COMMENTARY: 'Religious freedom' fiasco dominated legislative session

Only it was Pence and his allies in the House and Senate Republican supermajorities who learned a lesson they dare never forget: Hoosiers no longer will stand for discrimination, or the appearance of discrimination, against gays and lesbians.

Indiana still is picking up the pieces from the worldwide furor unleashed by legislative passage and Pence approval of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Senate Enrolled Act 101, which many believe licensed discrimination under the guise of religion.

While the immediate threats to move companies, relocate conventions and boycott Indiana died down after Pence signed a second measure, SEA 50, prohibiting the "religious freedom" law from being used to deny services based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the long-term fallout remains to be seen.

Already Democratic candidates for state office in 2016 are using the RFRA debacle to argue that Pence and the state legislators who approved the law, including all Northwest Indiana Republican representatives and senators, deserve to be tossed out of office.

At the same time, the RFRA "fix" has angered Christian conservatives, led by Crown Point Pastor Ron Johnson of Living Stones Church, who are threatening to cut off financial and volunteer support for Hoosier Republicans due to their failure to defend religious liberty in the face of overwhelming criticism from "corporate thugs" and "the gay mafia."

It is entirely possible that Pence, who was elected in 2012 with only 49 percent of the vote, could face primary challengers from the social issues wing of the GOP, his traditional base, and the corporate side of the party, his primary focus as governor.

Pence's national ambitions also have been shoved to the back burner due to RFRA, at least until 2020.

The change in Hoosier attitudes toward discrimination based on sexual orientation came remarkably fast.

State lawmakers last year halted a proposal to add Indiana's now-judicially invalidated ban on gay marriage to the state constitution, House Joint Resolution 3, recognizing there had been some shift in public opinion.

But nearly all Statehouse Republicans confessed in recent weeks they never anticipated the outrage RFRA would produce.

Though some, including Pence, continue to believe it was caused by a failure to fully understand the law, rather than its discriminatory potential.

"Looking back, as governor of the state, I wish I could have foreseen the controversy that would ensue," Pence said. "As I've said, I regret the difficulty that Indiana passed through during a time of great misunderstanding."

RFRA and its antidiscrimination follow-up fully engulfed the General Assembly for two weeks in late March and early April, but it is hardly the only memorable outcome of the four-month legislative session.

The state budget, House Enrolled Act 1001, provided the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority with $6 million a year for the next 30 years to expand the South Shore Line to Dyer, opening a new commuter connection to Chicago and its high-paying jobs for region residents.

Transit-oriented development along the current and future rail lines almost is certain to follow, and may get a boost from Pence's $84 million Regional Cities Initiative, HEA 1403, aimed at luring talent and investment to areas with significant growth potential.

Land-based casinos finally won approval, in HEA 1540, some two decades after lawmakers decided Indiana's gaming industry should begin on cramped riverboats, just in case it didn't take and they needed to float away.

But facing new competition from Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and likely soon a tribal casino in South Bend, the Legislature resolved to fight back by turning the casino boats into regional entertainment destinations, and in the process hopefully save some 13,000 jobs and nearly $1 billion in annual state and local casino tax revenue.

On education, the General Assembly approved $454 million in new school funding, bringing spending on elementary and high schools to $16 billion, or 52 percent of all state appropriations, during the two-year period that begins July 1.

Teachers also will earn more through performance pay and can claim a $100 income tax credit for classroom supply purchases (HEA 1001), failing schools will face state intervention in four years instead of six (HEA 1638) or can participate in a friendly takeover by a charter school operator (HEA 1009), and reams of bureaucratic school paperwork have been eliminated (SEA 500).

Only time will tell if the SEA 1 appointment changes to the State Board of Education make the policy panel more willing to work with Glenda Ritz, the Democratic state superintendent of public instruction, who also lost some of her authority in what many see as a power grab by the Republican-dominated Legislature.

Then there are the less heralded, but still important, measures already or soon to be law, including increases in microbrewery production limits (SEA 297); new energy efficiency standards (SEA 412); elimination of business personal property tax filing for small companies (SEA 436); stricter ethics standards for state lawmakers (HEA 1002); and a study of redistricting reforms (HEA 1003).

The state budget (HEA 1001) also dedicates $13.5 million to reducing infant mortality, $12 million to domestic violence prevention, $22 million to promote adoption, $50 million to celebrate Indiana's 2016 bicentennial, $200 million for Interstate highway widening, $2.4 million to plan an emerging technologies building at Purdue University Calumet and $1.25 million for historic building preservation.