Indiana’s ruling party had no compulsion to handle the pressing needs of the Hoosier state during the 2018 General Assembly session.

Domination has rendered Republicans lethargic. They continue to hold super majorities in the Indiana Senate and House, the governor’s seat and every statewide elected office. Yet, they ended this year’s short legislative session without addressing some significant issues. That includes bills to increase school safety funding and to revise the state tax code to conform with federal changes.

Legislators did spend a chunk of the session hashing out an issue that had already been hashed out for years — Sunday alcohol sales.

After the session sluggishly ended on March 14, even fellow Republican office holders criticized the inaction, albeit delicately. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick referred to proposals for a $5 million boost this year and again in 2019 for safety grants issued through the Indiana Secured School Fund and allowing school districts to pay for security equipment.

“We were hopeful to get some of that money to help offset some of the costs that our schools are telling us that they need for school safety — some of the resources they needed,” McCormick recently told a CNHI Statehouse reporter. “Obviously that didn’t go.”

Thank goodness, Gov. Eric Holcomb has functioned with not only pragmatism but also a sense of urgency lacked by his Republican colleagues in the Legislature. Holcomb’s eagerness to work outside of partisan boundaries has been a refreshing, rare surprise in 21st-century Hoosier politics. He rose to the governor’s seat a little more than a year ago as a longtime party insider, but so far has focused on needs of all Indiana residents, beyond just the Republican base.

Holcomb’s call for legislators to convene in special session in May reflects his admirable streak of independence. Yes, the overtime session will cost taxpayers $30,000 a day, but it also will force the politically lopsided Legislature to complete crucial work left undone. “Whatever the cost … is dwarfed by the cost of inaction,” Holcomb said, aptly.

He has asked lawmakers “to stay focused on what’s urgent” in this special session. Holcomb outlined five needs — the school safety funding, a one-time $12 million loan for the struggling Muncie schools, and a collection of revisions in Indiana’s tax code to conform with federal changes. There are other unresolved issues, including problems within the Indiana Department of Child Services. Democrats, the few that exist in the Statehouse, properly raised the DCS controversies as a possible topic for the special session, but the predicament is already undergoing a Holcomb-backed review by a private consultant. The governor’s involvement in that situation increases its chances for positive results.

The one-party control in Indiana is not simply a reflection of the state’s conservative tradition. Gerrymandered districts have isolated clusters of Republican and Democratic voters, deterring the minority party from fielding viable candidates. Thus, Republican seats and their majority have remained safe. Also, the state’s Democratic party became all but invisible for years, aside from issuing knee-jerk, rhetorical criticisms.

Now, though, Democrats seem to have awakened, fueled by a surge in women pursuing state and local offices in the 2018 elections. The Legislature may look more like actual Hoosiers by 2019.

In the meantime, the current Republican Assembly should roll up its sleeves and deal with the issues outlined by its governor, for the sake of all Hoosiers.

This was distributed by Hoosier State  Press Association.