Corporate Captive: Big Business at the Indiana General Assembly, a new report released by Hoosier Action Resource Center, reveals how corporate power exercised an outsized influence at the 2021 session of the Indiana General Assembly undermining Indiana’s democracy and causing harms to everyday Hoosiers. In 2020, 91% of all campaign contributions made to Indiana General Assembly candidates came from PACS and large donors. By profiling the campaign contributions and lobbying efforts of four major industry lobbies, Corporate Captive reveals how the priorities of this small, but powerful donor class, shaped the outcomes of Indiana’s legislative process.
*Corporate Captive was published by Hoosier Action Resource Center
On March 23, 2020 Governor Eric Holcomb issued an executive order shutting down all but essential activities to stop the spread of COVID-19. Businesses shuttered and children were kept home from school as Hoosiers transformed their lives to protect their own health and the health of their neighbors. Many Hoosiers already struggled to make ends meet, but they found ways to support one another during a year like none other. This should have been a call for our leaders to recognize and honor our suffering and to take bold action to create a better future. But for too many lawmakers, the pandemic provided cover to ignore their constituents while favoring powerful, monied interests. This report details the struggles Hoosiers have faced over the last year, the failure of the legislature to advance bills to support everyday Hoosiers, and how we can move forward toward a brighter future for all people in Indiana.
*One Year Under Covid-19 was published by Hoosier Action Resource Center
For the past three years, Hoosier Action has worked in coalition with other Indiana community organizations and businesses to try to improve the conditions of pregnant workers, and uplift the voices of the workers who have been forced to choose between their paycheck and a healthy pregnancy. For too long, Hoosiers have been plagued by shamefully high rates of maternal and infant mortality rates. According to the CDC, the preterm birth rate in Indiana is 10.2% and the state’s maternal mortality rate is amongst the worst in the country. Reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers–which are often no- or low-cost but high-impact—can help to prevent complications including low birth weight, preterm birth, preeclampsia, and more.
Statewide grassroots organizing and legal opposition pressured the state of Indiana to suspend a harmful proposal to implement work requirements in the state’s Medicaid program on October 31, 2019. With funding from Community Catalyst’s Health Justice. Fund, Hoosier Action, implemented a campaign to ensure accessible and affordable care for all. This case study highlights the innovative organizing and campaign work of Hoosier Action, a member-led, multi-issue organization that organizes rural and small-town Hoosiers, as they worked to suspend the state’s Medicaid work requirement.