Editor,
Soon, Hoosiers will pay $30,000 a day for a special legislative session, during which lawmakers will (theoretically) do what they should have done already. Critical issues sat on the sidelines during the regular session, while “priorities” such as eyeball tattooing and establishing a state insect were addressed instead.
Republicans hold a super majority and still neglected to enact any legislation of consequence. I’m all for being able to buy a bottle of wine on a Sunday, but given the choice I’d have rather had my legislators tackle something – anything – related to Indiana’s quality of life, which ranks third-worst in the nation. What’s going to be different this time around?
How about addressing the rising cost of health care premiums (projected to increase by as much as 50 percent in our state within the next three years)? Or investing in the nine counties that currently have zero high-quality pre-k programs available? Or maybe adjusting education funding formulas, since Indiana spent more per pupil in 2008 than in 2017 when accounting for inflation?
These are things that would make a real difference in Hoosiers’ lives, and that, quite simply, is what these people have already been paid to do.
Ashley Quick, Westfield
