I'm sure I'll hear more cries about Indiana having the "worst legislature" given the recent news that Indiana's General Assembly accidentally repealed FSSA, the largest state agency in the state. The fact though is that Indiana's legislature operates like every other state legislature in the country. Legislators have strong beliefs and make mistakes. Legislative bodies are slow to make changes and get bogged down in petty partisan squabbling. Indiana's General Assembly is no different in that respect than any other state legislature.
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| Indiana House of Representatives Chamber |
I decided to do a Google search this morning using the search phrase "worst state legislature." A quick look found that Alabama, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia,, Maryland, Tennessee, Kansas, New York, Texas, Ohio, Montana, Illinois, Arizona, Arkansas, California and New Jersey were all deemed the "worst state legislature." All the references about the Indiana General Assembly were from Hoosiers complaining about something and deeming their own state's legislative body the "worst." I found no scholarly articles that backed that up that claim.
One state though far and away dominated the google search - New York. New York is one of the few states with a full-time legislature. I should point out that most of the stories about how bad New York's state legislature is (or was?) was written before the recent passage of the law allowing same sex marriage.
Until I find some scholarly articles rating Indiana as the "worst state legislature," I'm going to continue being dismissive of the term as yet more evidence Hoosiers have an inferiority complex.
