TheStatehouseFile.com

Lesley Weidenbener, managing editor, TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Republican Gov. Mike Pence pitched his plan to phase out the property tax on business equipment in a long letter to local officials packed with data intended to make the case for his controversial proposal.

But it will be a tough case to make to the people trying to run cities, counties, schools, libraries and other local government functions. They’re the ones who would lose valuable tax revenue if the personal property tax goes away.

The tax generates more than $1 billion in tax receipts each year for local governments. A study by the Legislative Services Agency shows that if the tax is eliminated – and no other changes are made – those local governments would lose about $554 million annually.

Why less than $1 billion? Well, that’s because absent other changes to the tax system, about $375 million would be shifted from the personal property tax to other property owners. That means homeowners and others would be paying more.

The rest of the cash is lost to various government entities or made up by other sources.

Pence has specifically stayed away from suggesting how local governments might make up the revenue – or deal with less money. He says that’s a job for the legislature, where the House and Senate are moving bills that fall far short of Pence’s elimination proposal.

Last week, Syracuse Police Chief Tony Cirillo told lawmakers that he and other law enforcement officials are seriously concerned about “whether we’re going to be able to maintain the standard of public safety that our citizens have grown to expect and deserve from all of us.”

That’s a legitimate issue. After all, local governments and schools have been losing money for several years to the caps the legislature – and eventually Hoosiers through a constitutional amendment – put on overall property tax bills.

That’s why local officials are calling on the General Assembly to find a way to replace the cash they would lose to a personal property tax elimination or cut.

“Eliminating the personal property tax may be the right thing for the state of Indiana. OK, we understand that,” said Indiana Association of Cities and Towns Executive Director Matt Greller said. “What is more important is that we replace that revenue at the local level.”

Pence emphasizes that he’s empathetic to local officials’ concerns and he’s said repeatedly he doesn’t want “unduly burden” local governments. And he seems convinced that eliminating the tax will mean a big boost in economic growth, which could in turn produce additional tax revenue.

In his letter to local officials, the governor said that 68 percent of the economic development projects Indiana lost went to states with no personal property tax. Another 29 percent went to states with lower tax rates.

Only 3 percent of businesses went to states with higher rates, Pence said.

“This tax stifles investment and modernization in our industrial base at a time when we can ill afford that handicap,” Pence wrote.

But Hoosiers have heard these arguments so many times. Previous governors and state lawmakers – and business lobbyists – have said that in order to get ahead, Indiana needed to, among other things:

-       Eliminate its inventory tax, a property tax that used to be levied on business products.

-       Reduce the corporate income tax.

-       Switch to daylight saving time.

-       Become a right-to-work state.

The legislature has done all four. And while recently, the state has out-paced the nation in private sector job growth, per-capita income has been falling in relation to the rest of the country.

There’s no clear-cut tie between the above changes and the job growth. There’s only anecdotal evidence presented by state officials.

Now, business leaders say, the state’s economic problem is the personal property tax.

It’s no wonder that local officials – and some lawmakers – are skeptical.

Lesley Weidenbener is executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

TheStatehouseFile.com

John Krull, publisher, TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Two moments dominated President Barack Obama’s fifth State of the Union Address.

The most powerful of them came at the crescendo, when the president told the story of U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg, who had been severely wounded and nearly killed on his 10^thdeployment in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb.

Obama described how Remsburg had been in a coma for months, that the bomb cost him the sight in one of his eyes and, for a time, the power of speech. The president said that Remsburg had to endure dozens of surgeries and hours each day of grueling rehabilitation.

As Remsburg sat in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives beside the First Lady, the president presented the soldier as a symbol of American resilience and resolve. Obama said that the hard work had paid off – that Remsburg once again could speak. More important, he could stand.

The symbolic message was clear: America, like the soldier in the gallery, might find itself hit hard and knocked down, but the country, like its wounded warrior, finds a way to stand back up because it has to.

As Obama spoke of the soldier’s struggle, Remsburg stood up to acknowledge the crowd’s prolonged applause.

The people in the room clapped, cheered and wept for a soldier, for a spirit, for a country.

When Remsburg gave a thumbs-up sign to thank the crowd for the ovation, he drove home the speech’s point – that America cannot dwell on past hurts but always must find ways to move forward – in a way that no words, however skillfully crafted or delivered, ever could.

The soldier who battled back from death and despair made a better case for hope and change than the president who had used it as a campaign slogan possibly could have.

The other powerful moment came earlier in the speech when President Obama spoke of health care reform.

Again, Obama told a story of a person in the gallery: physician’s assistant and single mother Amanda Shelley, who had been denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition. She signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act on Jan. 1, the president said, and felt a sharp pain on Jan. 3. On Jan. 6, she had emergency surgery.

If Shelley had been forced to have the surgery a week earlier, Obama noted, it would have bankrupted her.

Then, setting up his hardest punch of the night, Obama ticked off the numbers – 3 million Americans under the age of 26 who now have health insurance under the law and 9 million who hadn’t had it before and now were signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid under the law’s provisions.

And then Obama struck. He said that he didn’t expect to convince Republicans of the merits of the law, but he wanted to challenge them. If they had a better plan than his, it was time to bring it forward.

And, if they didn’t have a better plan, the president said, it was time to quit looking backward and taking one doomed vote after another to try to repeal Obamacare.

As Democrats leapt to their feet in a prolonged ovation, Republicans in the chamber sat silent and looked down at their feet, as if checking to make sure that their shoelaces still were tied.

Obama used the other parts of his 66-minute speech to paint a picture of a recovering economy, call for immigration reform, pledge support for new education initiatives, note the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and assert that he would use executive action where he could to help Americans when Congress would not or could not act.

All these points were well-argued and smoothly delivered.

But the power of this State of the Union was in the way it symbolized recovery.

Like the soldier in the gallery, both the president at the podium and the country he leads had been knocked down and had struggled to find their footing.

With one simple thumbs-up gesture, the wounded soldier in the gallery showed the country he served and the president he saluted that being knocked doesn’t mean one has to stay down.

And that just standing tall can be a glorious thing.

John Krull is director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism, host of “No Limits” WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

By Hannah Troyer
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Individuals who continue to get pesky solicitation calls, despite being a part of Indiana’s “Do Not Call List,” would be able to receive help under a bill that passed the Indiana Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 349, authored by Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, would apply the current Do Not Call laws to consumer transactions as well as callers in commercial telephone solicitations.

The attorney general’s office received more than 13,000 violation complaints regarding solicitation calls last year.

Merritt described a common situation that the current Do Not Call law does not stop.

He said the call originates in a foreign country and then is routed through several calling stations before connecting to someone in Indiana.

Merritt also said that type of violation makes it difficult for the attorney general to catch the person breaking the law.

Currently, a person found guilty of breaking the “Do Not Call” laws must pay a fine up to $10,000 for the first violation and $25,000 for each violation after.

The bill now moves to the House for consideration.

Hannah Troyer is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.