Quoting from Senator Sue Landske's Senate Page:
With little time and no money, lawmakers worked this short session to maintain Indiana’s pro-job climate of low taxes and limited regulation.
Senators kept a close, careful eye on proposed legislation and amendments to avoid new state expenditures and government intervention that would have raised taxes and imposed red tape during already hard times for Indiana’s workforce and employers.
Gov. Mitch Daniels, with the support of Senate Republicans, rightly reacted to tumbling state revenues by cutting government spending, flat-lining state payrolls and freezing all but essential hiring. To date, state bureaucracies have cut 20 percent from operating budgets. Reluctantly, higher education funding has been reduced 6 percent and public K-12 schools – nearly half of the state budget – have been asked to find 3 percent in new cost savings and efficiencies to help save classroom teachers’ jobs.
Senators also successfully delayed $400 million in new unemployment insurance premiums from going into effect in 2010. By avoiding premium increases, lawmakers hope employers large and small will be in stronger positions to retain or add employees.
Lawmakers also passed initiatives to help Hoosiers recover from the national recession:
Gov. Mitch Daniels, with the support of Senate Republicans, rightly reacted to tumbling state revenues by cutting government spending, flat-lining state payrolls and freezing all but essential hiring. To date, state bureaucracies have cut 20 percent from operating budgets. Reluctantly, higher education funding has been reduced 6 percent and public K-12 schools – nearly half of the state budget – have been asked to find 3 percent in new cost savings and efficiencies to help save classroom teachers’ jobs.
Senators also successfully delayed $400 million in new unemployment insurance premiums from going into effect in 2010. By avoiding premium increases, lawmakers hope employers large and small will be in stronger positions to retain or add employees.
Lawmakers also passed initiatives to help Hoosiers recover from the national recession:
- New Employer Tax Credits will be offered to businesses relocating or incorporating in Indiana. Qualified businesses must hire 10 or more full-time employees, not including owners.
- Small Business Tax Credits will be expanded to make small employers with fewer than 35 workers eligible for Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) credits.
- Small Business Ombudsman will be an advocate for small employers with state agencies, helping navigate regulations, streamline paperwork and coordinate due dates. Also, the ombudsman will monitor outdated, ineffective and overly burdensome reporting requests and red tape.
- H.I.R.E. (Helping Indiana Re-start Employment) initiative will offer tax incentives to employers who hire and train unemployed and underemployed Hoosiers.
Quoting from the Hostettler site. This means Hostettler is responsible!!!
"John Hostettler has never voted to raise taxes. During his time in the US House of Representatives, John was well-known for his principled votes on a wide range of issues - even when he was only one of a handful. One famous leader, when trying to count votes on a bill he wanted to push, told his colleagues "leave Hostettler alone, you can't change his vote."
Unfortunately, when Marlin Stutzman faced the same pressure, he fell in with the herd. If Republicans are to take back the House and Senate this fall and deliver on important promises to the American people - Republican voters need to make sure that Republicans being sent to Washington will stand on principle, even when their own party leaders are wrong.
John Hostettler is the proven, reliable conservative in this race. On May 4th, cast your vote for principle.
FACT CHECK ON THE MARLIN STUTZMAN TAX INCREASE
HB 1379 Passed the Indiana State Senate on March 24, 2009 with a "yes" vote from Marlin Stutzman.
The tax increase was scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2010.
On January 12, 2010, Marlin Stutzman voted "yes" on SB 23 to delay the tax increase until after the 2010 election.
The largest business tax increase in Indiana history will now take effect on January 1, 2011."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gee, that would be just awful and impressive...if it were true. It's not.
So here is the truth. I know it is the truth because I have done my homework. I have done my homework by discussing this issue with Marlin Stutzman, John Hostettler, Brian Bosma and by researching the situation by looking up the bills in the Indiana Legislature. Indiana had a surplus of money to pay out in unemployment at one time but the way taxes were allocated was mandated to be changed. So Indiana had to make changes to the tax law. At the same time, Indiana had to follow a budget. At the same time, the Republican Senate Leadership had to deal with Pat Bauer's Democrat-controlled House. At the same time unemployment was rising.
Minority House Leader Brian Bosma told me himself that he and Senate leaders had a strategy to keep businesses from being hurt by a tax increase just as unemployment was skyrocketing. The only way to change the law, pay out unemployment to laid-off and cast-off workers was to go ahead and pass a bill that was agreeable to the House and then block the bill from being put into effect until 2011.
Republicans believe and hope that they will take over the Indiana House in 2010 and so that tax increase in that particular form will never happen. Therefore Brian Bosma and Sue Landske and Marlin Stutzman and other Republican leaders in both houses of Indianapolis should be lauded for making lemonade out of a lemon. Instead John Hostettler sees an opportunity to charge Marlin Stutzman with being a tax raiser. To those who do not know the entire story it is an easy sell but in fact it is a cheap shot. I still remember John's face when I told him that the Senate's plan to delay the measure was the best possible outcome. In fact I believe Thomas Semesky took a picture of John and me at the exact moment I was telling him why I believed it was so.
The sad part of all this is that John Hostettler asked me to ask Brian Bosma and I suppose he never imagined I would actually do it. I spend about ten minutes talking with Bosma at a Crown Point Conservative Cafe event going over the entire bill from beginning to end. This was a case of having to deal with a Democrat-controlled House and still win the day.
Now I am sorry that Hostettler is using this misinformation. He has all sorts of good points to highlight about himself and his candidacy. I am very sorry that he and his campaign cannot find enough good points to recommend John Hostettler and are instead forced to pick up mud and sling it!
Incidently, John, while Marlin was the only candidate to file his financials on time you STILL HAVE NOT DISCLOSED AT THE TIME OF THIS POST!!! Hiding something?
Senate Bill 23 (Public Law 110-2010)
Authors: Hershman, Kenley, Kruse
Sponsor: Niezgodski
Citations Affected: IC 4-3; 4-22; 5-28; 6-3.1; 12-7; 12-8; 22-2; 22-4; 22-4.1; 36-8
Effective: January 1, 2010; Upon Passage (March 24, 2010); July 1, 2010
State and local administration. Requires the Indiana economic development corporation to: (1)
designate an employee in the small business division to serve as a small business ombudsman; and
(2) designate an employee to serve as a compliance officer whose primary duties are to determine and
report to the corporation whether each person that receives a job creation incentive granted by the
corporation or another agency or instrumentality of the state (excluding any political subdivision or
other unit of local government) complies with the terms and conditions of the person's incentive
agreement. Eliminates the requirement that an existing business must employ 35 or more employees
to qualify for an EDGE credit. Provides a uniform definition of small business for certain regulatory
review programs. Provides a new employer tax credit for a corporation or pass through entity that
after December 31, 2009, either locates or relocates the operations of a business enterprise in Indiana,
incorporates or otherwise first organizes in Indiana, or expands its operation of a business enterprise
in Indiana and employees at least 10 new qualified employees. Requires the Indiana economic
development corporation to approve taxpayers for the credit. Provides that the credit is 10% of the
wages paid by the new Indiana business to qualified employees during a 24 month period. Permits
a carry forward of the credit for nine years. Permits the secretary of family and social services to apply
for and administer certain TANF emergency funds. Upon approval of the TANF emergency fund
application, permits the commissioner of the department of workforce development to implement a
subsidized employment program for unemployed or underemployed individuals. Permits
augmentation of the state TANF appropriation to match federal funding for the subsidized
employment program. Delays changes in the taxable wage base and employer contribution rates for
the unemployment compensation system to 2011. Provides for an employer contribution rate equal
to the sum of the employer's contribution rate plus two percent unless all required contributions and
wage reports have been filed within 31 days following the computation date and all contributions,
penalties, and interest due and owing by the employer or the employer's predecessor for periods
before and including the computation date have been paid. Requires the department of labor to
develop guidelines and procedures for investigating questions and complaints concerning employee
classification. Requires the department of labor to do the following: (1) Make a presentation to the
pension management oversight commission not later than October 1, 2010, outlining the proposed
guidelines and procedures. (2) Make recommendations to the legislative council before November
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1, 2010, concerning any legislative changes needed to implement the guidelines and procedures,
including a budgetary recommendation for the implementation of the plan and a funding mechanism,
to the extent possible. (3) Convert the guidelines and procedures to rules before August 1, 2011.
Removes the condition that an individual submit at least one application for work in each week for
which the individual is claiming benefits. Provides that an otherwise eligible individual may not be
denied unemployment benefits or be determined not able, available, and actively seeking work
because the individual is responding to a summons for jury service. Requires the individual to obtain
from the court proof of the individual's jury service and provide to the department of workforce
development, in the manner the department prescribes by rule, proof of the individual's jury service.
Deletes the statute requiring the department of workforce development to establish an unemployment
claims compliance center. Provides that, if an employer appeals an initial determination granting
benefits to a claimant and the determination is reversed at least in part based on information that the
employer failed to provide in response to a department request, the employer's experience account
(account) shall be charged 50% of the benefits paid to the employee that the employee was not
entitled to receive and for which the employer's experience account may be charged. Provides that
if the employee repays the benefits received the employer's account is credited with the amount of the
employee's repayment up to 50% of the amount charged to the account. Provides that each
administrative law judge employed or used by the department of workforce development must be an
attorney who is licensed to practice law in Indiana. Allows cities, counties, and townships to give
preference in the hiring of police and fire department positions to laid off policemen, firefighters, and
emergency workers. Repeals a provision that permits an employer with a debit reserve ratio to elect
once, after December 31, 2009, and before January 1, 2012, to make a voluntary contribution to the
fund and receive a credit to the employer's account equal to 250% of the amount of the voluntary
contribution. Specifies that the IEDC, when developing job creation incentive packages to locate
companies in Indiana, shall give weight, in the awarding or approving of job creation incentives, to
business entities that locate in a county where individuals have become dislocated workers due to a
permanent closure of a plant or facility or a significant reduction in the workforce. Provides that the
IEDC shall require an applicant for a job creation incentive to be granted by the IEDC after March
31, 2010, to enter into an agreement with the IEDC as a condition of receiving the incentive. Requires
the agreement to provide that the IEDC, after a finding that an applicant is employing fewer
individuals than the applicant agreed to employ and subject to any confidentiality laws, shall hold a
hearing to determine if the applicant shall be required to pay back to the state a portion of the
incentive granted to the applicant under the agreement. Requires the agreement to provide that the
applicant will pay back to the state the incentive that has been received by the applicant if the
applicant moves or closes. Provides that in the case of an incentive granted by the IEDC that is
awarded after March 31, 2010, if the IEDC determines that a recipient of an incentive has not
complied with the representations that the recipient made in obtaining the incentive, the IEDC shall
seek a refund or arrange other methods of reclaiming the value of the incentive granted by the IEDC
from the recipient. Specifies that the amount of the refund or reclaimed part must be in proportion
to the degree of default by the recipient as determined by the IEDC. Specifies that the IEDC shall
establish a program to ensure that dislocated workers from Indiana are given consideration for jobs
created by business entities receiving a job creation incentive from the state or an instrumentality of
the state. Requires the IEDC to condition job creation incentives awarded or approved after March
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31, 2010, on compliance with the program. Allows the IEDC to waive or modify a recapture provision
made with a person to whom the IEDC has awarded an incentive if the IEDC determines that the
recipient has failed to meet a condition for receiving the incentive because of circumstances beyond
the recipient's control. Requires the IEDC's economic incentives and compliance report to include an
annual report on the effectiveness of and compliance with all incentives granted by the IEDC.
Requires the IEDC to make certain information available. Establishes an interim study committee to
study the feasibility and value of indexing unemployment benefits and the unemployment insurance
taxable wage base.
