Posted by my very smart friend Mark Palmenter and he provides data sources!!! Fiscal considerations of Indiana’s Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment (HJR-3) :: Indiana is currently debating whether to bring a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage to a vote in November. Doing a back-of-the envelope calculation, considering the salaries, per diems and mileage costs of only the 150 Indiana legislators*, debating this bill costs Indiana taxpayers ~$240,000 per day of debate*. Many conservatives feel that the amendment is a top priority for the State. Notably, the Indiana GOP does not*. Given that, I wanted to find out what the trade offs are against the GOPs top priorities for even debating HJR-3* (brand perceptions aside). Here’s what I found: “Preparing Kids for their Careers” trade off: Hiring ~7 new Hoosier teachers* “Investment in Roads” trade off Patching ~16,000 Indiana pot holes* “Equipping our Workforce” trade off: Providing financial aid to support ~1,900 credit hours at Ivy Tech* “Cutting Taxes” trade off: Cutting property taxes by $2.72 per Hamilton County household* Stopping Burdensome Regulations” trade off: Enough said. I realize my numbers aren’t perfect, but they are telling. Moreover, this debate, as all debates as the Statehouse go, is pure politics, I get that. But the politics of debating the civil rights of tens of thousands of Hoosiers should have no place in public discourse in 2014 - just as they shouldn’t have in the 1960s. The head of the GOP, Brian Bosma, has indicated he will do whatever it takes to bring this amendment to a vote. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that it fails. After all, we have a lot of kids to get career-ready, roads to fix, workforces to strengthen, taxes to cut and regulations to simplify.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 17:32:35 +0000
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