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Protecting Medicaid:
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Eliminating the waitlists for the 11,000 seniors and children with disabilities who are on waitlists for Medicaid programs and services.
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Providing an additional $300 million to cushion Hoosiers on Medicaid from potential federal cuts.
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Supporting our Children:
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Fully funding public education with a 2% increase for all public schools instead of splitting the money with private schools and charters.
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Increasing teacher pay from a starting salary of $45,000 to $60,000 and providing opportunities for bonuses.
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Expanding pre-K eligibility to nearly every Hoosier 4- and 5-year-old.
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Fully funding Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which ships free, age-appropriate books directly to children’s homes regardless of income or location. I appreciate Gov. Braun's response to the outcry about this by calling on First Lady Maureen Braun to form a public-private partnership to fund this program, but this program is a drop in the budget bucket compared to other programs – something the state can certainly fund.
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Creating Balanced Tax Relief:
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Keeping more money in Hoosiers' pockets by increasing the income tax credit from 10% to 12%.
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Increasing the renter’s deduction from $3,000 to $4,000.
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Improving Public Health:
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Fully funding Health First Indiana, a bipartisan-led initiative to boost local public health funding for programs like prenatal screenings, safe sleep education, smoking cessation, and lead poisoning screenings.
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Growing Quality of Life
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Protecting our public land and boosting tourism by funding trails and land preservation with $55 million.
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Increasing funding for organizations that support our veterans, like the American Legion, with an additional $1.6 million.
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Creating a low-interest first-time homebuyer program.
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Protecting Your Tax Dollars
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Creating more government oversight, accountability and transparency when it comes to executive agency spending.
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Creating a Federal Shortfall Fund to protect programs and services like public education, the National Guard, health care, road construction, agriculture and veterans’ services from federal funding cuts.
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Here are some worrisome inclusions in the Republican budget that’s headed to the Senate:
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No relief from rising property taxes.
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No provisions to expand pre-K or access to child care.
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Cuts to the scholarships college students receive.
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Diverting $1.3 billion from public schools to pay for private school vouchers for wealthy families.
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Traditional public schools would only get a 1.3% increase since funding would be shared with the voucher program and charter schools. Many school districts would receive cuts.
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Zero funding for the College Success Program (CSP), which benefits Indiana’s minority and low-income college students.
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Elimination of the Indiana Commission for Women and the Commission of Race and Gender Fairness ($500,000 of their allocation pays for court interpreters for non-English speakers).
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Free reign for agency officials to make additional cuts to public services like Medicaid and services for seniors or children with disabilities.
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A cut of $50 million in the Health First Indiana Program.
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Zero funding to continue Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
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Increasing the amount virtual charter schools receive from 85% to 100%, putting Hoosiers’ hard-earned dollars at risk. Two virtual charters were sued by the state to recoup $154 million, and the trial is still ongoing.
House Democrats’ budget would have helped Hoosiers during these unprecedented times. From education to public health, we can do more to grow the quality of life in our state. The Republican opposition to these proposals was a vote against Hoosiers.