V20, N28 Thursday, April 2, 2015 Personal beliefs and Pence’s dilemma Gov. Mike Pence at the RFRA sign- Eric Miller sets off RFRA ing ceremony last Thursday. It was firestorm for Pence, results remarks by Advance America’s Eric Miller (behind Pence in lower photo) in business rebellion that set off the crisis gripping Indiana today. By BRIAN A. HOWEY Hoosiers who have witnessed in INDIANAPOLIS – “I’m a Christian, horror the sullied image of their a conservative and a Republican in that state conveyed to a worldwide order,” is the way Mike Pence has summed audience. up his political and personal bearings. While there are dis- Over the past week, these ele- criminatory pockets of Indiana ments of the Indiana governor have cre- ated a crisis of epic proportions, not only for his political career, but for the nearly seven million Continued on page 3 Fixing our reputation By MICHAEL HICKS MUNCIE – It is simply not possible to legislate the details of the inevitable tensions between culture and faith. The disingenuously named Religious Freedom Restoration Act has generated “A lot of people are heartsick a great deal of well-deserved calumny by Hoosier businesses. about this. For those of us who They argue that it weakens the feel like we spent years build- state’s economy and point to business relocation, tourism and ing up a great business climate the ability to attract talent to the state as the chief victims of for the state, you hate to see this unpopular law. I fear it is far anything damage it in the way it worse than that. Indiana has a $300 billion has.” economy and the actual boycott, - Purdue President Mitch Daniels which looks to be primarily in Page 2 travel, probably runs into the tens of thousands of dol- lars. Business relocation to our state is likewise over- hyped, never amounting to 5 percent of new jobs. More- over, the only deal we have clearly lost is the chance to pony up $20 million in incen- tives to the perennially un- is a non-partisan newslet- profitable Angie’s List. These ter based in Indianapolis and effects will be immeasurably Nashville, Ind. It was founded small, especially because the in 1994 in Fort Wayne. boycott and political pres- sures will force Indiana to It is published by make real changes in RFRA. WWWHowey Media, LLC The real damage is else- 405 Massachusetts Ave., where. Suite 300 Indianapolis, IN The injury to 46204 Indiana’s reputation will be harder to fix. The chief problem is that we are now Brian A. Howey, Publisher forced to defend something Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington that didn’t need defending; Jack E. Howey, Editor the goodwill, tolerance and Mary Lou Howey, Editor hospitality of Hoosiers. Still, in truth, this law is so confusing that the real consequences of the RFRA its authors cannot agree on its pur- Maureen Hayden, Statehouse act lie elsewhere than the measured pose. Nor can they explain it clearly to Matthew Butler, Daily Wire economy; they involve trust between a national audience. As a consequence Mark Curry, advertising people and government. Indiana openly invites the ridicule and A free economy relies almost derision of a skeptical public. The bot- Subscriptions wholly upon trust. Without trust, tom line is this: If you cannot explain contracts are meaningless scraps of your own laws effectively, don’t com- HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 paper and trade comes to a grinding plain if others do so for you. HPI Weekly, $350 halt. The RFRA is exactly the type of What is most saddening is Ray Volpe, Account Manager legislation that erodes trust between not the erosion of trust or greater 317.602.3620 businesses and households. It is sim- burden placed on business, but the email: [email protected] ply not possible to legislate the details absolute lack of purpose in RFRA. of the inevitable tensions between Religious freedom is alive and well culture and faith. This law divides us in Indiana. That which is not at risk Contact HPI unnecessarily, corrodes the public does not need restoration. Worse still, www.howeypolitics.com discourse and lessens trust between both sides are busy contriving false [email protected] Hoosiers of goodwill, whatever their victims and martyrs. We need to more Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 opinions. aggressively and courageously avoid Second, when it is all said being distracted by those who would Washington: 202.256.5822 and done we will have wasted perhaps dishonestly divide us. I pray that this Business Office: 317.602.3620 a quarter of this legislative session on debacle gives stronger voice to those this law and its aftermath. We actually leaders who argued against this folly. © 2015, Howey Politics Indiana. have serious, long-term problems in v All rights reserved. Photocopy- Indiana that will remain unaddressed Michael J. Hicks, PhD, is the di- as a consequence of this. So, trust rector of the Center for Business ing, Internet forwarding, fax- in our leadership is needlessly and and Economic Research and the ing or reproducing in any form, deeply weakened. George and Frances Ball distin- whole or part, is a violation of Of course the law defenders guished professor of economics in federal law without permission will say that it has been mischaracter- the Miller College of Business at from the publisher. ized by a liberal media. Maybe so, but Ball State University. v Page 3 Planned Parenthood, closed in Scottsburg due to funding RFRA Firestorm, from page 1 cuts for a facility that had never conducted an abortion. It was then-U.S. Rep. Pence who led a Capitol Hill assault on – as well as the other 49 states – the Religious Freedom Planned Parenthood, which was quickly picked up by social Restoration Act and the hurried, clandestine signing cer- conservatives in the Indiana General Assembly that crafted emony Gov. Pence conducted last Thursday and the optics a law banning that organization. While the courts ruled it created have unleashed a frontal assault on the state. the law unconstitutional, Planned Parenthood of Indiana Pence posing with Advance America’s Eric Miller, who then in his 15 minutes of national fame reinforced the notion that the legislation was created to “protect florists, bakers and wedding photographers from for refusing to participate in a homosexual marriage, among other examples” was a policy bomb that has ignited an array of political fallout. That resulted in a firestorm that has Pence being branded a “bigot” by some of his fellow governors. That these actions came just as the national media descended into Indianapolis to cover the Final Four has laid bare the failures of the governor’s policy and brand management. It has blown wide open the once subter- ranean fissures in the Indiana Republican Party between the economic and social wings, and it has the political and policy establishments brac- ing for a “fix” of a law coming at 9 this morning that Pence sees as one of “perception,” while critics view it as a stamp of approval on the second class status of gays and lesbians who are about 10% of our population. “Clearly, clearly, there’s been misunder- standing and confusion and mischaracterization of this law, and I come before you today to say Gov. Mike Pence answers questions at Tuesday’s press conference. (HPI Photo how we’re going to address that,” Pence told by Mark Curry) about 100 state and national press on Tuesday morning. “I don’t believe for a minute that it was the received a total of $3.3 million in funding from government intention of the General Assembly to create a license to contracts and grants. By 2014, that funding had dropped discriminate or right to deny services to gays, lesbians or to $1.9 million, forcing five clinics to close. In addition, it anyone else in this state. And it certainly wasn’t my intent. comes as personal income has precipitously declined, 20% But I can appreciate that that’s become the perception, of Indiana children live in food-insecure homes, and infant not just here in Indiana but all across this country, and we mortality has spiked. need to confront that and confront it boldly in a way that The events of this past week now call into ques- respects the interests of all involved.” tion some of the most conspicuous tenets of the social This was a man-made crisis, created by what the conservative movement that Pence has led: That this is a Indiana Chamber has defined as “unnecessary legislation” “Christian nation,” when the forefathers strove to create that has resulted in more than 2,500 news stories and the separation between church and state; that abortion commentaries (and growing) that may be doing irrepa- trumps all other policy issues; that the collective poor rable harm to the once proud Indiana brand. While Gov. health of Hoosiers is all about individual decisions; that Pence has aimed his economic development establish- low taxes and shareholder profits are paramount to the ment at luring life science, advanced manufacturing, high general well-being of the population. tech industries, and matching regional employment needs with what has been an under-prepared workforce, it is the Arizona lesson lost corporate class that has sounded the alarms and gone into The fallout for Gov. Pence is that his political brand rebellion. has been seriously damaged. This comes for a governor The obscured story in all of this is the HIV epidem- who won office with a mere 49% of the vote. In that 2012 ic that has hit Scott County.