Whitley County Patriots

From HoosierAccess:

In my fourth and final installment of my review of the “Strengthening Indiana  Plan” produced by the Indiana House Republicans as their 2011 session agenda (see part 1, part 2, part 3), I’ll be looking at how they plan to stand up to Washington, D.C.  Washington is incredibly unpopular right now.  The excessive spending,  job crushing and higher taxes inducing legislation have more than you’re average Hoosier feeling down on their luck.  Because of that, House Republicans are willing to take steps to invoke Indiana’s 10th Amendment rights.

But how exactly?

Two of the least  popular pieces of legislation (as far was Hoosiers and Indiana jobs are concerned) are Obamacare and Cap and Trade.  Obamacare is law (for now) while Cap and Trade has stalled in the Senate.  Recently, Indiana joined 6 other states, in addition to the original 13 states that filed a lawsuit against the Federal government over being forced to participate in Obamacare.

But consider that medical device makers will see a $20 billion tax increase in 2013.  Now realize that one of the world’s largest medical device manufacturers is based in Warsaw, Indiana.  All in all, the medical technology industry employs more than 20,000 workers in Indiana and pay an annual wage of $1.1 billion.  What we’re bound to see come 2013, without any hope for change, will be massive layoffs of Hoosier jobs.

Read the rest at HoosierAccess.

From HoosierAccess:

In parts one and two of this series on the “Strengthening Indiana Plan, I looked at the Indiana House Republicans plan to Protect Hoosier Taxpayers and Promote Hoosier Job Creation.  In part three, I will look at how they plan to expand education opportunities.

Education has long been the “Third Rail” in Hoosier politics especially in difficult economic times.  Democrats don’t want to see any cuts in fundingt to education and even want to see increases, whereas Republicans know there can’t be cuts, so they seek to flat line funding for sake of not taking our state budget into the red.

In 2009 when there was a stalemate on the budget, Democrats howled for education increases while Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Tony Bennett said school districts could survive on current budgets, while some school districts could stand to make cuts on their own.  He pointed specifically to school boards who get cushy insurance benefits and cuts in administrative staff while redirecting that money towards the classroom, including teacher salaries.

With what the Republicans are proposing you can see Dr. Bennett’s fingerprints all over it.  And frankly, these are the kinds of steps that only seek to serve the needs of students, not the line the pockets of the teacher’s union.  At the same time, teachers who excel should be rewarded, not fired because they haven’t been at a school as long as another teacher whose performance is poor.  And that’s what we see with the Republican plan.

Read the rest at HoosierAccess.

From HoosierAccess:

When I started my post yesterday on the State House Republicans “Strengthening Indiana Plan”, I honestly thought I could cram everything into one post.  But there is so much going on in their plan that I really need to devote an entire post to each plank of the plan.  Today’s plank is one that most Hoosiers would probably feel is the most important and that’s “Promoting Hoosier Job Creation”.

With yesterday’s announcement that Indiana’s August unemployment numbers reached reached 10.2%, it’s imperative that legislation is drawn up that empowers businesses to hire and attract the best of the best to their doors.  The House Republican plan seeks to do just that by revitalizing hard hit communities, increasing access to start-up capital and focusing on entrepreneurship and small businesses.

One of the things that I learned while finding out more about the House GOP plan was that Indiana ranks first in the Midwest and 12th nationally in the Tax Foundation’s 2010 Business Tax Climate Index (pdf. warning).  Despite the most recent unemployment numbers, Indiana is ties with Utah as the top states for private sector job growth for 2010.  And in a June 2010 article in the Wall Street Journal:

Indiana has seen the largest percentage increase in jobs through the year, rising 1.9% on a surge in manufacturing jobs. Illinois, Pennsylvania and Minnesota—all big in manufacturing—were among the top 20 states in terms of job gains, each with job increases of 1.2% or greater.

But despite positive reports, more does need to be done as our state and national economy are still taking a beating.

Read the rest at HoosierAccess.

From HoosierAccess:

Last week, Indiana House Republicans came out with an aggressive agenda designed to take on the daunting tasks facing Indiana (jobs, budget slashing, expansion of education opportunities), while at the same time reasserting states rights by taking a swipe at Washington who is increasingly butting heads with states nation wide.

The GOP plan, referred to as the “Strengthening Indiana Plan“, has four pillars:

1. Protecting Hoosier Taxpayers
2. Promoting Hoosier Job Creation
3. Expanding Education Opportunities
4. Stand Up to Washington, D.C.

During last week’s press conference to the unveil the plan, Republican Leader Brian Bosma stressed that the the GOP was “up to the challenge” to craft a truly balance budget.  “We proved that we can do it – without raising taxes – first in 2005, and we are going to balance the budget again without raising taxes“.  The emphasis is mine, but that emphasis needs to be given since B. Pat Bauer, the ever so clever Speaker, somehow heard that as “Republicans will raise taxes”.  See the clever word play?  Yeah, I don’t either.  But to be sure, Bosma issued another statement clarifying the House Republicans stance on taxes:

It’s clear we have reached the silly political season when a group of Republican leaders take a “no tax” pledge, and their Democrat counterparts twist it into a “which tax” pledge. Even more ironic is this misrepresentation comes from the champions of the largest tax increase proposals in our state’s history, attempting to cover their consistent record of more taxing and more spending. On behalf of the House Republican Leadership team, let me clarify our pledge in no uncertain terms: “No tax increases, no way, no how, no matter what Speaker Pat Bauer says.”

Get that? I thought so.

Read the rest at HoosierAccess.