INDIANAPOLIS – We have a few days left in the 2013 session of the Indiana General Assembly.
The Speaker of the House says we may get done a few days before our April 29 deadline, and negotiators already are working overtime on the one bill we must pass this session—a biennial state budget.
Updated revenue projections now indicate our state’s financial picture is improving a little and we are collecting more money than before, but there still are substantial differences in the things I feel must be addressed in this session: helping the middle class first and reinforcing traditional local public schools.
Right now, most of the attention is focusing on tax relief for Hoosier families…or at least what those in charge call tax relief.
What are their solutions? Let’s review:
The governor is calling for a 10-percent cut in state income taxes, which means about $4 a week if you’re making around $50,000 a year.
House Republicans don’t want to cut state income taxes at all.
Senate Republicans advocate a 3-percent cut in state income taxes…which means about a buck a week in savings.
It’s a shame that a final answer will come from somewhere in the vicinity of those proposals. I say it’s a shame because House Democrats have a better idea about giving middle class taxpayers a break. Let me review that plan:
•A 15-percent state income tax cut for Hoosiers making less than $25,000.
•A 10-percent state income tax cut for Hoosiers making between $25,000 and $50,000.
•A 5-percent state income tax cut for Hoosiers making between $50,000 and $100,000.
•A 2.5-percent state income tax cut for Hoosiers making between $100,000 and $200,000.
Look at all those plans and you tell me: which does the most for folks like you?
What was done about creating jobs for Hoosiers? Let a headline from a newspaper in northern Indiana tell you: “Pence signs ‘jobs bills’ that create no jobs.â€
Let me remind you again…expanding affordable healthcare in Indiana would create 30,000 new Hoosier jobs and provide healthcare insurance coverage for 400,000 more Hoosiers.
Since I like to end these reports on a positive note, let me tell you about a major announcement made last week designed to help provide relief for people struggling to pay their mortgages and facing foreclosure.
The Hardest Hit Fund will make more than $180 million in federal funds available for homeowners who can no longer afford their mortgages because of:
•Unemployment or loss of a job;
•Underemployment or a major reduction in income;
•Substantial reduction in income due to the death of a family member;
•Significant non-elective medical expenses, procedures or emergencies; or
•Being called up for military service.
To get more details about the Hardest Hit Fund, call toll-free 1-877-GET-HOPE or visit www.877GetHope.com.
How much money is there in dollars and cents in a 10 percent tax cut for people with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000? Until Ms. Riecken can quanify the benefit to the taxpayer she has promised nothing more than a pig in a poke.
Ms. Riecken sofar has played the Obama game of getting your attention without informing you of anything meaningful.
My family earnings last year was $38,000. After all was said and done we had no tax liability. 10% of zero is zero so I agree with you that Riecken’s grandstanding is essentially empty rhetoric.
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