MIXING BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT: Clere, Sipes, Stemler update legislative session at 1si event

Several Indiana legislators met with area business leaders Friday at the second-annual Third House Event hosted by One Southern Indiana.

The event held at Amatrol Inc., in Jeffersonville, ranged from discussions on proposed legislation on Urban Enterprise Zones and creating a standard of reading comprehension for elementary school students to tax issues for Hoosiers.

The purpose of the event was to allow the business leaders to ask for updates on bills during the current short session of the Indiana General Assembly in Indianapolis.

“If last year’s session was a stroll, this year’s session is a sprint,” said State Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany.

Despite the speed at which state lawmakers are moving, the number of bills is not as high as normal.

“The volume of bills are down, just because of the very nature that there is no money,” said State Rep. Steve Stemler, D-Jeffersonville.

Stemler followed up by discussing some legislation he has sponsored for this session.

Commerce

The first bill Stemler discussed was a piece of legislation that would create a River Ridge Commerce Corridor. The corridor being referred to includes all of the property along Ind. 62 that was formerly the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant.

The dedication of the property would be as a heavy truckload corridor, he said.

Defining the property that way would allow for marketing opportunities to locate businesses at the site, aid the Port Authority in its role in River Ridge as a transportation arm and would be something local government can build around.

“I think it’s going to help the local government officials to plan as well, in terms of development along that corridor once it has that designation,” Stemler said.

Although the bill expired in committee when it was first introduced, it likely will reappear during the session.

UEZs

Another benefit River Ridge has seen is Jeffersonville’s Urban Enterprise Zone, or UEZ, designation.

In part, Jeffersonville’s UEZ has helped to pay for a $185,000 portion of the traffic signal and lane changes on Ind. 62 at Salem-Noble Road.

However, legislation in other areas of the state has proposed eliminating the UEZs.

The purpose for eliminating the UEZs, at least to the legislators, was simple.

“It’s about money,” said outgoing Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany. “It’s about saving money for the state. Usually, everything up there can be traced back to money.”

For those communities that do have UEZs — areas designated for economic improvement in which businesses are given certain tax breaks for locating in the area — the decision to try and do away with the tax-abated areas will not be taken lightly.

“The impact on doing away with those tax credits appears to be huge for many, many communities” Sipes said. “There was not one person in that room that testified in favor of doing away with those tax credits, and the bill passed out of committee.

“Many people across the state of Indiana testified that this is working,” she said in reference to having the UEZs in place.

The proposal has not yet passed the House of Representatives or the Senate, and Spies said she will vote against it when it does come up.

Education

Sipes, a former educator, also routinely fielded education concerns brought up during the meeting.

One of the considerations brought up was over a proposal from Gov. Mitch Daniels and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett to create an enforceable standard of reading assessments for third-grade students. The proposal was given a price tag of about $40 million by the Legislative Service Agency, Sipes said.

“[Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville] has turned to the Department of Ed[ucation] asking them to go through each part of that bill and get their fiscal analysis to it,” Sipes said. “At the very end, he says, basically, ‘If you can show me that this doesn’t have a fiscal [impact], go ahead and do it.”

While Sipes expressed concern over the cost of the proposal, she also proposed a possible solution for elementary school teachers. She said she was going to amend the bill for teachers to focus on reading in their training if they are going to teach at an elementary school.

“I agree that reading is the No. 1 priority in elementary [education],” she said.

Approval of implementing standards that may hinge on the cost of the policy turned the discussion in another direction that has plagued the state — taxes and revenues.

Taxes

The focus of much of the legislation at the state and the federal level is to revive the ailing economy. Hampering the economy and local government are revenues coming from property tax assessments and collections.

“One of the things that has happened in recent years is with the delay in property tax billing there has been a tremendous loss to local units of government,” Clere said.

The delay in collecting property tax distributions has caused many local entities to borrow money in order to cover their costs until the property tax revenues are received. Clere said he introduced a bill, which was killed, that would require local units of government to publicize the amount they spent on bond interest to cover their expenses.

But another impact may be felt if the referendum on property tax caps is passed by Indiana voters.

“It’s going to have a regulatory effect on raising revenues [for the county] no question about it,” Stemler said. “What were seeing develop, quite frankly, is bills are being introduced to give local governments more options for fees.”

If the tax caps are implemented — which would limit how much homeowners would have to pay on their assessed property valuations — local government may seek other ways to raise revenues. Stemler said locally, he is trying to help government find a viable revenue option.

One alternative he mentioned was the construction of water wells in the River Ridge Commerce Center.

“I’m working in support of alternatives like that for fees because that’s a renewable source of income, if we manage it right,” he said. “That can serve us in terms of making money on our own, but the excess can have revenue for replenishment of some lost fees otherwise for county and local units of government.”

Clark County

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