Pence Outlines Legislative Agenda

Gov. Mike Pence outlined his legislative agenda for next year at a legislative conference today attended primarily by lobbyists, lawyers and government employees. He wants more tax cuts for business, more spending on highways, more charter schools, job training for under-skilled workers and expanding health care coverage under the state's Healthy Indiana Plan.

Pence's plan to eliminate the business personal property tax would cost local governments about $1 billion annually in lost revenues. Pence believes the tax discourages businesses from investing in Indiana. The proposal he outlined today didn't say how he would help local governments make up for those lost revenues. He also wants to tinker with the "soil productivity factor" used for assessing farmland to protect farmers from "dramatically" higher taxes. He also wants to increase the personal income tax exemption to provide additional tax relief to individuals on the lower-earning end.

Pence plans to spur investment in start-up businesses by eliminating restrictions on the offering of securities for sale by creating new exemptions known as "crowd-funding" where capital is raised by selling securities to a large number of investors in small denominations. He also wants to increase private and public investment in the state's larger cities, which he says are unable to compete with peer cities in other states in attracting talent and investment. The plan seems to be to develop a billion-dollar spending plan on this endeavor. Again, he offers no details on the source of funding.

Pence believes "roads mean jobs" and to that end wants to "invest" $400 million for new highways. He doesn't say how he plans to pay for the new spending.

Apparently, charter schools are hamstrung by inflexible state regulations. He wants to let them manage their funds with the same flexibility as school districts and repurpose unused school buildings for "promising new schools." He also wants to create a voucher program to fund a pre-K program for the children of low-income parents earning up to 185% of the poverty level. He also wants to provide financial incentives to teachers to move to jobs at under-performing schools. Again, it's not clear what the source of funding is for these new initiatives.