INDIANAPOLIS—Governor Eric J. Holcomb today announced several new appointments and reappointments to various state boards and commissions.
Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority Board of Directors
The governor made one new appointment to the board of directors for the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority:
Tim Fesko (Dyer), former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, will join the board and will serve as its chair. His term expires January 31, 2022.
State Ethics Commission
The governor made one reappointment to the State Ethics Commission:
James Clevenger (Plymouth), partner with the law office of Wyland Humphrey & Clevenger, LLP, will continue his service on the commission and will continue to serve as its chair. His term expires December 31, 2021.
The governor also made two new appointments to the commission:
Corinne Finnerty (North Vernon), attorney with the Law Offices of McConnell Finnerty P.C., will join the commission. Her term expires December 31, 2021.
Katherine Noel (Kokomo), attorney with Noel Law, will join the commission. Her term expires December 31, 2021.
State Lottery Commission
The governor made three reappointments to the State Lottery Commission:
William Zielke (Fort Wayne), retired business executive, will continue his service on the commission and will continue to serve as its chair. His term expires December 31, 2021.
Deb Kunce (Carmel), managing principal of CORE Planning Strategies, will continue her service on the commission. Her term expires December 31, 2021.
Milton Thompson (Indianapolis), attorney and of counsel with Bleeke Dillon Crandall and president and CEO of Grand Slam, will continue his service on the commission. His term expires December 31, 2021.
The governor also made one new appointment to the commission:
David Redden (Noblesville), retired business executive, will join the commission. His term expires December 31, 2021.
Evansville Police arrested 34 year old RONNIE SANDERS on multiple charges following a short car chase. The incident began around 8:00am on Saturday morning
Police attempted to stop SANDERS after he fired a handgun several times during an argument in the 1500 block of Irvington Ave.
A 911 caller gave a description of SANDERS’ car when he left the scene. Officers spotted the car near Broadway and Barker and attempted to pull him over.
SANDERS sped away, but quickly lost control and struck a utility pole. He was taken into custody after a brief standoff. A stolen handgun was found in the car.
SANDERS was convicted of armed robbery in 2004 and is prohibited from possessing a firearm. He is also a habitual traffic violator.
SANDERS was arrested for:
CT I Theft- Receiving (L6)
CT II Possession of a Firearm by Felon (L4) CT III Resisting Law Enforcement (L6)
CT IV Operating vehicle as HTV (L6)
FOOTNOTE: All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court if law. Report crime anonymously with WeTip at 1-800-78-CRIME.
A major change is coming to Kentucky’s Medicaid program. Governor Matt Bevin announced federal approval of the state’s request to revamp the program.
Starting in July, able-bodied people on Medicaid who do not have children will be required to do what’s called community engagement to get their benefits.
That could be volunteer work, job training or school. Kentucky is the first state to try the new approach.
Bevin pushed back against Congressman John Yarmuth who called the move dangerous and irresponsible. Bevin says,â€How is it dangerous to give someone an opportunity to make their life better? How is that dangerous? How is that irresponsible to expect people to be engaged in their own outcomes and to create an environment for people to have a chance to get healthier. How is that irresponsible?â€
The new requirements do not apply to the elderly, the disabled and those with dependent children.
For the first time in Indiana history, a Senate committee has approved a bill allowing Sunday alcohol sales, moving the measure to the full Senate.
The Senate Public Policy Committee passed Senate Bill 1 on Wednesday with a 9-0 vote. The vote came after brief testimony from the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, Indiana Retail Council and other industry organizations, as well as multiple chambers of commerce, who each spoke in support of the bill. The testimony closely mirrored that heard earlier Wednesday by the House Public Policy Committee on its version of a Sunday sales bill, House Bill 1051. However, the House panel did not call a vote on its legislation.
“It is time for Sunday sales,†Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers chair Jon Sinder said in a statement after Wednesday’s testimony. “Today’s committee hearings were a significant step forward in the legislative process that we hope will end with Hoosiers being able to purchase alcohol for carryout on Sundays for the first time since Prohibition without compromising on safety.â€
Both the House and Senate versions of the Sunday sales legislation would allow liquor, grocery, convenience and drug stores and restaurants to sell alcoholic beverages for carryout from noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays. The legislation is based on recommendations from the Alcohol Code Revisions Commission, which recent months studying Indiana’s retail alcohol sales laws.
Sen. Ron Alting, who chairs the Public Policy Committee, served on the alcohol commission and authored SB 1. Prior to beginning Wednesday’s hearing, he told his fellow committee members that he was confident in SB 1 because it had something that similar legislation in years past did not – simplicity.
While previous Sunday sales bills have restricted the placement of alcohol in stores and clerk qualifications, SB 1 simply allows retailers that already sell alcohol six days a week to add a seventh day, he said. However, testimony from the Indiana Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking urged the General Assembly to create requirements for store placement and clerk training.
Aside from a handful of questions for the witnesses who testified on SB 1, there was no committee discussion on the measure. Speaking to reporters after the unanimous vote, Alting said his bill’s success was largely a matter of timing.
“It’s never been offered in the Senate because if it gets killed over in the House of Representatives and doesn’t even have a chance, why would I waste taxpayer dollars drafting it, going through all the motions, knowing that it has no sky to look at whatsoever,†Alting said. “So I think the difference was the timing was ready.â€
The Lafayette Republican also credited the compromise between the Association of Beverage Retailers and Indiana Retail Council for SB 1’s passage. Previously, the IABR and liquor stores had opposed Sunday alcohol sales out of fear of losing business, but the organization reached a compromise with the Indiana Retail Council last fall that Alting said allowed the measure to move forward.
“They’ve come together and smoked the peace pipe and everything seems to be in agreement with them,†Alting said. “So you notice there’s no one fighting it in the halls, there’s no one fighting it in here, there’s really no big strong opposition to it. It just shows you what can happen on good positive legislation if everyone works together.â€
However, the compromise between the liquor and big box stores associations could signal defeat for Senate Bill 26, a measure that would expand cold beer sales beyond liquor stores. Alting’s committee will hear SB 26 during its meeting on Jan. 17, and he said after Wednesday’s vote that he would not try to push SB 1 through the Senate until the cold beer legislation had been given full committee consideration.
When it does come time for a Senate vote on SB 1, Alting said he expects the bill to pass the full chamber with the same ease as it did in committee, assuming the bill is “kept clean†and is free of amendments that would add “controversial matters†to the legislation.
The Public Policy Committee will consider SB 26, authored by Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, at noon Jan. 17 in the Senate chamber.
President Donald Trump’s son Eric is preparing to capitalize on a windfall he received from his father during the presidential campaign: He’s combining three luxury Manhattan high-rise apartments, one of which he purchased at a throwaway price from his father, into one potentially lucrative penthouse.
Such bargain basement sales are usually treated as gifts by the IRS. But they might not have been taxed that way, tax experts said, because of advantages available only to real estate developers.
Last month, Eric transferred ownership of one of the condos — unit 14G — and two other adjacent apartments he owns into a new entity called 100 CPS Penthouse LLC.
He had already applied for permits to combine these three units into a 2,400-square-foot apartment on the top floor of a building that overlooks Manhattan’s Central Park. The estimated cost to combine the apartments: $410,000.
All told, Eric paid just under $3 million for the three apartments. With the estimated renovation costs included, he will have spent more than $3.3 million to create the penthouse.
How much Eric could get on the market if he sold such a large penthouse is not clear, but for comparison’s sake, an apartment of 1,700 square feet on a lower floor of the same building sold for $7.5 million in 2013. At that price per foot, the penthouse would sell for over $10 million. Higher floors tend to command steeper prices.
In 2008, a 4,400-square-foot unit in the building went on the market for $38 million but never sold.
Representatives for the Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment.
David Herzig, a tax professor at Valparaiso University Law School, said the fact that Eric needed unit 14G in order to assemble the enlarged penthouse could make the fair market value of the gifted apartment even higher than previously thought.
The $350,000 deal he got from Trump “might not only have been a fire sale,†he said, “but if this is a key component that you would need to combine them together to make a penthouse, to get the requisite number of rooms, that actually means that this property should have been sold at a premium, not a discount.â€
The Trump Parc East building in New York CItyÂ
It’s not clear why Trump sold unit 14G to Eric for just $350,000, when he sold another unit, the 1,350-square-foot 14D, to Eric for $2 million in 2008. That was much closer to its likely market value.
If he had simply given the apartment to Eric for free, Trump could have incurred up to 40 percent tax on its market price. But the sale for $350,000 could have been arranged to look like a “fair market sale†and not a gift.
As the developer of the building, Trump had some leeway with how he priced unsold apartments. He could have demonstrated that the real value was very low if, for example, the apartment was still subject to city rent regulations or was in need of significant repairs. The apartment’s new function as the keystone for a penthouse, however, makes that a difficult case to argue, Herzig said.
Trump paid transfer taxes on the sale, which isn’t the norm when gifting a property. But he also did not check a box on sales documents to indicate that the sale was between two relatives.
The tax reform bill the president signed into law last month increased the amount of tax-free gifts individuals can hand down to their children from $5 million to $10 million. Without the president’s tax returns, we might never know if Trump reported the $350,000 sales to Eric as gifts.
Trump was listed as Trump Parc East’s legal salesman until August of last year, eight months into his presidency, filings with the New York State Attorney General show. The president’s two oldest sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are now in charge of selling the 14 remaining apartments in the building owned by the Trump Organization.
FOOTNOTE: Decca Muldowney contributed to this report. Â The CCO posted this article without opinion, bias or editing.
THOSE FOLKS WERE TOUGHMy Mom’s three brothers and one of her three sisters served in the Army during World War II (1941-1945). Aunt Betty was a nurse, Uncle Bud, who was a rodeo cowboy, was in the cavalry, Uncle Buck flew close air troop support over Europe and Uncle Bill killed and saw killed way too many men from Anzio to Germany. Mom sent any extra we had, and some not so extra, to support her siblings and their comrades.My Mom’s Mom’s Mom’s father, my great-great grandfather immigrated with his parents from Bern, Switzerland in 1852 when he was fourteen. His father served as a career soldier in
My great-great grandfather, John Giggy, enlisted in Company H, Forty-Fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry on August 28, 1861. His first major battle was Fort Donalson then he was wounded at Shiloh and sent to the military hospital in Evansville to recover.
After a short furlough he rejoined his regiment in Murfreesboro then at Chickamauga was wounded in the hip on September 19, 1863, after which he walked back to Bridgeport, Alabama using a bed slat for a crutch and having nothing to eat for 3 days but 3 crackers. He was then ordered to the hospital in Nashville before being furloughed again until he rejoined his regiment at Chattanooga on December 31, 1863 (Happy New Year?)
He continued fighting and marching, marching and fighting until mustered out at Indianapolis in October 1865. He became a farmer and a stone mason and fathered 9 children including my great grandmother, Agnes (Giggy) Vulgamore.
Thereafter he simply went about his life without thinking his country owed him anything more than a fair opportunity to raise his family and be left alone.
I never had the chance to meet him but I am confident his toughness helped buy me and my siblings a better life. Thanks to Grandpa, Aunt Betty, my uncles and all the other tough and non-assuming veterans who did their duty so the rest of us could do things they could not have dreamed of.
State Senator Jim Tomes (R-Wadesville) is filing for re-election in Senate District 49. He represents Gibson and Posey Counties and a portion of Vanderburgh County.
Tomes is a Vietnam War veteran and has said he has devoted his life to serving his country and fighting for freedom. He said he wants to fight for the children, farmers, veterans, and families in southwest Indiana, but also for every Hoosier.
Tomes serves as Assistant Majority Caucus Chair and is a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Commerce & Technology, Corrections and Criminal Law, Natural Resources, and Utilities.
 
