INDIANAPOLIS — House Democrats, badly outnumbered by Republicans, want to position themselves as champions of the middle class as they move into a new legislative session Tuesday, Jan. 6.
Minority Leader Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, is calling for a boost in the minimum wage, an end to tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and free textbooks for schoolchildren no matter their parents’ income.
The proposals have already faced opposition from Republicans who have supermajorities in the General Assembly and control the governor’s office. But during an interview with reporters at the Statehouse on Monday, Pelath said his job is to offer an “alternative vision.”
Pelath said his duty is to remind “the Republican leadership here in Indiana that even though they may have 71 percent of the seats, that does not mean that 71 percent of people agree with their vision of the future.”
Democrats, who hold 29 of the 100 House seats and 10 of the 50 Senate seats, face an uphill battle with some of their key proposals.
Ten states, along with the District of Columbia, voted to increase their minimum wages last year. Twenty-nine states now have minimum wages above the federal minimum.
Indiana isn’t one of them. The lowest legal pay is $7.25 an hour — the federal minimum. House and Senate Democrats want to see it pushed to $10.10 an hour under a bill filed by Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes.
Pelath said raising the minimum wage will help address the issue of income inequality and boost Indiana’s stagnant per-capita income, which is among the bottom 10 in the nation.
“The difference between rich and rest of us is at the greatest extent since the Great Depression,” he said.
Republicans defeated similar measures in past years. State Sen. Brandt Hershman, of Buck Creek, chairman of the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, has said raising the minimum wage will make Indiana less competitive and cost jobs.
Pelath also called for an end to what he labeled the “textbook tax,” which requires all but low-income parents to help pay for their children’s schoolbooks. The cost to the state would be about $149 million. Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, Noblesville, a key Republican gatekeeper to the budget, has already rejected the idea.
Still, Pelath may see progress on some priorities. Both he and Republican leaders have committed to ethics reform that will, in part, draw what he called “bolder and clearer” lines on what constitutes financial conflicts of interest for lawmakers.
House and Senate Democrats will also continue to push for more spending on early education. Last year, the Legislature approved a state-funded pilot program that pays for pre-kindergarten classes for a limited number of low-income children in five counties. Democrats want to expand the program to all counties.
Lawmakers are returning to the Statehouse for a four-month session focused primarily on crafting a two-year, $30 billion budget to take effect July 1. Predictions indicate they’ll have up to $840 million more to spend compared to the prior budget due to growth in the state’s economy.
But budget-making won’t take up all their time. Some social issues are also expected on the agenda.
Prompted by a court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, some opponents are pushing a law to protect businesses from claims of discrimination if they refuse to serve same-sex couples.
Pelath said such legislation is needlessly divisive and questioned whether many businesses are turning away same-sex couples.
“We have stopped talking about who can marry whom, and we are the better for it,” he said.
Among 1,000 bills expected to be filed this session is legislation to allow Gov. Mike Pence to run for president in 2016 while also running for re-election as governor. The law now forbids candidates from appearing on the same ballot for two separate offices.
Pelath called the legislation a bad idea. He instead pushed Pence, who’s been coy about his ambitions, to declare his intentions sooner than he planned — at the end of the legislative session in late April.
“You can’t focus on Indiana and our problems here if you’re worried about what people are going to say or think out in Iowa or New Hampshire,” he said. “You have to make a choice.”