How The Republican Lawmakers Voted On The Two Worst Bills Of The Legislative Session

The contest for the worst bill of the legislative session this year was an easy choice. HB 1544, authored by State Rep. Eric Turner, which provides a $100 million taxpayer gift to the Hulman-George family to make improvements to their Indianapolis Motor Speedway, takes the top honors. The legislation could have been written by the Hulman-George family's estate planning attorney since its sole purpose is to increase the value of the IMS in preparation for a sale since the family has nobody with any intelligence that is capable of running the business empire the late Tony Hulman built without any taxpayer handouts and his heirs want to regain some of the hundreds of millions of dollars Hulman's grandson, Tony George, lost over the past 15 years.

The Indiana Constitution has included a provision that specifically bars public financing of private businesses since its adoption in 1851. The bankruptcy of the state through state borrowing and investment in privately-run canals back in the 1830s led to many of the financial constraints imposed on state and local governments in our state constitution, most of which have simply been read out of the constitution over the years by corrupt lawmakers and judges.

It's disappointing to report that only one Republican member of the Marion County delegation voted against HB 1544, Sen. Mike Delph. There were 6 Republicans in the Senate in all who voted against HB 1544, including, Jim Banks, Delph, Randy Head, Johnny Nugent, Greg Walker and John Waterman. There were 10 Republican House members who voted against HB 1544, including Lloyd Arnold, Eric Koch, Rebecca Kubacki, Dan Leonard, Peggy Mayfield, Mark Messmer, Alan Morrison, Tim Neese, David Ober and Tom Washburn.

SB 621, authored by State Sen. Mike Young, takes the second place honor for the worst legislation of the session. Young offered the notorious power grab bill on behalf of Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, the most corrupt mayor to serve under Uni-Gov and the top candidate to become the first Indianapolis mayor in modern day history to be sent to prison on public corruption charges. SB 621 strips power from the City-County Council and other constitutional officers and gives to Mayor Ballard unchecked power to continue pilfering public funds by giving away tens of millions of dollars to the billionaire sports team owners, wasting taxpayer dollars on boondoggles like Georgia Street and a World Sports Park for playing the game of cricket and giving away city tax dollars and assets to pay-to-play schemers who are stuffing money in his pockets. How any real Republican could look at the horrible tax-and-spend record of Mayor Ballard and want to give him unchecked power is beyond me.

Not a single Republican member of the Marion County Republican delegation voted against this corrupt piece of legislation. There were only three Republican senators who voted against SB 621, including Vaneta Becker, Phil Boots and Susan Glick. Twelve Republican members of the House voted against SB 621, including Lloyd Arnold, Suzanne Crouch, Sean Eberhart, Dick Hamm, Kathy Heuer, Dan Leonard, Kevin Mahan, Peggy Mayfield, Tim Neese, Rick Niemeyer, Hal Slager and Matt Ubelhor.

It's a sad commentary on what was otherwise a successful legislative session for the Republican supermajorities in the House and Senate and our Republican governor. Most Republican lawmakers and Gov. Mike Pence chose to mar their record this year with the enactment of these two bills into law. Democratic lawmakers voted in unison against SB 621. More Democrats than Republicans also voted against HB 1544.