legislature disproportionately represents rural Hoosiers, and for years has pursued a vendetta against the state’s urban centers. Research has repeatedly confirmed that Indianapolis and its suburbs are the economic drivers of the state, but that hasn’t seemed to penetrate the resentment that has motivated members of the General Assembly to hobble the city. The General Assembly overrules local lawmakers on matters large and small, and tightly limits the decisions urban folks are entitled to make for ourselves. (It took three sessions before Indianapolis got our overlords’ permission to tax ourselves to expand mass transit.)
The legislature’s single-minded focus on low taxes–especially for the business interests that exert a major influence on our representatives–is largely responsible for Indiana’s low quality of life. Rather than focusing on improving–or even maintaining– the state’s physical and/or social infrastructure, our lawmakers shamelessly pander to big business and to the state’s culture warriors.
Most of the problems of Indiana’s governance can be traced to extreme gerrymandering. Among the many deleterious effects of partisan redistricting is the fact that the “real” election takes place in the primary, when only the most ideological members of either party vote. Republicans protect their Right flank, Democrats their Left. In Red Indiana, the result is the election of more and more extreme Right-wingers and–if survey research is to be believed–a thoroughly unrepresentative legislature.
It’s nice that we have a new Interstate and new tracks for the South Shore. Those accomplishments hardly compensate for the multiple deficits of a state that is competing to be the new Mississippi, but they will smooth the departure of the Hoosiers who are fleeing.
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