Health care, public safety and school safety — those are the issues Hoosiers want the state government to focus on in 2025.
That’s according to results from the latest edition of the Hoosier Survey by the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State University.
More than 600 people were surveyed. And Interim Director Kevin Smith said those three issues were rated moderately or very important by nearly all of them.
“And that was an outcome that did not vary based on political affiliation,” Smith said.
The survey also asked about whether the Indiana's primary taxes — income, sales and property — are fair.
Despite state policymakers' recent focus on property tax reform, Smith said the survey shows that Hoosiers view the state sales tax as the most unfair of the three.
“A simple answer could be that this is something that people experience on a daily basis, as opposed to the property tax hitting them less frequently,” Smith said.
Nearly half of those surveyed said the sales tax is somewhat or very unfair, while a little more than one-third said the same about property taxes.
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The survey also shows that a strong majority of Hoosiers support legal access to cannabis, abortion access in the first trimester, and requiring a permit to carry a concealed gun.
That doesn’t match what Indiana lawmakers have enacted in recent years. But Smith said historically, policy often lags behind public opinion.
“Public opinion surveys like this can be interpreted to lead to a variety of conclusions,” Smith said. “The answers just aren’t that simple.”
For instance, while a majority of people in the survey are in favor of various gun restrictions, nearly as many also support allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
That result could line up with the nearly 90 percent of people who say school safety is moderately or very important for the state to focus on.
And while a majority support broader access to abortion, that issue is also at the bottom of the list of topics those in the survey said to focus on.
Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5 .
