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Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb plans to draw on public appeal to pass a hate crimes bill.
Holcomb said in a news conference yesterday, he’s encouraging Indiana residents to contact their legislators and encourage them to pass a hate crimes bill.
The announcement yesterday, comes after Holcomb criticized the state’s leading hate crimes legislation, Senate Bill 12, after senate Republicans gutted protections in the bill last week. In a written statement last week Holcomb wrote, “The version of the bill approved today by the Senate does not get Indiana off the list of states without a bias hate crimes law. We have a long way to go, a lot of work to do, and fortunately the time yet still to do it. I will continue to fight for the right ultimate outcome for our state and citizens this year so we’re not right back here in the same place next year.”
Indiana is one of five states without a hate crimes bill. Senate Bill 12, which passed out of the state senate last week, is the leading bill to address hate crimes legislation in Indiana. Last week, Republican senators adjourned from their closed door caucus and authored an amendment to the bill, stripping it of protected classes, such as race, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation.
Republicans hold a supermajority in the state legislature – occupying 40 of fifty seats in the state senate.
Senate Bill 12 was authored by Lafayette Republican Ron Alting. Alting broke ranks and voted with nine Democrats against advancing his own bill out of the senate last week, after the protections were stripped from the legislation.
The bill is now in the state House of Representatives. Governor Holcomb’s statement yesterday signals he may be willing to sign the hate crimes bill into law, if it passes out of the house.
Holcomb told a news conference yesterday that the hate crimes law is “long overdue,” before citing the spray-painting of Nazi graffiti last summer outside a Carmel synagogue. According to the Associated Press, the first-term Republican governor said he hopes passage of any hate crimes bill would improve Indiana’s image and, in turn, increase economic growth.
Holcomb told AP, “This is about now, but also where we’re going to be in 5, 10, 15 years.”
Senate Bill 12 is sponsored in the House by Terre Haute Republican Greg Steuerwald and co-sponsored by District 32 Republican Tony Cook. It was referred to the house last Friday.
