Porter: House GOP showing little concern for needs of many Hoosiers

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana House Republicans today rejected an effort by State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis) to provide tax relief for Hoosiers on lower incomes, the latest step in what Porter described as a depressing trend by the House supermajority during the 2016 session of the Indiana General Assembly to show no concern for the needs of hard-working Hoosiers at the lower end of the economic scale.

Porter said the House supermajority refused to consider his proposal that would have given a $500 income tax deduction to single Hoosiers making less than $20,000 and families making less than $25,000. Porter attempted to include the provision in House Bill 1046, which attempts to give what its proponents describe as “poor investors” a tax break on transactions involving precious metals, bullion or currency.

“While they attempted to portray this as a break for all Hoosiers, the fact of the matter is that this would benefit only the very rich,” Porter said. “There is no such thing as a ‘poor’ investor of gold. In other words, House Bill 1046 is just another thinly veiled attempt to give the rich and powerful more tax breaks. My amendment simply intended to take the intentions of this bill and make sure that this Legislature did something to help people on lower incomes. Unfortunately—but not surprisingly—– the House Republicans did not agree.”

The rejection came on the same day that House Republicans moved a transportation plan out of committee that would increase the price Hoosier motorists pay at the pump, and raise the taxes paid on cigarettes. The supermajority chose that proposal over one from Porter and other House Democrats that would use tax revenues already paid at the pump by Hoosiers to finance improvements to roads and bridges.

“Of course, these efforts to provide breaks to the wealthy and raise taxes on the rest of us would have a particularly disastrous effect on hard-working Hoosiers, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the House supermajority,” Porter said. “It appears once again that this legislative session is moving again toward active consideration of a series of proposals that ultimately benefit only the very well-to-do in our state.”

Earlier this week, House Republicans turned down a series of proposals offered by Porter that would have used existing state revenues to help people in the state’s scandal-plagued Adult Protective Services program, reduce the long-standing waiting list for Hoosiers who get in-home health care through the CHOICE program, expand the state’s pre-K early learning program, and assist food banks across Indiana. Another effort by Porter to restore funding for professional development for teachers was ruled out of order.

“Going into this session, many of the people in control of our state government talked at length about the need to help the Hoosier middle class,” Porter said. “Based on the evidence we are seeing, it certainly seems like we are talking about the ‘same-old, same-old’ attitude of hoping that lip service will be enough. It won’t.”