State House Update; February 26, 2010

As we head into the final days of the 2010 session of the Indiana General Assembly, lawmakers now have their chance to pass legislation that can get some Hoosiers back to work.

In recent days, House members have approved a series of initiatives to create new jobs, help Indiana's small businesses and raise the bar on corporate accountability and responsibility.

Reaching a final decision on this legislation should be the primary objective for the Legislature as we near the end of this session. We now expect to be finished before our mandatory March 14 deadline.

Here are the provisions that make up the only jobs plan currently before the Legislature:

I have mentioned the need to put a greater emphasis on assisting Indiana's small businesses, which employ 1.3 million Hoosiers. Through a job creation tax credit, we hope to give businesses with fewer than 150 workers the chance to hire new employees, with an eye toward hiring unemployed Hoosiers and veterans.

Other small business-friendly proposals create a state ombudsman to help owners navigate their way through government regulations and provide greater access to EDGE (Economic Development for a Growing Economy) credits and low-interest loans.

At the same time, the plan provides a new employer tax credit encouraging companies to come to Indiana. We are asking state government to make sure that incentive packages place a priority on getting new businesses to locate in counties where unemployment is high.

The House plan also calls for Indiana to join 21 other states in establishing a program - to be called Helping Indiana Restart Employment (HIRE) - that will use federal stimulus funding to provide incentives to private and public employers to hire dislocated Hoosiers for good-paying jobs.

So far, my efforts to increase state support for loans to small businesses remains alive.

Collectively, these proposals represent the only job creation plan under debate in the Indiana General Assembly this year. I have asked both parties to join the effort.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle realize that something has to be done. All of these provisions passed with strong, bipartisan margins. Even members who spoke against some of these proposals turned around and voted for them when the roll was called.

We understand the need to act now. There are 300,000 Hoosiers who are looking for work right now. There are thousands more who aren't even counted in that total because their unemployment benefits have run out. Even more are uncounted because they have given up hope of ever finding another job.

I feel that these proposals have the potential to pay for themselves, by creating jobs at a time when so many are out of work.

This bipartisan job creation plan now will be studied in House-Senate conference committees, where legislators from both chambers will attempt to reach final agreements on all issues that remain unresolved this session.

There will be talk about education and unemployment compensation and many other subjects, but one of the key issues that will define the success of the 2010 session of the Indiana General Assembly is getting Hoosiers back to work.

Now that concrete proposals are on the table, there is no reason not to act in the days we have left.

Please feel free to contact me, the Governor or the leaders of either the House or the Senate to support our efforts to create jobs in Indiana

In these final days of the 2010 session, you can contact me in several ways. Call the toll-free Statehouse telephone number of 1-800-382-9842, write to me in care of the Indiana House of Representatives, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204, or send a message to my web site at www.in.gov/H86 While visiting my web site, you also can sign up to receive regular e-mail updates from the Legislature.

                         Yours,

                             Rep. Ed DeLaney