Vouchers central to governor candidates’ education plans INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — For all their policy differences, the three choices for Indiana governor agree on two things: reducing property taxes, and rethinking Indiana’s approach to economic development. Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, is term-limited. On Nov. 5, Indiana voters will decide whether he will be succeeded by fellow Republican Mike Braun, Democrat Jennifer McCormick or Libertarian Donald Rainwater. All three names are familiar to voters across the state. Braun has represented Indiana since 2018 in the U.S. Senate. McCormick was Indiana’s final elected superintendent of public instruction, serving as a Republican from 2017 to 2021. Rainwater is making an encore appearance from the 2020 governor’s race, where he took home 11% of the vote, the best performance of any third-party candidate for governor since before the Civil War. All three candidates sat down with News 8 for Sunday’s “All INdiana Politics.” The show airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Property taxes and housing Housing issues have driven electoral politics at all levels this year. For Braun, McCormick and Rainwater, the housing crisis ultimately comes down to property taxes. All three have put forth plans to change Indiana’s property tax structure. Braun wants to allow every homeowner to deduct 60 percent of their home’s assessed value from their tax bill and take a standard deduction of $48,000 if their home has an assessed value below $125,000. He also wants to cap the annual increase in property tax bills at 2 percent for seniors, low-income homeowners and families with children under 18 and 3 percent for everyone else. McCormick wants to cap increases at 10 percent, increase the maximum homeowner property tax deduction from $2,500 to $3,500 and expand deductions for seniors and for disabled veterans. Rainwater wants to limit property taxes to 1 percent of a home’s sale price and end property taxes on a home seven years after a person buys it. McCormick has said Braun’s plan would deprive local governments of the revenue needed to support services such as police and fire protection. She said her plan is based on proposals both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers have put forward in recent years. She said her plan already has been vetted by state budget analysts as a result and is ready to go on day one. Braun said any problems with local revenue are a result of local governments not adjusting their rates down when they should have, adding state lawmakers will work out the details. Rainwater said his plan ensures homeowners are not paying property taxes in perpetuity and are not at risk of the government repossessing their homes due to failure to pay. News 8 asked each candidate what they would do about housing besides changing the state’s property tax system. Braun said he would work with developers of multifamily housing to identify state and federal regulations that drive up the cost of housing. Rainwater said he would ensure housing development subsidies only go toward starter homes, such as rehabilitated uninhabited homes. McCormick said she would look into the state’s fair lending practices and renter protections, as well as taking a hard look at whether state programs support housing that is truly affordable. “When I’m across the state and I ask (developers), they say I’m building affordable housing and they start at $300,000, I mean, that’s just not affordable for so many of our Hoosiers,” she said. Education Much of the candidates’ discussion regarding education has centered on the school voucher program. Currently, a family of four making less than $231,000 per year can receive a taxpayer-funded voucher to pay for sending their child to a private school. McCormick has harshly criticized the program, saying it deprives the state’s traditional public schools of more than $1 billion that could be used for raising teacher pay and other needs. She has said she would narrow eligibility for the vouchers, though she has stopped short of calling for eliminating them entirely. Braun and Rainwater both have called for universal school vouchers. Braun said vouchers are not a zero-sum game. He said the state can still find the money to raise teacher pay by redirecting funding away from items such as physical buildings. Rainwater called the state’s public school system a monopoly and said the state’s poor test scores are a sign the current system isn’t working despite its dominance of the state budget. Fixing Medicaid Nearly a year has passed since the Family and Social Services Administration first revealed the state’s Medicaid fund was short nearly $1 billion. Officials have blamed an accounting error. The agency has cut back on a number of services to conserve the money it still has. Notably, parents of medically complex children have lost their eligibility for reimbursement under the attendant care program and waiting lists have been implemented for waivers that allow low-income adults to receive Medicaid funding for assisted living facilities. McCormick said the Medicaid crisis is a prime example of the dangers of long-term one-party government. She said she would launch a thorough review of how the problem came to be, adding no fix would be fast due the scale and complexity of the problem. Rainwater said he would first try to recoup more than $700 million that reportedly was overbilled to the state’s Medicaid system. He also would look into ways to improve the management of the program and find other sources of funding within the budget, such as redirecting funding away from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. “We shouldn’t be cutting people’s promised Medicaid off because we made a mistake,” he said. “We need to make sure that we have people in FSSA who are managing the program correctly and who are focused on delivering the service that the government has promised to the citizens that they promised that service to.” Braun said the state’s cash flow should be able to make up the shortfall but the state’s health care system overall should be reoriented toward wellness and prevention. He said those investments up front would reduce people’s need for treatment services, including through Medicaid. Abortion Indiana made national news in 2022 when it became the first state to enact a new abortion ban following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade. McCormick has fiercely criticized Indiana’s abortion ban. She said she would work across the aisle to allow voters to have their say on abortion rights through a ballot initiative, something state law currently does not allow. Braun has consistently said he believes state lawmakers got it right on the abortion ban. When News 8 asked whether he would make any changes to it, he replied he would leave the question of changes up to the legislature. Rainwater, who has described himself as a pro-life Libertarian, said he would not support a repeal of Indiana’s abortion ban. Instead, he said Indiana voters should pressure lawmakers to make whatever changes they believe need to be made. Economic development and the LEAP District All three candidates have criticized the way the Indiana Economic Development Corporation has approached its mission, particularly with the way it has carried out the development of the LEAP District in Boone County. Rainwater said he would privatize the LEAP District and end the state government’s involvement in trying to attract business to specific parts of the state. He said promoting growth in any one particular area, such as the LEAP District or major cities, always comes at the expense of other parts of the state. McCormick said she applauds the intent of the LEAP District but the state should not be acting as a real estate agent. She said she would start working on a statewide water management plan. Rather than focus on one or two major job sites, McCormick said she would instead focus on the regional grant model such as the READI grants. Braun said any development at the LEAP District will have to be within what the state’s existing water and energy infrastructure will allow. He said he would focus on bringing high-paying jobs to the state and increasing state support for small businesses and entrepreneurs. “They just need more organic help. It’s not going to take a major investment,” he said. “It may change how we help them become more enabled and you’re going to get dividends from every corner of the state in between.” The death penalty Indiana is scheduled to carry out its first execution in 15 years on Dec. 18, when Joseph Corcoran is set to die by lethal injection for a 1997 quadruple homicide in Fort Wayne. According to data compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center, 20 people have already been executed in eight other states this year, and seven more, including Corcoran, are scheduled to be put to death between now and the end of the year. Three other men on Indiana’s death row have exhausted their appeals and Attorney General Todd Rokita has asked the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for one of them. Rainwater said he would not approve any executions if he were elected and he would lobby the General Assembly to abolish the death penalty. McCormick said she would follow the law for Indiana’s current capital convictions but added the death penalty is “a permanent solution to an imperfect system” and should only be employed when there is absolutely no question of a person’s guilt. Braun said he would consider each case carefully before deciding whether to proceed with authorizing an execution. The issues that got away News 8 also asked each candidate to name one issue they believe got overlooked in the course of the campaign. Braun named child care. He said lack of access to affordable child care prevents parents from reentering the workforce. Braun said he has seen some individual entrepreneurs’ approaches during his time on the campaign trail that he’s interested in exploring on a larger scale. McCormick said there hasn’t been enough conversation surrounding education as an entire system affecting the upbringing and well-being of children, particularly in the 0-5 age range. She also pointed to senior care. Rainwater said the other candidates haven’t said enough about the impact to farmers of the Mid-States Corridor, a proposed highway bypass linking I-64 and I-69 in southwest Indiana. Voting notes Early voting continues until noon on Monday, Nov. 4. Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5.