Porter County Republican Party Chair Nathan Uldricks is hoping to unseat state Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., one of just 10 Democrats in the Indiana Senate, in District 4.
Both agree reliability and affordability when it comes to electricity are issues. “I don’t think the supermajority can ignore this anymore,” Pol said.
“The last couple of years, we have tried to get the supermajority to work with us on actually taking measures to reduce people’s costs,” Pol said.
He cited an older person who sat down with a financial consultant to figure out a retirement plan. The NIPSCO bills that were once $150 to $175 are now pushing $400 a month, with other costs increasing as well.
Among the legislation the Democrats proposed were bills to cap rate increases and eliminate the sales tax on utility bills. “We had bills out there that would limit what NIPSCO could spend that money on,” Pol said.
During the lockout, he said, “they were spending their money on advertising to trash-talk their employees,” Pol said. With NIPSCO being a monopoly, he doesn’t believe ratepayers should foot the bill for the utility’s ads.
Uldricks also noted NIPSCO’s monopoly status for over a century. “NIPSCO is guaranteed profit margins. No other business that I can think of off the top of my head is guaranteed a profit,” he said.
Having ratepayers foot the bill for new generating capacity up front is like charging current customers so a restaurant can open a new location, he said. Send NIPSCO to the capital markets like any other business, Uldricks urged.
Uldricks wants NIPSCO to upgrade the grid and make it more reliable and affordable. “The (Aug. 11) storm exposed the age of our grid,” he said. Ratepayers are paying about $2 billion to switch from coal-fired plants to renewable energy. “Ratepayers should not be paying those upfront costs,” he said.
Pol said members of Steelworkers Local 12775 have opened his eyes about staffing issues and NIPSCO’s relationship with its employees. The employees “had a laundry list of ideas,” but NIPSCO didn’t ask them for ideas and management didn’t want to listen, the workers said. “I don’t understand who they’re talking to about reliability if they’re not actually talking to people out there with boots on the ground,” he said.
Had the workers been on lockout during the Aug. 11 derecho and its aftermath, outsiders wouldn’t have had the institutional knowledge NIPSCO employees bring, Pol said.
A few years ago, the average Hoosier didn’t know what the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission does, Pol said. “You didn’t see (Gov. Eric) Holcomb or (Mike) Pence or (Mitch) Daniels talking too much about what the IURC is doing.”
“As this problem has grown, people have gotten much smarter about the topic in general,” Pol said.
“We have to lower utility costs for sure,” Uldricks said.
Pol suggests retention elections like Indiana Supreme Court justices face, ideally every two years.
He fears electing IURC members could turn bad, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling giving corporations and other special interest groups a lot of latitude to pour money into campaigns.
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Gov. Mike Braun is replacing IURC members, Uldricks noted. All members of the IURC are appointed by the governor.
Braun also has suspended the gas tax since April to reduce the pain at the pump for drivers with internal combustion engines.
“If I were in Gov. Braun’s position, I think I would have done it,” Pol said. But what effect will that decision have in the long term on funding for road construction? So far, the money has come from the state’s surplus.
Uldricks wants to do a deep dive into the entire system of taxation, lowering taxes while still doing what needs to be done.
“Do we need a gas tax? Where should additional funding come from?” he wondered.
Pol has a different question. “I’ve kind of wondered how they were going to do the justification for toll roads, and this could be the justification for it,” Pol said.
If that happens, Pol said the state could create vouchers for transportation, similar to the ones used for education, so people can afford those tolls to get to work and back.
Braun also has floated the idea of eliminating the property tax for senior citizens.
Uldricks was elected to the Pine Township Advisory Board in 2022. At the time, assessments in Porter County were going up, and there were wide swings in what people would be paying.
“I remember a senior. I was at her door, and she was crying” because of the tax bill resulting from that higher assessment, he said. “Assessed value swings are unfair and wrong, and I would take action to reform the assessment process.”
Just because someone bought an expensive home down the road from you shouldn’t mean your home is worth more and your tax bill is higher as a result, Uldricks said. Seniors, especially the ones on fixed incomes, should get relief on property taxes.
Pol said that was addressed by Senate Enrolled Act 1, “a terrible law for communities.” That law aims to throttle local government revenue and, as a result, spending.
He said it includes a little-known aspect, “just this massive giveaway for big businesses,” with a major reduction in property taxes that businesses didn’t even ask for. “It’s so big that pretty much every business gets to take advantage of it,” he said. That provision was slipped in during a conference committee meeting to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, Pol said.
Uldricks wants to reexamine SEA 1 to lift local government’s burden from lost revenue while also providing property tax relief. “That is of course a hard problem to solve,” he said.
The law gives all but the smallest municipalities the power to adopt an income tax to make up some of the lost revenue, but schools, libraries, conservancy districts, fire territories and other forms of local government have no such power.
Uldricks and Pol have non-budget concerns as well.
“I’m very concerned about elections,” Pol said, and exercising the right to vote. Indiana’s voter turnout is among the lowest in the nation.
He doesn’t want Indiana to redistrict before the new census figures come out. No one cares about that except people who want to consolidate power, he said.
Instead, the focus should be on taking care of working-class Hoosiers, Pol said.
Uldricks wants to make Indiana more beautiful. “I adopted a road myself, and I’m on the hook for cleaning it,” he said.
“I think we should take pride in this beautiful part of the state as well as the whole state,” he said, perhaps extending the adopt-a-road idea for cleaning up streams as well.
Uldricks wants voters to choose him because of his mindset. “I’m an engineer. I’m a problem-solver. I love bringing that type of mentality to politics.”
“I’ve been deemed to be the most effective Democratic legislator” in Indiana, Pol said. “People saw me and (Portage Mayor) Austin (Bonta) out there,” following the Aug. 11 derecho, he said.
“You see me everywhere,” Pol said. “I think I represent this area incredibly well because I’m responsive to people.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.