INDIANAPOLIS - State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis), ranking Democrat on the Indiana House Ways & Means Committee, issued the following statement last week regarding Senate Bill 1, the primary “tax relief†measure of the 2014 session of the Indiana General Assembly. I wanted to make certain you had an opportunity to read it:
“We entered this session back in January hopeful that we could do something to help our state’s middle class and reduce the 10-year decline in household incomes for Hoosiers. In short, we needed to do something for the people who need it the most.
“What did we get from our governor and his super-majorities?
“More cuts in taxes for the super-rich. Another …another… reduction in state corporate taxes and the financial institutions tax. The potential for reductions in the business personal property tax at the local level.
“Others have pointed out that these changes will not create jobs in Indiana. Throughout this session, no one was able to provide any credible proof of a link between these tax cuts and any kind of job creation.
“But I am compelled to focus on what a fiscal disaster this legislation is for our state.
“We already have given up over $1 billion in state tax revenue in the last few years due to previous cuts in the corporate and financial institutions taxes, as well as the elimination of the inheritance tax.
“With our revenue numbers nearly $90 million below forecast, and the distinct lack of clarity regarding how much revenue we might be losing through the IBM lawsuit and the arbitration loss from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, can we afford any further tax cuts, especially ones with such limited benefits?
“And do not forget that we are steadily accumulating a long list of needs that demand our attention.
“While we are going to provide some funding for a pre-K program, we still have not fully funded full-day kindergarten. Many school corporations in urban and rural Indiana are getting less state support. Our higher education system recently saw its support cut by the governor. We still have 900,000 residents who do not have health insurance, and at least 400,000 will not have access to health insurance because of our state’s decision not to expand Medicaid.
“This legislation also continues the trend toward making our schools and local units of government the lab rats in our state’s continued fiscal experimentation. In the case of the business personal property tax, we still have not yet heard more details of how the governor intends to make up any revenue that is lost to those local units.
“Indiana House Democrats made several attempts to bring some sensible behavior to this misguided tax cutting frenzy. We asked for a pilot program to see if the business personal property cut actually creates jobs. We wanted to give schools and libraries a bigger say in elimination of the tax, since they stand to lose millions of dollars in funding. We even asked for a public referendum on whether the people want this cut. None received support from the super-majorities.
“So we complete yet another session without doing anything to help the middle class…or improve skills of our workforce…or address our shameful rates of child fatalities.
“We have not simply missed opportunities to help Indiana this session. We have avoided them entirely.â€
Remind me again the substance of your “several attempts” to correct the “misguided tax cutting frenzy”.
Pence and his legislative majorities will continue to do the bidding of corporations and big donors. They are not there to help working people. This is not a surprise. The worm will turn.
Me and Pence both fully expect that many of the poor will continue to support him and his social and financial agenda. Still hoping for that elusive rub off, the trickle down. They are his biggest cheerleaders, makes ’em feel like part of the club. The actual beneficiaries of his largesse show their gratitude quietly.
Your second paragraph says it all, ‘Dana. Indiana has too many guppies that try to identify with the sharks, and don’t see how wrong they are until they get swallowed. It appears that several are on their way “down the hatch” now.
Then again, Indiana has more than its share of liberal deadbeat small-fry lampreys who welsh on paying back government loans and spend their time spying on their fellow citizens so that they can denounce them to the IRS for some reason or another.
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