Rep. Ed DeLaney: Overreach: The death of Indiana Republican values

It is not hard to construct a list of long-term Republican values now missing from the Indiana General Assembly. I thought these values were sincerely held and provided some benefit to a functioning democracy. Let’s make a start on a list.

Small government

The Legislature used to stay out of the management of our state universities. That day has ended. Senate Bill 202 sets up a requirement for “intellectual diversity.” To achieve this, the Legislature mandates new tasks and roles for our universities, including a five-year review of each of our thousands of tenured faculty.

Thrown into this bill is a method for an unhappy student to pursue a complaint about a professor to the board of trustees and then all the way to the Commission on Higher Education. The effect of the bill will be to spend millions of dollars on creating a barometer of neutrality for our faculty. If they do not manage to treat all ideas as having value, even equal value, they will be subject to being expelled from the academy. Unhappy students will be able to force professors to explain themselves before enforcers of objectivity.

So in one stroke, we create a new bureaucracy and undercut the independence of the universities and the ideas of academic freedom and free speech.

Budget discipline

Supporters of the Indiana brand of Republicanism used to pride themselves on fiscal discipline. We knew where every dollar came from and where it was to be spent. That day is behind us.

We made a $1 billion error in forecasting expenses under Medicaid. We are being offered little explanation as to how this happened. Separately, we have created so many pockets of “reserves” that we no longer know what our true surplus is. We have created a number that we denominate as the surplus and manage from that.

Of course, the “management” consists of cutting benefits. This leads to the current attack on funding for people whose lives have been disrupted by the requirement of tending to a severely disabled child.

Local control

Indiana Republicans used to emphasize the important role of local government. That day is behind us. Perhaps they haven’t read our Indiana Constitution and the limitations it puts on the Legislature. In any event, we now plan to design bus lanes for our capital city. We try to shut down a lawsuit against the gun industry brought by the city of Gary. We obstruct efforts by the city of Indianapolis to improve its downtown.

Strikingly, in both the efforts aimed at Indianapolis, the Legislature specifically authorized residents to tax themselves. When the elected members of city government relied upon the authority given them, they found themselves subject to an attempted veto by people who do not share the concerns of the city.

The wishes of Democratic legislators and councilors are shoved aside by representatives and senators, the vast majority of whom do not serve the city.

Church and state separation

Republicans used to understand that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has two parts. One is designed to protect religion from the state and the other is designed to avoid the imposition of religion as well as public financing of religion. This second part of the amendment has vanished from their memory.

So we face House Bill 1137, which will allow school districts to pay persons to be public school “counselors” whose sole qualification is a master’s degree in divinity and two years of experience. This is blatantly unconstitutional. But, for the new breed of Republicans, that is not of interest. The point is to flaunt their support for their churches.•

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DeLaney, an Indianapolis attorney, is a Democrat representing the 86th District in the Indiana House of Representatives. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.

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