From the Northwest Indiana Times:
A debate between leaders of the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Mike Pence over whether Indiana can afford Pence's campaign promise to reduce the state's income tax rate by 10 percent is about to go public in a big way.
Chase Downham, Indiana director of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group, announced Thursday that AFP will spend "six figures" next week to rally support for Pence's tax cut. It plans to run television ads in Indianapolis and deploy 40,000 volunteers to other areas of the state to talk about the need for the tax cut and get Hoosiers to demand their state legislators support it.
"We believe this tax cut is critical to keeping our state competitive and growing our economy," Downham said. "We feel that a dollar in the private economy is going to do a whole lot more good than another dollar of government spending."
Pence's proposed 2014-15 state budget reduces the personal income tax rate to 3.06 percent from 3.4 percent, a $750 million reduction in state revenue, and limits spending increases for most state agencies, including education, to 1 percent or less per year.
House Republicans, led by Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, last month approved a budget in House Bill 1001 that increases education spending beyond what the governor requested, but still only to 2009 levels. It also shuffles funding for some state agencies to permit $250 million in new, annual spending on road and bridge improvements.
The House budget does not include the governor's income tax cut, though it does speed up the phaseout of Indiana's inheritance tax. Bosma believes that's probably a better course for the state — even if AFP doesn't like it.
"They've been a close ally of Gov. Pence throughout his career, and I'm very confident they want to see his campaign promise viewed as successful," Bosma said. "Our goal here is to do what's right for the citizens of the state and it's easy to kind of bang a 'Hey, let's cut taxes' drum, but you've got to be sure it's a smart cut and it's sustainable in the long-run, not in an election cycle."
Downham said AFP's efforts on behalf of Pence's tax cut are "not coordinated with the governor's office at all."
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http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/conservative-group-to-demand-lawmakers-approve-pence-income-tax-cut/article_98bdeb27-e08c-50c2-91ce-bb66a6118831.html
