Democrat Jennifer McCormick discusses taxes, health care, other key issues in governor’s race

Indiana has never elected governors from the same political party for more than 20 years in a row. And former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick wants to keep it that way, aiming to take back the office for Democrats for the first time since 2004. Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Brandon Smith sat down with McCormick to discuss some of the biggest issues in the open governor’s race.

You can also find interviews with the Republican and Libertarian candidates.

IPB News Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith: I want to start with an issue that seems to be on top of minds for so many Hoosiers, which is their property tax bills. Your approach looks at tax relief, but not necessarily tinkering too much with the property tax system itself. Why did you decide to go that route?

Jennifer McCormick: Yeah, so first of all, we tried to take an approach that was bipartisan. So, we took some language that had been introduced by Sen. [Travis] Holdman, who I have great respect for — he’s a Republican. We also took language from Sen. [Fady] Qaddoura, who’s a Democrat. And they had really good language with existing fiscals to do it the way we’re doing it, looking at it through a different lens — looking at it more through that state lens versus the local, because we were very concerned about the local level funding. So, when you’ve got schools and libraries and police and fire and parks and the list goes on that are being funded through that, and I talked to enough local leaders, they were like, we can’t sustain that. So, we knew we wanted to give some property tax relief, but also, you know, not hammer the local levels.

Smith: Is there any way to rein in the state’s Medicaid spending without cutting services that people are already receiving?

McCormick: No. No. And what’s scary about that, from what I have learned and what I’ve been told, that, you know, the last budget cycle, there was just such a shortfall in the allocation — whether it was miscommunication, mishandling. You know, I don’t want to — regardless of the reason why, there was a big lack of dollars there that was needed in that allocation. And then you have the expenditure of what went up and you’ve got the perfect storm for what happened. And so, someone needs to be held accountable for such a huge error because it has impacted services. And some of the changes that have also been made have been extremely hard on families, in addition to being on long waiting lists that are going to take years to address the needs of. It’s a financial piece of it. It’s a workforce need of it. It’s a red tape problem there. The Medicaid fix is going to be very, very difficult and it’s going to be very expensive. But like you mentioned, there are a lot of big-ticket items that are going to be gobbling up that budget quickly.

READ MORE: What do I need on Election Day? The general election is Nov. 5

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Smith: We’ve seen Mike Braun now saying he wants to make the school choice voucher program universal. Is that the right move for Indiana? And if not, as governor, what realistically can you do when it comes to the voucher program?

McCormick: As we expand that program, the data shows us it’s clearly kids who have already gone to private schools — we’re just now funding it. They come from typically a suburban, white, wealthier family. And so, when we look at the intent of the program versus what is happening with the program, that gives us pause as well. It’s not about getting kids who are at risk out of poor performing schools or getting kids who went to public schools and it just didn’t fit, giving them a different choice. That’s not what this is about. It’s very interesting how that program is working, but we need to pump the brakes on school choice. We could capture hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The last biennium was very expensive, but in totality, you’re looking at $1.6 billion. We cannot sustain that.

Smith: You’ve made women’s reproductive rights, the state abortion ban, a central theme. As governor, what can you realistically do to address the concerns that many Hoosiers have about how far that ban has gone?

McCormick: The fact of the matter is this election’s about we’re either going to have a governor who trusts women or who does not. I’m the only candidate who has been pregnant and I’ve given a live birth. And I understand firsthand the complexities of pregnancy. And I don’t dismiss, it is a complex issue that people have their own opinions, their own faith beliefs about it. Their families have their own opinions. But it is so complex and such a massive decision. That’s why we have to trust women. We have to trust health care providers because there is no perfect situation to that complex issue. We need to have choices.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.