Porter's Publication: Monthly News for June

Jun 27, 2024

Community Action Relief Effort Mobile Food Pantry

During the summer, Gleaner’s operates the Community Action Relief Effort (CARE) Mobile Food Pantry. Gleaner’s is the largest hunger relief organization in Indiana, and they are one of the 200-member food banks in the Feeding America Network. It’s important that we do everything we can to fight hunger in Indiana as studies show that one in eight Hoosiers face hunger.

CARE Mobile runs from June 1 to August 31. They’re open to the public and drive-thru food distributions are available. The mobile food pantries are open at the following three locations across Indianapolis: John Marshall (10101 East 38th Street), 75th and Shadeland hosted by (7427 North Shadeland Avenue) and Avondale Meadows YMCA (3908 Meadows Drive). Dates and times vary according to location but can found on the flyer below.

Individuals interested in volunteering with Gleaner’s can visit gleaners.org/volunteer/. As always, please contact my office with any additional questions at h96@iga.in.gov.

Indianapolis Children’s Museum to host Mandela exhibit

From the end of June to January 2025, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum is hosting Mandela: The Official Exhibition. Nelson Mandela was an activist, lawyer and politician in South Africa from the 1950s to the 2010s. Mandela was the first South African president elected in a fully representative, democratic election and he was the first Black head of state.

Nelson Mandela first achieved national attention as an anti-apartheid activist. Apartheid was South Africa’s system of institutionalized racial segregation. It was similar to Jim Crowe laws in the Southern United States. However, South Africa’s apartheid system lasted until 1994. Mandela was instrumental in tearing down this system of racism and inequality.

I encourage you to visit the Indianapolis Children’s Museum and see the exhibit dedicated to this famous freedom fighter. For more information, you can visit childrensmuseum.org/exhibits/mandela.

Share your thoughts on Indiana’s new high school diplomas

In March, the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) presented their new high school diploma proposals: the GPS Diploma and the GPS Diploma Plus. The new options will begin with the Class of 2029, students who are currently in 7th grade. Indiana is the first state in the country to make this large of a change to the diploma track to focus on workforce development, under the Republican proposal to "reinvent high school.” Many parents, teachers, and administrators have expressed intense concern about the new diplomas.

Both diplomas significantly lower the requirements in math and science while eliminating the requirements for arts and humanities classes. Economics, world history and foreign languages would no longer be required to graduate under the new diploma proposals.

Instead, the two diplomas focus on work-based learning experiences. I believe exposing students to multiple career and education pathways is important. However, these new diplomas do a 180 to focus solely on workforce training, leaving behind our students who want to pursue college. Thousands of our students who use the academic honors pathway to prepare for college will no longer have that option. In fact, the new diplomas don’t even meet the basic admissions requirements for our in-state universities — including IU and Purdue.

Thankfully, the State Board of Education is accepting feedback on the proposed diplomas until September. I encourage parents, students, educators and stakeholders to share their thoughts and opinions via the online form here.

For more information about the diplomas, you can visit the link here. As always, please contact my office at h96@iga.in.gov with any questions or concerns.

State and Local Tax Review Task Force (SALTR) Meeting

Every couple of months the State and Local Tax Review Task Force (SALTR) meets to discuss Indiana’s tax system. During our June meeting, we had a fruitful discussion thanks to testimony from local officials. Multiple organizations testified that the ongoing inflationary spike in property taxes is not sustainable. Our Hoosier seniors on fixed incomes are drowning from increased property taxes. We cannot solve the untenable rise in property taxes by restricting revenue to our local governments.

Our local governments rely on property tax revenue to fund their schools, infrastructure and public projects. We can’t cut their revenue without cutting local services. Potholes won’t be filled, and school boards may be forced to evaluate how many teachers they can afford to employ. That’s what happens when our schools and local governments do not have adequate funding.

School officials shared in testimony that they simply don’t have the revenue to pay for essential items – including school bus transportation, utilities, and insurance. The majority party in the state legislature has continued to stretch their pocketbooks thin with legislation like HEA 1499 (2023). They restricted the school property tax maximization which failed to provide any real property tax relief for Hoosier taxpayers.

I cannot stress enough that we must balance the solution to high property taxes between all parties. Next year, during the budget session, we have the opportunity to create concrete property tax relief. For the last two years, House Democrats have introduced legislation for a homestead credit which provides support by putting money back in Hoosier pockets for people who live here full time. Hopefully, my colleagues across the aisle will listen to their constituencies that are begging for help with their property tax bills in the 2025 session.