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May/June 2012 –
BizVoice
/Indiana Chamber
21
increases from $100,000 to $250,000. This will save children
inheriting the family business as much as $15,000 this year.
Beginning in 2013, the inheritance tax will be phased out equally
(10% annually) over nine years – going away completely in 2022.”
Protecting the 2011 education reforms involving charter
school expansion, school choice, merit pay for teachers
and teacher collective bargaining
KB:
“Indiana’s actions last year in education were the boldest
of any state and represent a greatly improved educational
environment for our young students. So it was vitally important
to ensure that these reforms stay
intact and be executed as
intended. We’re happy to report
that happened. In fact, in a couple
instances, the existing law was
made stronger. There was
significant improvement to the
charter school funding process
and a needed technical fix to the
eligibility for (school choice)
scholarship tax credits.”
Defeating health care mandates
KB:
“All attempts that would have
required businesses to offer a
certain health care coverage or an
assignment of benefits policy fell
by the wayside. These actions would have increased the cost of
health care premiums for employers and their employees.”
Common sense simplification and reforms to local
government structures and practices
KB:
“There continues to be resistance to this issue due to ties
many legislators have to their own local governments; the
pushback comes from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Nevertheless, a multi-year effort to address nepotism and
conflict of interest for local government officeholders and
employees was finally realized. There are too many examples
where taxpayers pay for excessive costs because an employee
also serves on the legislative body that approves that local
government unit’s budget. The grandfathering in of current
employees is too generous, but this law is still a positive step that
newly hired local government employees will have to abide by.”
Waiting for 2013
Exempting the state’s taxation of machinery and equipment
KB:
“Indiana needs to be on a level playing field with surrounding
states – some of them have already made this move or are
considering it now. In mid-March, Franklin (Indiana) lost out
on a company and its 400 jobs to an Ohio town directly because
of this. The company plainly said the determining factor was
cost savings; heading that list was not having to pay personal
property taxes that are charged on equipment and machinery.
“These actual examples that are coming to light will hopefully
resonate with legislators and lead them to act next session.
From the Chamber side, this will be at or near the top of our
list of things to advocate for.”
Expanding school accountability
KB:
“Activity outside of the Legislature – but happening as the
session began – had great bearing on this issue. A rule was
adopted by the State Board of Education that is detrimental to
more than a decade of work to improve school accountability.
It restores ‘relative’ standards, which translates to lower
expectations of low-performing students. Aiming lower is not a
good idea and one that was
adamantly opposed by both
traditional education groups
and reform advocates,
including the Indiana
Chamber.
“The new rule treats growth
as a bonus system rather than
making it the prominent
measure that many observers
had anticipated. And the
metrics of the system are so
overly complicated that
neither schools nor
communities will have any
idea how they are doing until
state officials inform them at the end of each year.
“As a result of that rules debate, several related legislative
proposals fell under heavy scrutiny and were ultimately
defeated. In the final days of the session, the concern from
legislative leaders reached such a high level that they created a
special commission that will study the rulemaking process and
the content of the recently passed accountability rule. We
remain hopeful that state education officials will revisit this.”
Incorporating a work share component into the state’s
unemployment insurance system
KB:
“This was a bipartisan issue that regrettably never really
gained any traction. It would have given an employer the cost-
cutting option to reduce the work hours of its employees by a
certain percentage (generally 20% to 50%) instead of cutting
the position(s) completely. The affected employees would be
able to collect work sharing benefits (a portion of their
unemployment pay) in addition to maintaining their job on at
least a part-time basis.”
Grading the Legislators
Want to know if your legislator voted for pro-economy,
pro-jobs legislation? The answers will be revealed in the
2012 Legislative Vote Analysis
, which will be published
online in May at www.indianachamber.com/lva, with a
summary included in the July-August
BizVoice
®
.
Education issues – particularly school accountability – are expected
to get more legislative attention in 2013.