Porter comments on budget unveiling: ‘No taxation without representation’

Today, April 23, Indiana House and Senate leadership and Gov. Mike Braun unveiled the final version of the state budget. State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis), a conferee for House Bill 1001, was not consulted for the conference committee report, which has not been made available to the public yet. The final budget includes recommendations made by Porter: increasing the cigarette tax to $2 a pack and utilizing the Pension Stabilization Fund. 

“Every year in this building, I hear that the Statehouse is nothing like Washington D.C.,” Porter said. “But these are empty words. This is the least transparent budget process in my legislative tenure. I was not consulted, and I was not told the contents of this budget until thirty minutes before it dropped. It’s disrespectful to my community and the millions of Hoosiers Democrats represent. 

“We represent Indiana’s districts with the highest tax revenue. You’re spending the hard-earned tax dollars of our communities without consulting their elected officials. What happened to no taxation without representation? 

“I wasn’t consulted, but ideas from my budget proposal are included. I proposed increasing the cigarette tax to increase revenue, and I’ve said we should use money from the Pension Stabilization Fund. The IEDC is getting a cut, and I abstained from voting on multiple budget committee agendas when they asked for millions with no transparency. Schools will get an average 2% increase, and they’ve paused the voucher program growth for a year. The most troublesome part is only giving $40 million to local public health initiatives, even though we’re going to ‘Make Indiana Healthy Again.’

“This has been a divisive, non-transparent process. Our communities deserve a seat at the table.”