The head of the state Democratic Party wants to know how much the state has spent defending Indiana‘s ban on same-sex marriage.
"It‘s asking the Attorney General to outline the expenses incurred with defending the state‘s marriage ban," said party chairman John Zody regarding a letter he delivered to Attorney General Greg Zoeller‘s office.
Zody says he does not have reason to believe the state has spent more than what the General Assembly budgeted for legal expenses for Zoeller‘s office, but Zody would like a dollar figure to see how much was spent at the same time he says money was being cut from other state agencies.
"He is dedicating staff time toward these efforts consistently to keep fighting on an issue that we are seeing nationwide is becoming less of an issue," Zody says.
Zody‘s letter also asked for the number of staff hours spent by Zoeller‘s employees on the case and requests to see the correspondence between Zoeller‘s office and the governor‘s office on the matter.
Governor Mike Pence has consistently said he hopes the courts will uphold the state‘s right to determine its own marriage laws.
"The governor has deferred to the Attorney General with what the state can and can‘t do when it comes to this law, which is okay, but you also have to look at what expenses are related to administering [the same-sex marriage ban] versus recognizing the marriages the governor said the state would not recognize after the stay was put into effect," Zody said.
Pence said Indiana would not affirm as legal the hundreds of same-sex marriages that took place between June 25, when U.S. District Judge Richard Young struck down the state‘s ban, and June 27, when the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals put a hold on his order pending appeal.
A panel from the 7th Circuit upheld Young‘s ruling last week.
In an emailed statement, Zoeller‘s spokesman Bryan Corbin said the attorney general's office would work to "promptly acknowledge this individual‘s request and work on collecting the information that Indiana law allows us to disclose."
Corbin reiterated that the money spent comes from the budget set by the General Assembly, which he says pays to defend the state against an average of 4,000 lawsuits per year.
"The State of Indiana has not paid for outside counsel and instead utilized internal resources to defend our State‘s law as is our duty," Corbin said.
While acknowledging that he may not get all the numbers he is looking for, Zody believes everything he requested should be available through an open records request, for any lawsuit against the state, not just the marriage cases.
"Public employees incurring expenses paid for by the taxpayer is, for the most part, public information," Zody says.
