From the Lafayette Journal & Courier:
Gov. Mike Pence unveiled a wide-ranging 2014 legislative agenda today that included tax cuts for businesses and new funding for pre-kindergarten programs.
Pence, who is entering his second year, also wants more money for roads and funds that would allow teachers to move to under-performing schools without taking a pay cut.
The agenda is especially ambitious for a session during which lawmakers won’t be crafting the state’s two-year budget. And Pence’s speech left a big question unanswered: how those tax cuts and spending increases will be funded.
Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, the Senate’s budget chief, said all of the issues Pence mentioned are worth talking about and have some value, but he voiced skepticism about providing new funding during a non-budget session.
“It’s fair enough to begin the discussion on them in 2014,” he said. “In all reality, we’re not going to redo the budget in 2014 and we’re not going to pass a mini-budget.
“Is there a crisis in any of these areas to require opening up the budget?” Kenley questioned.
John Hammond, an attorney with Ice Miller and supporter of Pence, characterized his speech as tantamount to a State of the State address.
“It was one of the most important and comprehensive policy addresses I’ve heard the governor make,” said Hammond. “It’s an aggressive agenda.”
He praised Pence’s proposal to phase out the business personal property tax and to take several bold steps in education, including the teacher choice and teacher innovation funds programs.
Pence said he wants to phase out the business personal property tax, which is a tax on business equipment and machinery. Ohio and Illinois don’t have that tax, Michigan is phasing it out, and Kentucky’s is lower, Pence said.
“I believe the way we tax and how we tax is a centerpiece of our ability to compete and attract investment and good paying jobs to Indiana,” he told a packed ballroom at law firm Bingham Greenebaum Doll’s annual legislative conference. “I believe the time has come to phase out the business personal property tax in the state of Indiana.”
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See the full article here:
http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013312050038
