That’s The Alarm Bell You Are Hearing
By CCO Statehouse Editor Gail RieckenÂ
John Krull, Publisher of The Statehouse File, clearly was alarmed about poverty in Indiana in his recent article, ‘Shouts Across the Great Divide’.
He had just learned that almost half the people in Marion County (Indianapolis) are struggling to make ends meet. They are either below the poverty line ( 19% ) or above and struggling – the working poor (26%).
Added together that brings the number of people to 45%, according to the ALICE Report, Asset Limited, Income Constrained – folks that don’t have the buying power in personal income for basic necessities.
The numbers are about the same in Vanderburgh Co – 14% below the poverty line and 29% struggling to afford the basic necessities, a total of 43%.
It doesn’t take Newton’s apple falling on our heads to understand we all, including policymakers, have a real challenge to do something different than what we are doing. Our communities can’t succeed with nearly half of the population on survival mode.
Krull quotes The Indianapolis Business Journal: “the consequences to society of having a portion of the population consistently in poverty [are] – loss of productivity, increased crime rate, higher medical costs, greater rates of incarceration.â€
It’s time that our legislators move ahead on issues that affect working families, including policies like paid family and medical leave and increasing the minimum wage. We need to improve our education system statewide to help students get the good paying jobs, including model programs for incarcerated youth; we need to help families stay physically and mentally healthy. And yes, we need to protect the most vulnerable and that means solving the problems of the Department of Child Services (DCS).
In Indiana, legislators have a chance every summer to address family-support issues. This summer there are two study committees on family issues. One is going to continue work on the criminal justice system, and another is set to begin work on restarting the troubled Department of Child Services.
Ask your legislators to do everything they can to advance the issues that can help families exist the ALICE poverty numbers.
John Krull is right to be alarmed.
I say out of city residents should pay a tax just like out of state residents pay for the privilege of working in Indiana. They contribute. People move out of the city yet come in to enjoy our stuff. they dont want to pay the taxes etc for upkeep. Charge the tax based on their address on their yearly tax filings or put up a toll booth- its the new bridge plan for revenue. I often see an Evv Police car parked in a driveway 5 miles east of Boonville on Hwy 62. Whats up with that? Thats a lot of miles on a car. I hope the person is paying for that privilege. Money is tight and all avenues of revenue should be discussed.
Nothing but left wing elitist babble. The rich liberal elite trust funders thinks everyone should have gotten a trust fund. Sorry that’s not the way it works in real life. Why is it that the off springs of hard working people who have done well and had an easy life think all people have lived this way? What we need to look at and try to immolate is those poor folks coming across that border that work their butt off and do well. An unmet need or desire is a source of motivation, liberals work hard at killing motivation with handouts that keep generations in that cycle of poverty. I don’t think liberals will be happy until this country looks like LA.
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