Gov. Eric Holcomb wants to meet with state lawmakers in a special session before the month is out to pass legislation that he says will help Hoosiers out when it comes to dealing with record-high inflation.
The plan is to return $225 to each tax-paying Hoosier. $700 for married couples. That money, he says, would come from $1 billion in cash reserves that the state doesn’t need at the moment.
However, some might be asking whether the money would actually make inflationary pressures even worse.
“It’s giving back dollars that Hoosiers have not only earned but spent,” Holcomb explained. “The inflation is driven by very specific causes … that is a lot of ‘funny money,’ or printed money out of thin air. Federal, trillions of dollars that are washing around.”
Holcomb said when the federal government gave out coronavirus relief money, that was completely new money being added to the economy. Many economists say this is the reason for an overheated economy thus resulting in high inflation.
Holcomb said the money you will be receiving from the state is money that has already been spent and will not be any additional dollars added to the economy, so it won’t make add to inflationary pressures. Instead, it will actually help alleviate them.
The governor added that the time of this inflationary relief would also be impeccable.
“June is typically our second biggest month for tax revenue,” he said. ” So even though we are a billion over already, we’re going to add to that.”
Some might question whether the state should be dishing out even more than $225 per Hoosier. Holcomb clarified that anything more merits a more long-term discussion as far as the state budget is concerned. That discussion would likely happen in the next legislative session set to happen in January. The upcoming session is a budget year.
Holcomb is aiming for the last week of June to call state lawmakers into the Statehouse for a special session to pass his inflationary relief plan.
