Senate candidates differ on … nearly everything
Buck , Lowry underscore philosophical divergence between two parties
Today’s article is brought to you by Freedom Financial.
(Editor’s note: Because of the importance of the issues discussed at the Oct. 5 forum, and the depth of the responses from the candidates, The Kokomo Lantern intends to split up the coverage of the event over multiple articles Today, the State Senate Dist. 21 race will receive coverage. The State Representative Dist. 30 race will be featured on Friday, Oct. 7.)
State Sen. Jim Buck and his opponent, attorney Josh Lowry, were asked the same questions at the Howard County Candidates Forum on Oct. 5, but their responses made it seem like they were running for office on different planets. The stark contrast in points of view and depth of thought behind their answers demonstrated the complexities of governance.
Panelists from the Greater Kokomo Chamber of Commerce, the Kokomo Tribune, and the Howard County League of Women Voters posed questions to the candidates. Following are the responses to each given by Buck and Lowry.
What can Indiana do to lower healthcare costs and improve outcomes?
Josh Lowry
“One of the ways to lower costs is to improve health outcomes. We are one of the most unhealthy states in America. One of the reasons for that is we have one of the lowest per person investments in public healthcare.
“I’m not telling everyone how to go live their lives, but there are resources we can provide, whether it is nutrition or just getting people to the doctor. One of the reasons people in rural communities don’t go to the doctor is they don’t have access. They end up waiting until they have to go to the hospital. That costs the system more.
“One of the problems we have is a lot of doctors don’t want to come to Indiana anymore because of our abortion ban. They are scared they will be threatened with a lawsuit or by our attorney general on television if they do something about it. The abortion ban wasn’t just ill-conceived, it hurt our ability to recruit talent to the state.
“There was a vote on the exception to rape and incest for the abortion bill. Sen. Buck voted against that. He believes if a woman is raped, she should be mandated by the government to carry her rapist’s child to term. If we are talking about positive healthcare outcomes, that is not a positive healthcare outcome.”
Jim Buck
“Three things government does that it shouldn’t are over-regulation, over-litigates, and over-taxes,” said Buck. “Healthcare is one of the most regulated businesses you can get into. I talked to my doctors all the time and others who aren’t my doctors. Many of them quit their private practice for one reason: they spend all their time doing paperwork.
“I had a family doctor tell me, ‘Jim, I can’t do this anymore. All the money that goes through my office, and how much of it stays with me, I’m better off just working for the hospital.’ And he did. I’ve talked to nurses in the same way. They are having a hard time keeping up with all the requirements.
“Doctors, indeed, are afraid of litigation. The trial lawyers make a handsome living suing doctors for malpractice. We’ve tried to limit the amount of money doctors are subject to in litigation.
“Now we have a situation where we have non-profit hospitals and for-profit hospitals. Try to figure out how to compete on that. A for-profit hospital has to pay property taxes; a non-profit doesn’t. It comes down to, if the state is going to do something, are we going to go into debt to do it? Is hospital care a state issue, or is it coming from the federal government?
“We don’t control the federal government as much as we would like. We find ourselves in a position where Indiana is spending records numbers to help attract doctors, hospitals, nurses. We are trying to establish regional mental health facilities to eliminate some concern. We are having doctors coming to Indiana. This is the most economical state you can live in. Out taxes are low. Our cost of living is low. That was not done by accident. We’re trying to make sure you and I have the best healthcare possible.”
What is the economic outlook for Indiana?
Jim Buck
“Currently, Indiana is in the top five in economic outlook. The reason for that is we have a AAA bond rating. We have a stable state government. We’re paying off our debts. Out of each budget cycle, we set aside funding to pay off these unfunded liabilities.
“On the Senate floor, we recently had a Democratic senator say, ‘Why are we putting money into the teachers’ pension fund when we’re already paying them?’ We are looking to save over $1 billion a year by actuarily funding the teachers’ pension fund. By 2027, we hope that fund will be actuarily funded for the first time in a long time.
“We are making sure that our infrastructure is in place. We were five years behind on promised infrastructure improvements, and we’re paying in cash. Our taxes are going down. (The income tax rate) is going from 3.4 to 2.7 percent. If we keep on track with our fiscal sanity, we’ll be able to eliminate the state income tax in about seven years. Again, that makes us competitive.
“Indiana is a good place to work, live, and play. Right here we have had the expansion of Stellantis. That didn’t happen by accident. I worked very hard to get the plant in Tipton by having it set aside in the bankruptcy so it could be easily taken out and bought. The battery factory didn’t happen by accident. That’s a big deal. We now have Honda in Indiana.
“If you look at Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio, they’re all moving here. Why? Our property tax has been revised with a circuit breaker. We have just found ourselves in a niche that will keep providing more jobs and better roads. That’s what employers look at: whether there is a stable environment.
“In the ‘90s, we had the most unstable environment. In Site Selection Magazine, we weren’t even in there. Now we are in everybody’s Site Selection Magazine. I’m proud to say part of that is making sure we have responsible people at the Statehouse.”
Josh Lowry
“Kansas got rid of their income tax at one point, and they had to call a special session that same year to put it back in because it was a catastrophe. If we’re going to talk about Indiana’s economic outlook, it depends on what you’re trying to look at. If we’re looking for a good rating from ALEC, maybe you’re going to get it. Maybe the corporation are going to love this, but what about the workers? What about the citizens of Indiana?
“When we compare our pay to other states, it’s not great. When we compare our healthcare to other states, it’s not great. We don’t have paid family leave. For all the things that are said about the state being pro-family, you have no guarantee to have any income if you have to stay home with your child for the first 12 weeks or so after they are born.
“Do we really have a chance for upward mobility here? We have a problem that kids aren’t staying in Indiana. They are going to graduate college and say, ‘Hold on. The only thing I see from our General Assembly is culture wars and trying to take us back to the 1950s.’
“They don’t see support for healthcare. They don’t see enough support for mental health. They don’t see support for someone just having a different point of view or a different type of life than somebody may agree with. We can have as low a tax rate as we want. If the talent isn’t going to stay here, and the workers aren’t getting the same benefits they get in other states, they’re not going to stay here.
“Also, what kind of quality are we talking about? Do we want to make sure corporations are the happy people, or do we want to make sure the average Hoosier who gets up and goes to work every day is the happy one?”
What are your legislative priorities for the next session?
Josh Lowry
“Number one, we have to reverse the abortion ban. Government shouldn’t have any role in that.
“Number two, education and education funding. If you compare our teacher pay to surrounding states, it’s the worst. I met a woman whose daughter was a teacher who just graduated from Purdue. She got a job teaching, and when she gets done teaching, she has to work her second job so she can pay her student loan. We do not pay our teachers enough, and if that is not the role of state government, I don’t know what is.
“It's not just paying our teachers enough. Our schools don’t have the resources they need. They don’t have enough assistance. They don’t have enough aides. They don’t have enough nurses. They don’t have enough substitute teachers. I’ve had teachers tell me they can’t take a vacation because there aren’t enough substitutes. We’ve got to change the way we fund education.
“Number three, we’ve got to change the way we think about our economy. It can’t always be how happy have we made a corporation. It’s not jut about minimum wage. We need someone to be able to work a full-time job and make a living wage with health benefits, access to healthcare, and a retirement; things that unions provided before Right to Work came in and chopped them at the knees.
“Fourth, we have to provide more support for our foster care system. There are over 400,000 kids in the foster care system; 120,000 of which are ready to be adopted. We told DCS after we adopted our last two children that we needed a year with just them and the other two children we adopted through the foster system to kind of let them settle in. Even though (DCS) knew that, within the past month we’ve gotten three calls for emergency placements because there aren’t enough foster families.
“It’s also too hard to adopt in the foster system. When we went to adopt, I was lucky enough I could call up a guy I knew form law school. He represented us. And I’m an attorney, so we were able to pay for it. Not everyone is as privileged as I am. Not everyone has been as lucky in life. There are a lot of good families out there who want to adopt kids out of the foster system, and they aren’t able to.”
Jim Buck
“This coming session is a budget year, and everyone is going to have their priorities; usually about spending money. One of the things I’ve worked on ever since I’ve been in the legislature is annexation. I will pick that up and try to make sure we get annexation back to where it should be. It should be 50 percent plus one either in or out. You don’t have to go through a remonstrance or anything like that.
“The last couple years in my committee (local government), we dealt with eminent domain. A local unit of government just says, ‘We want your property. Here’s what we’re going to pay you. And if you don’t like it, we’re still going to take it. You can fight us after we’ve taken your property.’
“Indiana is one of the worst states in the country for eminent domain. Other states do it much different than we do. When Honda came to Indiana, they paid property owners not the appraised value. They paid 120 percent of appraised value. Why’d they do that? They wanted to be a good corporate citizen. They wanted to avoid litigation.
“In Indiana, we tell you what your land is worth, what your building is worth, and that’s it. If you don’t like it, sue us. It’s good for attorneys. If you don’t go to court, you have to take whatever the three appraisals come out to, and you have to pay for your own appraisal. And you don’t get any more than $25,000 toward your attorney costs. One gentleman came to my committee who had already spent $250,000. He didn’t get any of that back.
“The other things we’re going to make sure of in this budget is that we fund our teachers’ pension fund. We’re probably going to put close to $1 billion into that fund so that when our teachers go to retire, they know their pension fund is vested. They won’t end up like Michigan where teachers have problems. California’s fund is broke. Chicago’s is broke. But we are making Indiana’s alive and well.”