there are more than 100 bills filed in the Indiana General Assembly this legislative session that's far more than will make it into law by the end of April.

Now among those filings, Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have pointed to measures that they see as priority legislation in addition to the overall work of law, lawmakers to prepare and pass a new two year state budget.

And to that end, Governor Mike Brown introduced his budget plans ahead of his first State of the state address.

You can see that one next Wednesday night at 7:00 here on PBS Fort Wayne.

So with two weeks in and more than three months to go, we'll talk about bills on the legislative to do list with our guests on this week's PrimeTime and good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines with us today our 19th District Republican state senator and majority caucus chair Travis Holtmann and 2nd District Democratic State Representative Kyle Miller.

And as always we invite you to join the conversation and you do that simply by calling in your question or comment by using the number right there on the screen as we say Happy New Year.

>> You can still see that I'm told.

Thank you.

Happy New Year to you.

I don't know when we could say happy new year now another week or so another week then it's Groundhog Day.

>> No Travis Holdman.

Kyle Miller.

Gentlemen, thank you.

How have the first two ish weeks been for each of you in the session so far?

>> Well, we jumped right in quickly and started hearing bills the first week and we've probably passed out 25 to 30 bills already on third reading in the Senate.

>> Wow.

>> I bet on the House side we're taking it a little bit slower on the House side.

We change up our calendar a bit this year and and have spent more time in committees and trying to work on bills and less time in session.

So as as Travis and I were talking about before we came on, it's going to it's going to increase our workload going forward because Senate's been doing their work in in the Senate chamber and now we have to catch up and and get all of our bills through.

>> So this has been an expositional period and we have House and Senate leaders each sharing their caucuses agendas and the governor bringing like a Korean everybody's bringing in their ideas, you know, forward to see what can be made of them.

Let me start with you on this one though.

What's the focus for you in the Indiana House Democrats decision?

>> Yeah, absolutely.

So obviously it's a budget year.

We want to see what's going to make it into the budget.

Obviously budget is as we see it a moral document.

What we want to spend our money on what we think as is important as a state and as you were alluding to, the Senate has their ideas on on what they find important in the House, have our have our bills and of course the governor has his say too.

So this year House Democrats are really just focused on some common sense things to make sure that we're taking care of people, whether that's lowering health care costs, child care access just things that we think that people when they're sitting down to dinner at night are talking about care about and trying to move ahead on those things.

>> And as majority caucus chair Troas on the Senate side, what are some of the the top three to five even topic areas as opposed to excuse me property tax is taken front and center with Senate Bill one which is in my my file to handle we have our own budget that we're crafting taking a look at what we can do with K-12 education funding, Medicaid funding and then a lot of the traditional programs that we've been able to fund in really good years we're going to have a challenge this year with the revenue forecast that came out in December.

We were looking at just a three percent growth in the first year of the biennium and two point three percent growth in the second year the biennium.

And so it's going to be very tight for us.

We get a revenue forecast coming up about mid April which we'll see which that will basically signal to us how we put the final touches on the budget that comes over from the House.

But we get together with the House folks and make a decision on where we go from there.

But hopefully things will look a little better in April than they did in December before we got to January.

You were quoted at one point to say that you expected to see a whole plethora of bills dealing with the property tax to be filed this year and I was just kind of wondering going into the show if the plethora has arrived.

>> Yes, it has.

>> How much is how much is stuff you have a number.

I counted more than 10 for which carried your name alone is either author or coauthor and I'm sure it's more than that.

>> Well, I'm second author on many bills because I chair of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee and that's a one way you try to get your bill heard as you put the chairman of the committee a second author on the bill so that they think you own the bill.

Our priority bill was Senate Bill one which is of the Governor Brons property tax reform bill and then we have Senate bill six, seven, eight and nine which all have to do with property tax which are the top 10 some of the top 10 bills that we've got in the Senate that we're pushing for .

>> You did a wonderful tour, if you will, of some of those priority pieces that all kind of complement or connect with us be one if you could share some of those with us to share.

Some of them are rolling out next week.

I understand like I said of Bill six, seven, eight , nine feel free to pick a number and go from there.

>> Six is one of my favorite ones we copied language from other states that have done this.

It's called a property tax deferment program.

It's purely optional for local units of government in which the county council would make a decision if they want to do a deferment program or not and they can pick the one classification or qualified group they want to to to know whether it's over 65 veterans low income children in the household, they can pick any qualification that they want where they would be able the taxpayer would then be able to defer from 100 dollars up to 500 dollars of their tax bill on an annual basis.

There would be a ten thousand dollar caps if you took the five hundred dollar deferment on an annual basis you would be able to defer five hundred dollars for 20 years.

The catch is and it's not a catch it just makes sense that if you sign that deferral agreement with the county that becomes a lean against your property.

So eventually that has to be satisfied and that would carry a three percent interest rate on it.

So five hundred dollar deferment off of a fifteen hundred dollar tax bill is a significant savings for the taxpayer.

But when that property changes hands, when it moves from the individual to the trust or moves from the individual to another buyer or moves from the individual through their estate ,then that link comes due just like other taxes do.

We've copied Colorado's language somewhat where we got the idea when I attended the fiscal leaders meeting in Charlotte North Carolina about six months ago, I was made aware of that program and we've research other states that have done there's about four or five states that have put a deferment program in place and we're intrigued by the concept .

>> There have been while you're talking about sort of this carry on of ideas, it seems that within SB one it is also a functioning collective of input to try to see what matches with the governor's four pillars where where things can be maybe added on to later or using the session's time to perhaps refine a final plan that comes out in and with dried ink and everything.

>> We're looking forward to working with the governor.

I had a meeting with the governor this week to talk about Senate Bill one and also to talk about Senate Bill six seven nine which he likes those ideas.

The other piece that I introduced and it'll be on third reading or coming up this week is a reduction in the individual income tax rate if we meet three percent year over year revenue growth starting 30, 2030 after we've ratcheted down our individual rate to two point nine percent in seven if we meet that trigger of three percent revenue growth and 30 30 then folks would receive a point zero five reduction and every even numbered year after that as long as we maintain the three percent year over year growth I remember as you do as well there was the focus on the individual income tax rate two years ago and then as the you know, ideas evolve and circumstances develop and so forth, the income tax was replaced by the focus to property tax.

But if I have that right but then still this rate the idea of at some point maybe Indiana could explore the hypothesis was maybe Indiana doesn't need an income tax but there would be other ways to be identified to fund government or fill in the missing parts.

>> Oh, it's an eight billion dollar hole of individual income tax that we receive in revenue on an annual basis.

And so it's going to be tough for us to eliminate individual income tax.

But I think we make a statement that the default is we reduce the individual income tax every other year for as long as we possibly can.

I had a reporter ask me if we were ever going to get to zero and I said well maybe in 40 years we may but it's not going to happen while I'm a legislator I don't think and maybe even loblolly billion of a legislator but hopefully we get there but the focus changed from the majority caucus in the Senate because those tax bills went out two years ago and people were saying 15, 20, 30 percent increase in property taxes and assessed value.

So our focus changed because the focus of our constituency changed and that's what we just responded to what our taxpayers were saying to us.

>> Yeah, we're in conversations that you've had with in your district and and with with colleagues that idea of course that you can't just push one button without another button coming this way, you know, to find the sweet part if you will.

What have you been hearing along that journey with this?

Yeah, well, Senator Coleman mentioned the plethora of of bills filed on this particular topic and I think that's I think that's the exact reason why is it's you know, we can all agree that property taxes are too high.

They've skyrocketed the past few years but there's so many levers involved.

You know, we don't want to we don't want to just automatically lower property taxes and then underfund or defund our police or our schools or our libraries.

These are essential services that that people need.

And so I think the the number of bills on this issue and I appreciate Travis's work on on on his task force and just in general looking at the way we do taxes in in Indiana the number of bills on this speaks to the fact that this is a very delicate balance that we're that we're trying to really move the needle for .

We've gotten past campaign season where it's an easy it's an easy thing to say we need to lower property taxes and now it's time to actually figure out how to do that and that's easier said than done.

>> I did notice to within the legislation was something new coming to a computer near me the idea of a property tax transparency portal.

We'll see what that looks like.

Okeydokey, I told you this new that's beyond my skill level.

>> I think what the governor is wanting to do and several of want this to happen.

I just don't know how it's going to happen.

But something that's a little more customer friendly for the taxpayer so they can go online ,calculate what they think their property tax bills are going to look like based upon their assessed value and be a little more interactive with with the system than waiting until you get that tax bill on tax day which those will be mailed out probably the 1st of April early April and it's a big surprised everybody to open that envelope and see what it looks like.

And I'll just tell folks right now that's the statewide average for a tax increase of seven percent which is a statewide average.

That means some will be lower, some will be higher but the statewide average is seven percent for 25 and there is nothing that we can do in this session that the House or the Senate Republicans or Democrats can do in this session that we're currently in that's going to affect the 25 tax bills which are going to get in just six to eight weeks that is already baked in because those budgets for local government where all property tax goes, the state takes no property tax whatsoever.

It's local government.

Those budgets were baked in last August September when those were approved by city council, county council, town board school districts.

All of those were baked in.

>> And so that's what you're going to see here in just a few weeks coming up with those tax bills.

We are speaking live in studio this evening with State Senator Travis Holdman, State Representative Kyle Miller here on prime time.

If you have a question or comment you see the phone number there, please join us as you're inspired to do so one of the things that we want to get to are the number and the breadth of bills that you're connected with in going into this session everything from EA Sports Industry Development Studies to something else I'm learning to pronounce which is earned wage access services.

>> Yes.

Let's start with that one earned wage access is a really interesting concept where you know, it's just kind of baked into our society that you you work every day but you get paid every two weeks or in some case every week and so there's a group of technology entrepreneurs that say you've worked that you should have access to those wages.

And so there's been a rise of apps on your phone that will allow you to access the wages that you've earned before payday.

And it's I see it really as a sort of an antidote to traditional payday lending where you're stuck in a cycle of debt.

It's high fees.

It's it's with these apps there's no interest.

There's no fees to withdraw.

There's like a small four fee maybe to to make each withdraw if there's no credit reporting or no credit polls to access the funds and if you get to payday and can't pay back that loan, then you the other thing that happens to you is you lose access to the app.

You can't borrow any more money so literally can't keep you in that cycle of debt.

It's a really good a really good offering for Hoosiers that are struggling that just need something to to get by maybe take their take their kid out for a birthday dinner or get by with an appliance repair until payday or something like that.

And so it's a really interesting concept but it's kind of a niche product.

So that's something that we're we're looking at we'll look at next week in in in financial institutions and nursing.

>> Yeah.

And in the same vein, sports industry we think we know what it is.

We could see something but it my image is fuzzy to help me fine tune this.

>> Well it's about like I where we haven't fully explored the concept and we actually have a really good sports team at Indiana Tech here in Fort Wayne and so you know, it sounds like a bunch of people just getting together and playing video games but these are actually legitimate professional athletes that are that are competing in in big arenas on these video games.

And so, you know, we're we're wanting to be on the forefront of a lot of this new technology whether it's earned wage access or A.I.

This is another another form of that.

So we just want to have state government sort of look into what are ways we could be a leader in EA Sports, what are ways we could attract EA sports teams, how do they fit within our our economy and and kind of explore the boundaries of of of that industry?

>> It's fast the you're seeing some of this on the variation on the theme with professional golf with a lot of folks who are playing the great outdoors indoors.

Yes.

Yes.

Very, very interesting other industries that are also moving cogs there is a tax credit bill for film and media production.

It's one of two tax credit legislation pieces that you are other second author, second author first you have it's a whole just in Bush is connected to that say on this one just Bush and I worked closely on this and Justin has done a great job.

Senator Bush has done a great job of promoting the tax credit program for film and media industry.

Huntington University, one of our own universities very close to us was there this week when we heard the bill that Senator Senator is carrying on film and media tax credits and pretty exciting what we could could do we we had a lot of work on this project back ten, fifteen years ago and we just didn't think some of the fiscal leaders just didn't think that it was really going to work out there.

It was going the squeeze was going to be worth the juice we were going to get out of it and so we are taking another stab at it and we're really pleased with what's going on in Huntington University and I think it's something we need to take a look at.

Georgia did this about 20 years ago and it's really paid off for Georgia.

So other states have done this and we think we have a lot of industry in Indiana that's doing a lot of filming production studios are not in Indiana though the executives work here but they go to Illinois or Ohio or Michigan to do the filming because they get tax credits.

If they do that we'd like to bring that industry home to Indiana with the school year we have this moment to beyond bills that you are personally connected with.

Are there others in that group or others of your peers that have been filed that you're going to be watching this session to see what movement there is a particular topic or measure?

I'll start with you.

>> That's a great question.

It's as you mentioned there are twelve hundred over twelve hour bills I think it's closer to eighteen hundred that have been filed.

They lost count after twelve.

Yeah.

And so it's it's very the the public at large we hear a lot about the bills that have been filed and I have to I have to kind of walk people through the process and you know certain bills are just not going to move.

Certain bills are aren't going anywhere.

They're dead on arrival and and so it's really we're at an interesting I know this isn't directly answering a question but we're at an interesting point in session where on the House side anyway the Senate is is moving moving forward.

We're we're not quite sure what's going to move yet what's moving what's what's not moving, what's making it through committee, what looks like it may not have a chance to get out of committee.

And so I'm focused on I serve on public policy, financial institutions and commerce, small business and economic development in the House and so I'm mainly focused on the bills that are coming through those committees making sure that they're the best they can be or bringing up some issues with with the individual bills.

We're we're going to talk a lot about gaming in public policy this year not only with the proposed New Haven Casino but potentially gaming as well.

And so it'll be a really interesting conversation around gaming and public policy.

I'd say it's probably one of the things I'm looking forward to most is just kind of having that debate and figuring out where everybody stands in terms of what you share other topics or bills you're keeping an eye on.

Well, one bill I'm following closely is the business personal property tax bill boring another boring tax bill .

We have a 30 percent floor for business personal property tax.

An individual business owner who has a piece of equipment for instance or a farmer who has a tractor that they bought 30 years ago.

They pay tax on that locally for business personal property and that's reduced each year along with a depreciation schedule.

But when that gets down to 30 percent of its acquisition value, it stays at that level and they continue to pay property tax business personal property tax on that 30 percent floor regardless of the age of that piece of equipment.

OK, there's a movement afoot to remove to rid ourselves of that 30 percent floor.

We have a bill that takes the 30 percent floor down over three years over a three year period so that when you buy a new piece of business personal property it depreciates out and you basically you pay it down and it falls off of the tax record.

The good thing about that bill is it allows for business owners to buy new equipment to put it back.

But that new equipment back on the tax roll for five, seven or ten years depending upon the depreciation schedule.

So it's not a bad thing that we are taking tax away from local units of government which is about one hundred and seventy million dollars statewide.

But at the same time there will be adding new equipment to put them back put back on the tax rolls so that the tax roll has a benefit of eliminating that 30 percent floor and replace it with something new which could be the benefit to local government.

>> Yeah, when we were both sharing how this is again kind of the let's see what all is possible and then how much of it becomes probable.

We've all been following the the notion of picking up some extra citizens from Illinois.

>> I lawmakers are involved in the bill here that but apparently paved the way to redraw the boundary between Indiana and Illinois and taken hundreds of thousands of folks would like to be Hoosiers instead of a lion.

>> I yeah, I mean it's an interesting concept.

It's it was filed by the speaker but it's one of those things that was that was filed to make a point filed to get some media attention.

So I don't see it going much further than that.

I mean we may be starting some of these conversations but the the the legal maneuvering and even I mean assuming we would pass it this year, the soonest that those counties could be a part of Indiana is like 20 30 something.

So we're we're a ways off from that.

Like I said, it's not something that I'm heavily focused on.

>> It's just kind of making a point and we'll see we'll see what discussion happens.

Right.

Let me very quickly you each have about 45 seconds on this one but I'm interested in what you see what happens when a governor Mike Brown delivers his first State of the state address that will be next Wednesday night at seven o'clock here on PBS Fort Wayne, what are you hoping to hear in his remarks?

I'm interested in hearing his budget proposal, what he's going to do with Medicaid, what he wants to do with K-12 schools.

I think it's going to be interesting to hear what he wants to do with economic development in the state.

We've we've grown accustomed to having fairly large budget for economic development and regional development as well.

And it's going to be interesting to see if we're going to take on that mantle of pushing those dollars out to the state around the state for regional projects which I'm very, very interested in, especially here in northeast Indiana.

>> I think that I really hope he focuses on economic issues and where we agree where we can work together to to move Indiana forward.

I think we've seen so far him slide into some social issues which are only designed to to divide us.

And so I really hope he gets back on track, gets us out of the system and we can focus on on things that Hoosiers actually care about and enjoy this evening by State Senator Travis Holden, also State Representative Kyle Miller.

And we thank you both very much for being a part of the very first hour and we join us we will talk about and review the state of the state address with House floor leader Matt Lehman and also Democratic leader Phil Geia CUENTA that's next week seven thirty here on prime time for all of us with the show.

>> I'm Bruce Haines.

Take care and we'll see you again next week.

Good night