Indiana has never elected governors from the same political
party for more than 20 years in a row. And Jennifer McCormick
wants to keep it that way, aiming to take back the office for
Democrats for the first time since 2004. Indiana Public
Broadcasting’s Brandon Smith sits down with McCormick to
discuss some of the biggest issues in the open governor’s race.
IPB News Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith: I want
to start with an issue that seems to be on top of minds for so
many Hoosiers, which is their property tax bills. Your approach
looks at tax relief, but not necessarily tinkering too much with
the property tax system itself. Why did you decide to go that
route?
Jennifer McCormick: Yeah, so first of all, we tried to take an
approach that was bipartisan. So, we took some language that
had been introduced by Sen. Holdman, who I have great respect
for — he's a Republican. We also took language from Sen.
Qaddoura, who's a Democrat. And they had really good language
with existing fiscals to do it the way we're doing it, looking at it
through a different lens — looking at it more through that state
lens versus the local, because we were very concerned about the
local level funding. So, when you've got schools and libraries and
police and fire and parks and the list goes on that are being
funded through that, and I talked to enough local leaders, they
were like, we can't sustain that. So, we knew we wanted to give
some property tax relief, but also, you know, not hammer the
local levels.
Smith: Is there any way to rein in the state's Medicaid spending
without cutting services that people are already receiving?
McCormick: No. No. And what's scary about that, from what I
have learned and what I've been told, that, you know, the last
budget cycle, there was just such a shortfall in the allocation —
whether it was miscommunication, mishandling. You know, I
don't want to — regardless of the reason why, there was a big
lack of dollars there that was needed in that allocation. And then
you have the expenditure of what went up and you've got the
perfect storm for what happened. And so, someone needs to be
held accountable for such a huge error because it has impacted
services. And some of the changes that have also been made
have been extremely hard on families, in addition to being on
long waiting lists that are going to take years to address the
needs of. It's a financial piece of it. It's a workforce need of it. It's
a red tape problem there. The Medicaid fix is going to be very,
very difficult and it's going to be very expensive. But like you
mentioned, there are a lot of big-ticket items that are going to be
gobbling up that budget quickly.
Smith: We've seen Mike Braun now saying he wants to make the
school choice voucher program universal. Is that the right move
for Indiana? And if not, as governor, what realistically can you do
when it comes to the voucher program?
McCormick: As we expand that program, the data shows us it's
clearly kids who have already gone to private schools — we're
just now funding it. They come from typically a suburban, white,
wealthier family. And so, when we look at the intent of the
program versus what is happening with the program, that gives
us pause as well. It's not about getting kids who are at risk out of
poor performing schools or getting kids who went to public
schools and it just didn't fit, giving them a different choice. That's
not what this is about. It's very interesting how that program is
working, but we need to pump the brakes on school choice. We
could capture hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The last
biennium was very expensive, but in totality, you're looking at
$1.6 billion. We cannot sustain that.
Smith: You've made women's reproductive rights, the state
abortion ban, a central theme. As governor, what can you
realistically do to address the concerns that many Hoosiers have
about how far that ban has gone?
McCormick: The fact of the matter is this election's about we're
either going to have a governor who trusts women or who does
not. I'm the only candidate who has been pregnant and I've given
a live birth. And I understand firsthand the complexities of
pregnancy. And I don't dismiss, it is a complex issue that people
have their own opinions, their own faith beliefs about it. Their
families have their own opinions. But it is so complex and such a
massive decision. That's why we have to trust women. We have
to trust health care providers because there is no perfect
situation to that complex issue. We need to have choices.