VALPARAISO, Ind. — The fight over Northwest Indiana's electric bills has a name on the ballot this fall: Ed Soliday.
The 10-term Republican from Valparaiso chairs the Indiana House utilities committee. His Democratic challenger in House District 4, Ryan Kominakis, is blaming him for rising utility rates and for sponsoring the 2019 law that exempted data center equipment from the state's 7% sales tax, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle in a story published Friday. Libertarian Travis Gearhart is also running, the Capital Chronicle reported.
Soliday was already taking heat over bill increases before an August storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of NIPSCO customers, the Capital Chronicle reported.
"He's the most powerful man in the state, really, as far as making laws around the utilities," Kominakis said, according to the Capital Chronicle. "He's quite literally authored himself, wrote every law, that is, in my opinion, screwing over regular people on the day to day."
Kominakis pointed to news reports that data center companies have benefited from more than $655 million in exemptions from state sales and other taxes. "That number is only going to grow," he said. "Just imagine what we could do with that kind of money to help regular people."
Soliday: 'a hysteria right now'
Soliday has defended the state's data center policies, saying the Legislature has responded to worries about electricity rates and water use, and he argued some opponents are stoking fears for political gain, the Capital Chronicle reported.
"The state provided an opportunity for locals by being competitive with other states," Soliday said. "It's a local decision, but that decision should be based upon the facts, and that really boils down to two areas: Is it aesthetically acceptable to our community, and is it economically beneficial? But we are going through a hysteria right now, where at public hearings there is a lot of screaming."
He also said a single-minded focus on rates ignores how complicated it is to keep power reliable and the grid resilient.
"They've got a horse and they're going to ride it," Soliday said. "Even though there is no (talk about) 'What are you going to do differently, and what are the unintended consequences, and how are you going to get it done?'"
Why the Region race matters statewide
Republicans hold a 70-30 edge in the Indiana House, a two-thirds supermajority they've kept since the 2012 elections. That margin lets the GOP do business even when no Democrats show up. Democrats would need to flip at least four seats to break it, and they've fallen short the past six cycles, the Capital Chronicle reported.
Democrats are running candidates in 97 of 100 House districts, which they say is the most since at least 2000. Republicans left 20 sitting Democrats unopposed, including five in Lake County, according to the report.
Other Democratic challengers are making the same data center pitch in Republican-held seats in the northern Indianapolis suburbs, near Meta's $10 billion campus going up outside Lebanon. Their mailers say Republicans "sold us out to data centers." Republicans say Democrats are twisting legislative votes, and that local governments get the final say on whether a data center gets built.
Gov. Mike Braun has kept backing data center projects even as cities and counties have passed moratoriums, the Capital Chronicle reported. A Free Press Indiana poll taken this month found 69% of likely voters opposed new data center construction and 18% supported it, according to the report.
The issue is live close to home, too. Michigan City's council is set to take up a revised data center moratorium that would exclude both phases of Google's project there, WVPE reported.
What's next
Indiana Senate Democrats' final statewide listening tour stop is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central at the Portage Public Library, 2665 Irving St., Lakeshore Public Media reported. Utility rates are on the list of topics. State Sens. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, and David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, are scheduled to attend, along with Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis. The session is free and open to the public.
The 2027 state budget session starts in January. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Photo credit
¹ Power lines near Malden, Porter County — photo by Chris Light, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized for web; this copy is shared under the same license.
² State Rep. Ed Soliday — photo from the Office of the Governor of Indiana, Wikimedia Commons, released into the public domain by its owner.
³ Indiana House chamber, Indiana Statehouse — photo by susi.bsu, Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 2.0. Resized for web.
