Political positions
State biennial budget, 2014–15
Tallian is the ranking minority member of the Indiana Senate Appropriations Committee that sets the state's biennial budget. Her majority counterpart was Indiana State Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville). This position gives Tallian a visible role in the state and in the northwest delegation. [57] Tallian has criticized the Republican-controlled budget for holding the allotted funding for education steady over a decade, even as the population of students has grown from 1 million to 1.1 million students. The Republican majority has blocked all of her attempts to amend the budget to provide more funding for schools in poorer districts. [58] [59]
Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 2015
Tallian joined nine other Democrats in the Indiana Senate and the Democrats in the House and voted against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Indiana SB 101), but the legislation passed on primarily Republican support and on Governor Mike Pence's signature into law. [60] [61] [62] At the time, Governor Pence said, "This bill is not about discrimination." After a barrage of national criticism, threats of boycotts from around the US, and visible opposition from business leaders across Indiana, the Republicans in both chambers voted on a "fix" that would not allow LGBTQ discrimination but would also not grant them recognition under the Indiana Civil Rights Code. Tallian voted against the fix because it didn't offer enough protections for LGBTQ citizens. [60] The Senate Democrats have been working on amending the Indiana Civil Rights Code to include LGBTQ protections.
Minimum wage increase, 2015
Tallian led Democrats who were calling for an increase in the minimum wage from US$7.25, which is the federal minimum, to US$10.10 an hour. The latter figure is similar to the proposal in the U.S. Congress, known as Minimum Wage Fairness Act. [63] [64] She introduced legislation (SB 41) during the 2015 legislative session. She said, "Someone has to say that we need this. Someone has to speak for the people who otherwise have no voice. We're losing ground compared to other states on our median income." [63] Tallian supported raising the minimum wage in Indiana as a first-term state senator in 2006, before the federal minimum wage was gradually raised from US$5.15 to US$7.25 between 2007 and 2009. [65] [66] [67] In the 2015 General Assembly Session, Tallian proposed an amendment that would increase the state minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. This amendment was defeated.
Right to work, 2012
Governor Mitch Daniels signed right to work legislation, which prohibits unions from collective bargaining based on a membership that must pay mandatory dues, into law on 1 February 2012, over the objections of both unions and Senate and House Democrats. [68] Throughout the process and as a ranking minority member of the Pensions & Labor Committee, Tallian was a critic of the Republican proposals. She argued that the legislation would lead to lower wages and that the promised favorable atmosphere for business lacked evidence. [69] [70] She voted against the legislation in committee. [71] The Republican-controlled Indiana House and Senate both passed versions of the right to work legislation. Without the necessary votes to block the Republicans in either chamber, the House Democrats temporarily halted the effort by staging a boycott and preventing the chamber from getting a quorum, beginning on January 4, 2012. This tactic ended after fines were levied against absent House legislators. The Democrats in the Senate did not have enough members to use this same tactic. Immediately after the Senate's vote on the final legislation without changes, Daniels signed the legislation into law. [72]
Marijuana
Nuvo Newsweekly dubbed Karen Tallian "The Pot Legislator". [21] She has backed both the decriminalization of marijuana and allowing doctors to prescribe it as a legal form of pain medication. Her case was bolstered by the support of Indiana State Senator Brent Steele (R-Bedford) but he dropped his support after states like California and Colorado adopted their own laws, because he believed the debate had changed and those states' legislation would strengthen opposition in Indiana. Tallian has continued to push for allowing doctors to prescribe it. [73] She has allied with Indiana State Representative Linda Lawson (D-Hammond) on the issue. [74] Tallian told Nuvo in April 2015: "Frankly, I will tell you that as long as our current governor (Mike Pence) is in office, I don't think this is ever going to happen." [21]
Tallian has initiated the following legislation since 2011:
- 2011: SB 192 - Study of marijuana. This initial effort sought to create a study about the impact of Indiana's laws about marijuana. While the Senate's proposal passed, the similar House version of Reps. Linda Lawson and Thomas Knollman did not move out of committee, which effectively killed their effort. Tallian argued that 15,000 citizens are annually affected by the legislation, and the study advanced. [21] [75]
- 2012: SB 347 - Marijuana offenses. This piece of legislation sought to reduce the sentencing for marijuana-related cases. It never moved out of the committee. [21]
- 2013: SB 580 - Marijuana. Like the legislation in the 2012 session, it sought to reduce the sentencing for marijuana-related cases. It also never moved out of the committee. [21] [74]
- 2014: SB 314 – Legalization of small amounts of marijuana. This was part of a three-year effort to decriminalize some possession and reduce the sentencing for other convictions. This also died in committee. [21]
- 2015: SB 284 – Medical marijuana. This would establish a medical marijuana program and allow doctors to prescribe it for pain. [76]
Major Moves program, 2006
Governor Mitch Daniels initiated the program to expand and improve highway infrastructure in Indiana by providing a controversial funding mechanism. In her first term as state senator in 2006, Tallian led the opposition and critics against the Governor's funding solution to lease the state toll roads to a foreign company for a period of 75 years in exchange for US$3.85 billion paid upfront to fund the infrastructure projects. [31] [77] Tallian was the first to argue that the Governor's original plan gave the executive branch additional authority to privatize public transport assets, such as ports, railroads, and highways and bridges, which was then removed from the legislation and later narrowed to highways. [31] [32] [78] Another charge that Tallian leveled against the Major Moves program was that it bypassed normal bidding processes in favor of direct negotiation. [79] The Governor's plan passed on party-line vote. [78] [80]
