There are true gems in the State of Indiana, and in my humble opinion, one of them is public broadcasting. I have been a proud member and supporter of our local public radio and television stations for as long as I can remember. Public broadcasting fills a vital need that cable, streaming, and YouTube simply cannot satisfy.

The Indiana General Assembly’s decision to eliminate the state’s $7.35 million annual contribution to public broadcasters will hurt — and it will hurt most in the places that can least afford it: small public broadcasters across the state.

The smaller the market, the harder the blow. As Indianapolis Business Journal reporter David Lindquist points out in an article on the IBJ website (subscription likely required), not every part of Indiana will feel this cut equally. Mark Newman, executive director of Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations Inc., tells Lindquist that while larger stations like WFYI in Indianapolis rely on state funding for about 5% of their annual budgets, smaller public TV and radio stations depend on it for 30% to 40% of their operating budgets.

“The elimination of funding is not insignificant for any station, but it’s considerably more significant for some,” Newman told the IBJ.

And the threat of lawmakers in Washington — including Indiana’s own Senator Jim Banks — cutting federal funding for public broadcasting could make an already bad situation even worse. Newman says his organization will work hard to find alternative sources of funding, but the task will be far from easy.

Penalizing the more rural areas of Indiana by stripping away all state support for public broadcasting makes no sense to me.