House Democratic Leader Pelath: Governor bloviates as well as ever, but can he lead?
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath from Michigan City today issued the following statement in reaction to Gov. Mike Pence’s 2016 State of the State speech:
“If you judge the quality of a speech by its lists, you had to be pleased with what the governor said tonight—page after page of stuff that he claims to have done.
“But you can’t govern that way, and there was little said tonight that should make any Hoosier feel satisfied. There was no prescription for building our economic future.
“Even if you choose to believe the governor’s absurdly inflated job creation numbers—which I seriously doubt anyone does—then you cannot ignore the fact that so many of the jobs that are being created aren’t paying people anything. Our median household income remains at $48,737, compared to the national average of $53,482. Our per capita income is $24,953, while the national average is $28,555. Those numbers are fact—not PR whimsy—and they keep getting worse by the year.
“If the governor thinks that Indiana has made great strides in improving its infrastructure, then it becomes difficult to see why he then turns around and says we must improve that infrastructure. It’s even harder to understand when you consider that Republicans in the Legislature support infrastructure improvement plans that will raise new taxes. The state has money, and it’s not their money.
“In turn, Indiana House Democrats are simply asking that every penny you pay at the pump go toward fixing our roads and bridges.
“If you maintain that Indiana’s teachers are the unsung heroes of our state, it works only if you conveniently forget that many of the people offering praise now have spent years demonizing those same teachers. This decade, continued experiments have driven good educators away.
“Indiana House Democrats believe the time for experimenting on our schools is over. It’s time to take a deep breath for a bit, and start thinking of better ways to do this job. A good place to start would be ditching ISTEP and finding a new way to grade progress…perhaps by letting teachers do their jobs.
“And if you think that washing your hands of legislation to end discrimination shows Solomonic wisdom, I think you are avoiding a mess you helped create for our state. There is a simple answer: add four words and a comma to Indiana’s civil rights statute to protect Hoosiers for their sexual orientation and gender identity, and the problem goes away.
“Indiana House Democrats stand ready to help in improving our economy, our schools and our state’s reputation. It would have been nice for our chief executive to show more leadership on these issues than he did tonight.”