5 Republican candidates for Indiana governor talk public safety, taxes, education in panel

In a "joint appearance" Wednesday at a legislative conference downtown ― this was not a debate, the moderator pointed out ― five Republican candidates for Indiana governor shared their approaches to key quality-of-life issues, as well as a few thinly veiled jabs at their opponents.

With an audience of mostly lobbyists, business types and politicos, each of the candidates had ample time to get into policy weeds while repeating some of their familiar slogans.

Former Commerce Secretary Brad Chambers, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, Fort Wayne businessman Eric Doden and former Attorney General Curtis Hill attended in person; U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who is in Washington D.C., sent pre-recorded video responses to questions on four key issues: public safety, economic development, taxes and education.

Here are some highlights from each topic.

Public safety

Multiple candidates used the opportunity, in talking about their approach to public safety, to plug their position on qualified immunity ― the legal protection police can claim against lawsuits over alleged misconduct.

This was the subject of at least one attack ad against Braun, who in 2020 proposed legislation that would make more stringent the conditions in which police could claim qualified immunity. He caught a lot of flak from his party, Fox News and law enforcement organizations over this ― something Doden pointed out in his one-and-a-half-minute endorsement video.

Doden, Chambers and Crouch all called for protecting qualified immunity. Chambers said it should be enshrined in state law; Crouch said there should be no changes at the federal level.

Braun, in prepared remarks that clearly anticipated his opponents' comments, addressed that moment on Capitol Hill.

"When that happened on federal level, it looked like the other side of the aisle wanted to eliminate it," he said. "I wanted to codify it, put it into place where it protected law enforcement, got rid of frivolous lawsuits. When they told us, 'We’d rather you do nothing, let it be,' we listened."

Economic development and LEAP

As at a forum in Columbus last week, a question about the merits of the LEAP approach to economic development ― where the state buys up land in the hopes of attracting investment, acting like a developer ― put Chambers into a league of his own.

Doden said the IEDC should not be a developer, and economic development should be bottom-up, not top-down. Crouch called the approach "paternalistic" and untransparent. Braun said the concept seemed good, but in terms of the vetting of water resources, the IEDC shouldn't "put the cart before the horse." Hill called the IEDC a "shadow government."

"The LEAP project is the best example of what’s wrong with government," he said.

But Chambers, in an impassioned defense of his two years helming the IEDC, said the thinking behind this strategy is to help Indiana compete globally for high-wage jobs in future-focused industries like electic vehicles and semiconductors. He said he was inspired by what states like North Carolina were doing, and said he believes Intel, a semiconductor company, would have chosen to invest in Indiana, instead of Ohio, if the LEAP district existed two years ago.

"We have to play economic offense because everyone around us is," he said.

Taxes

Here, Crouch's proposal to eliminate the state income tax took the spotlight and became the subject of critique by her opponents.

Crouch cited her experience as auditor to back her claim that it's possible for Indiana to find enough inefficiencies and spur enough economic activity to make up for the approximately $8 billion in revenue loss associated with cutting this tax, which she said would have to be reduced in phases.

"I want to be bold," she said.

Everyone else, though supportive of cutting taxes in general, expressed skepticism.

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Braun said the proposal was probably made "without thoroughly thinking through" the consequences. Doden called it a "gimmick," and he advocated for achieving a 1% population growth rate first to enable flexibility to reduce taxes.

Chambers similarly said economic growth should come first, and also worried about the potential impact on property taxes, which he said is what he hears about from Hoosiers.

Hill proposed a slew of other smaller cuts in multiple areas, from the gas tax to the corporate tax to the income tax for young workers, but said these proposals must be informed by a comprehensive review of government services.

"You have to ask yourselves: What are you prepared to do without?" Hill said.

Education

The General Assembly is interested in expanding apprenticeship options for students, and they're likely to have a like-minded governor .

The candidates largely agree that students need more choices and flexibility in school ― not just in what school they can go to, but what kind of career paths for which they can prepare, from the trades to civil service to a four-year college degree.

Chambers also advocated for putting some money from administrative costs toward teacher pay. Doden wants to make teachers exempt from the state income tax.

Crouch pointed out the handful of agencies that handle some aspect of education ― from pre-school to K-12 to workforce training ― and suggested consolidating them into one "cradle-to-career" agency.

Hill said schools should also be free of what he called "distractions," like gender ideology and Critical Race Theory, which educators have said is not being taught in K-12 schools.

The primary is May 7, 2024.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana governor's race: Republican candidates talk economy, police