Indiana lawmakers facing tight budget, hate crimes debate

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) | Indiana lawmakers could struggle to give more than minimal funding increases to public schools in the new state budget that will emerge from this year’s legislative session.

Members of the General Assembly will return Jan. 3 to the Statehouse in Indianapolis for a session expected to last until late April.

Republicans are entering their seventh year of supermajorities in both the House and the Senate that give them complete control of legislative action. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and GOP legislative leaders have said boosting teacher pay is a top priority, but that will compete for money with growing Medicaid and child protection expenses.

A renewed push for a state hate crimes law could spark a bitter cultural debate among legislators.

Indiana is one of just five states without laws that specifically take into account crimes fueled by biases regarding race, religion and sexual orientation. Repeated efforts to change that have failed amid fierce opposition from conservatives who maintain it would unfairly create a specially protected class of victims wrongly restrict free speech.

Holcomb says that passing a hate crimes law is “not only the right thing to do, it’s long overdue.” Many business leaders agree, saying it’s important for the state’s reputation.

Bosma has warned a drawn-out debate could lead to Indiana facing national derision as it did over the 2015 religious objections law that critics widely panned as a sanctioning of discrimination against the LGBT community and that drew a stiff rebuke from big business.

A key point of contention is whether to specify transgender people as protected under the law. Senate Majority Leader Mark Messmer of Jasper has said the law needs to include whatever groups “get us off the list of five bad boys.”

A sign of how strongly Holcomb will publicly push for the law could come when he gives his State of the State speech to lawmakers on Jan. 15.

 

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