Issues

I will fight to ensure our children receive a first class education.  We must work to lower class sizes, provide free text books, and ensure our schools get their fair share of state funding.

I am tired of seeing Indiana fall behind on education.  I am committed to full-day kindergarten.  The benefits to children and to our society are simply too great to be lost.  I believe that our current graduation rate is far too low.  Too many of our young people are left with shrunken career opportunities.  We need to demand more of teachers and administrators, but more importantly of ourselves.  Too many of our young people are not being challenged to do their best.  We all need to work on this.

I see our colleges and universities as being one of our greatest assets.  I marvel at the number of people from all over the world who attend our universities.  I see our universities as a driving force for economic development in the state.  In the legislature, I will work to be sure that our universities are challenged and are equipped to meet those challenges.

Healthcare costs continue to rise resulting in thousands of Hoosiers being under-insured and uninsured.  We need to increase incentives for businesses that provide coverage and push to allow pooling for small businesses.

I will not be satisfied while hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers are without health insurance.  I will not be satisfied while many who have medical insurance find that it is inadequate when a crisis arises.  While I am hopeful that a new administration in Washington will make a major improvement in providing health care to our people, I am not prepared to sit idly by.  I will join with others in our legislature to continue to shrink the rolls of the uninsured and under-insured.

I am running for the Indiana House of Representatives District 86 because I am concerned about the future of our community.  I think that the legislature should solve the property tax crisis facing our neighborhoods before that crisis causes home values and neighborhoods to decline.  I think our property tax system must be completely overhauled to make it fair, transparent & predictable.

Press Release: June 16, 2008 - Ed DeLaney to Deliver Property Tax Questionaires to 15,000 Households in House District 86

This headline has it right.  We have made progress on property taxes.  However, the system is still wildly inconsistent in assessing home values, way too complex and not predictable.  Please take a moment to read this and let me know what you think.  Property Taxes: The Clean-Up Has Only Begun: March 14, 2008 - The Journal Gazette.

I will work to create partnerships between communities, government, and businesses to promote economic development and attract high-paying jobs with good benefits.

Here is a link to an article that may be of interest to you.  Despite the headline, the text of this article sheds a lot of light on the reality of job losses in Indiana.  Delta Faucet, GlasCraft Lay Off 165 Workers. The Indianapolis Star, May 8, 2008.

Indiana can no longer rely solely on automobiles for transportation.  The cost of gasoline and air pollution both argue for efficient, reliable and inexpensive methods of transporting our citizens to and from work.  We need to increase bus transportation immediately and explore rail transportation for long range solutions to the financial and environmental costs of commuting.  The State just increased the sales tax on gasoline by about four cents a gallon.  Couldn’t we dedicate at least one of these fours cents a gallon to public transportation?

We must implement the key recommendations of the Kernan-Shepard report designed to eliminate unnecessary layers of government.  These conclusions can save us money and make government more understandable.

Streamlining Local Government: We've got to stop governing like this.

Every day brings a new story about the homicide rate in Central Indiana.  Domestic violence accounts for a significant percentage of that murder rate.  There are proposals the General Assembly can pass to give law enforcement the tools to reduce the domestic violence murder rate.  This is an issue I have followed closely.  My wife, Ann, is the Executive Director of the Julian Center.  I want to be an advocate for victims of domestic violence and their children to make it easier for them to choose safety and to prosecute the offenders.