Purdue University Fort Wayne will host Marcus Collins, cultural scholar and professor, Thursday, February 27th at 7:30 as part of the Omnibus Speaker Series - Inspiring Fresh and Diverse Thoughts.

Details at PFW.edu/omnibus.

an anticipated property tax reform package was introduced in the Indiana Senate this week.

The measure is projected to provide more than one point four billion dollars in property tax relief over the next three years along with targeted cuts for Hoosiers over 65 disabled veterans, farmers and first time homebuyers to other Senate priority bills also moved forward with one to require permits for large long distance water pipeline projects and another to improve fiscal oversight of government contracts with legislative intent.

The week also saw progress with Senate bills on natural resourcs, environmental affairs, groundwater emergencies, rural broadband and film and media production tax credits and all this while a February 17 deadline approaches for bills to advance from committees and our guests are going to take us through it all this busy week that was on tonight's PrimeTime and good evening on Persons with us today our 13th District Republican state senator and Assistant President Pro Tem Sue Glik and 17th District Republican state senator Andys and we're glad you're here to you can join the conversation as well.

Just call in your comments and questions to the number that you see on the screen as we welcome once again senators who like Senator a.D.A.

>> Thank you for being here.

Appreciate that.

Thank you for having me.

So with property tax reform as the Senate Republicans top priority this year, what are some first thoughts you might have the relief package came out of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee this week.

>> What did you see so well, generally it's a reflection on what Governor Brawne ran on when he was running for governor.

>> He is approaching it much as the city would as a businessman.

They're going to look at it as a you know, cut everywhere and build back to what we need.

He promised that it would be severe, it would be immediate and that the taxpayer would get relief what that amounts to with with tax dollars or local tax dollars, property taxes stay local and so those cuts immediately affect your local government counties, the townships, the the cities and their feeling in the schools especially so there was a lot of angst, if you will, among people who receive those local tax dollars and so the modified version what's coming out of the Senate is going to be much different than the original asked by the governor.

But again, remember it has to go through the second house so it has to go back to the house, represent to see what they do with it and they'll be conference committees maybe.

>> How about you, sir?

Well, I mean the tough thing about this is unfortunately we're going to be seeing some reality in our property tax bills in here here in a few months and what we are doing now will no way touch that.

So we're actually projecting here you're off to where the savings will be and the opportunity for savings.

>> And I will say the other tough part from from our seat and our vantage point as legislators and responsible for funding our state government for two years which is we're working on towards as we move towards April is it's a it's a different year.

It's a tighter budget.

The revenue forecasts are tight.

We are close to hitting our estimates but under where we were where we are from last year.

So to enact tax cuts at a time like this is going to be a tremendous challenge.

It will take cuts in other areas.

It'll take cuts in local government and spending and reviewing that and you know, there's an opportunity for locals to potentially raise some more income taxes with taxes, lower taxes, public safety taxes and those kinds of things.

But then that will kind of offset the savings of what can be done potentially with the property tax.

So you know, it's a matter of the collaboration working together from top to bottom from the state down to the local level.

It's making sure that they still have the resources they need to schools do not have the opportunity to have a back fill of any sort of income taxes, cities and counties and some of the other entities at the local level do.

So you know, we're midway through we've put together kind of our first blush at this and we'll see what the house does to it and where we end up in April with all three groups coming together the House, Senate and the governor's office.

>> Yeah, procedure really the relief package appears to include language from Senate bills eight and nine Senate bill eight on referendums and Senate bill nine on freezing the maximum levy growth quotient for next year then capping it over the next couple of years.

Is it assumed that when that kind of thing happens that SB eight and nine if you will in this case just kind of meld into one and so it is one larger piece of legislation moving forward and under that name it has to go together because that's the only way you can do planning at that level.

>> OK, you know, piecemealing that would only confuse all but about a few people in or in state government who can understand finance and it must be open so that we get, you know, logical and rational arguments from from the other areas such as the locals and the people who are most affected by it.

They have to be able to understand what this means for the average person when you talk about maximum growth levies and those types of things are way over their head, what they're looking at is that tax statement they get in the latter part of April and know they have to pay by May of the 10th and they're going to have to pay the other half in November and they want to see something happen that's immediate or they want to know what's going to happen over time but to give them some relief probably the biggest thing in any person's life you know, after marriage in children is owning their own home.

And so when you look at a property tax statement that almost puts you out of the market or blocks any type of advancement, it is it is crucial to them when they can you know, look at that there's some part of the bill right now that calls for deferral and you can give her up to five hundred dollars per year up to a maximum of ten thousand dollars has bills written right now for those individuals who are struggling to just meet those tax bills as they come.

But they have to know that gets paid back when the House is sold down the road.

So it's a little bit of relief but it's not a complete response to end.

>> There just has to be more than one avenue and more than one level of reaction to the property tax situation.

>> It was certainly a lot to introduce going into the end of this particular week because from here you look forward and you see an approaching session break beginning February twenty one.

But that's preceded by the need to get any bill out of a committee by Monday and getting that bill out of the chamber by Thursday.

So let me ask you both and I'll start with you how does House the pace how the pace of things of going around these days and the committee side?

>> I think we're pretty well wrapped up.

There may be a few committees early in the week and but I think I'm not positive but about everything's on the floor now either on the second or will be soon.

There may be one or two committees on them Monday but it's a full calendar.

I think we had four or five bills on the second if I'm not mistaken on on Thursday and it was a little lighter on Thursday.

So we'll expect to see that calendar fill up by by middle of the week and most of the work this week will be on the session floor looking at amended bills and potentially amending of a few more to get out of the Senate what we can get out and you know that's that's the process to get our job done and get it done by February 21st and then await the House bills and work towards April.

>> Yeah, I was always given this little caveat and all of that kind of thinking because even dead bill language can reemerge before the session ends in April.

>> So what's going on?

Well, what that means is that if if the language has passed out of committee or is is it still alive if it's passed one House even though it died on the floor of one House, who can come back on the other house as an amendment if there's a bill that's very similar in nature, same article, same title, whatever in the code but we look at it, you know, why did it die in the first place?

What language are we seeing and does it fit in the legislation or the the bill that we have on our side?

Yeah, it's still active if it hasn't been defeated completely, it's still bouncing along.

It can be resurrected but the same issues are going to come up in the other house.

Absolutely.

And it may be dead twice so it just depends.

>> Wow.

is something that has stayed alive in a slightly different manner speaking Andy I was thinking about your bill Senate Bill 43 requiring the Indiana Gaming Commission to do an independent study about identifying the top three regions in the state to which someone holding an owner's license for a riverboat could relocate that license donor's gaming operations.

In the spirit of that and looking from earlier this year with efforts to bring something from rising sun to New Haven and no vote taken, where are all of those factors currently for you?

>> Well, not for me.

For us I mean this is it's kind of a leadership call that helped create that vehicle bill to keep that conversation alive and you know that that's a matter of how the legislation was created when we first departed and the riverboat gambling thirty years ago and that's simply that any license that move needs to come through our body and be approved.

And you know the heavy lifting on that as I said I said publicly as we walk through that process last fall into this spring or into this winter, you know, was done by the mayor and his due diligence with this council and and then also getting around the state and visiting the other the other gaming operations.

The casino in question was in they bid on the casino that moved to Vigo County a few years ago.

They did not win that bid by data speaking there the lowest performing casino in the state.

So there's a pretty pretty strong agreement and understanding out there that, you know, we need to look at their performance and where we can potentially help them out and give them some guidance possibly to location and where it might work for not only them but for us as a state.

And that's certainly where this study is gravitated to where there will be an independent study.

>> It won't be one of our traditional public public policy study committees or anything internal that will be then taken care of by the Gaming Commission outside and they'll make recommendations back to the state budget committee.

I think it's October now with the amendment so good good to do.

>> And the one thing about gaming is it's very site specific.

Many communities around the state have embraced gaming.

They welcome that they you know, it's something that they can work with in other areas culturally it just isn't a good fit and sometimes we see that only after they start an in-depth study of a sighting which is offered and then some people say yeah, bring it on, we're we're fine with it or they're totally indifferent in other areas they simply have indicated that they just don't want to wish to have it located in their area near their communities and it's just not a culturally good fit for them.

So it's what we want to know.

We'd like to know it as early as possible in the in the scheme of things so that they don't spend a lot of money doing those sites and and doing the best studies that have to be done when you're locating, you know, a gambling casino in an area but you have to take into the factor where are the others located, what's there and now when the original licenses were granted, Indiana was if not one of the first very early on in the gaming concept whereas now our sister states around us all have gaming.

Michigan has the traditional tribal gaming as well as the state of Ohio.

The state of Illinois both have casinos.

So it makes a difference on how these casinos will perform based on where the traffic is, what the you know, how many people are coming and going to the casinos, how much use they get?

>> Yeah, we are speaking this evening with Senators Sue Glik Andys and for our members of the Senate, here's a House question that has been called by by Rudd.

>> Rudd would like to know about HB thirteen twenty two and wonders if this particular bill will pass which allows state retirement funds to be invested in Bitcoin F.D.

I I don't know how to answer that.

I think Bitcoin is is is new obviously I think as a as an investment tool and I would say when you're talking about state retirement funds we're still struggling a little bit to fund some pension liabilities and bring some of that forward.

Typically the investments used in that area are very conservative funds and I don't think they would venture out into Bitcoin it as a as a part of that portfolio which doesn't mean never.

But right now I don't I'm just speculating I don't know much about that Bill.

I don't even know the traction if it's passed out of a committee or if they've really considered it.

But that would be my my suspicion.

I don't know if you have any comment on that, Senator.

If you have the same thinking the law says Pruden man rule would a prudent man invest his own funds in and in this case you're much more conservative about it because you're investing public funds.

Yeah.

And so other people's money makes a big difference when you're a state officer whose total job or sole job is to invest the money and bring returns back to the state.

>> We're going to go to the phones again with another offline question with the shortfall this one from Shane With the shortfall in property taxes, schools will be affected.

Has the Senate considered a graduated tax on income?

Well, there's currently a graduate they are indexing and I think it is Senator Haldeman's bill that would only allow a half a percent change in the income tax in those years where there is an income increase over a certain percent.

I think the growth has to be point three percent or better if I'm not mistaken and so it makes it graduated but only in terms of what this was doing was it was put in the bill form to anticipate lowering the income tax rate.

Income taxes traditionally haven't been what we've used on on schools.

Schools come to property taxes generally but it's I think it's on the table because I think right now everything's on the table the the state and local revenue psalter state, local local revenue, taxes we're all being studied have been studied over the last couple of years and I think that's an ongoing study because we know that right now there's too much pressure on the property tax end of things.

Maybe it's not prudent.

I know not to go any further with reducing income tax but we need to look at whether the taxes are available or if we need to hold the line on spending in all areas which is what Governor Brown has indicated he would like to do is review all spending and by approaching the Internet and universal mode it may not be as is onerous as his was originally thought where you got rid of all income tax and shifted around in that regard.

>> So we're looking at all of it.

Yeah, I think the Holdman legislation was commitment to continue to look at decreasing that income tax and I think to the caller's question I think the amendment was put forward on Espie one is was part of the concern that there are not any income taxes that would backfill a reduction in some of the property tax credits.

So I think a lot of that's been taken here in the amendment that was presented on me on this the Senate bill, one that came to the floor has been a busy time for each of you.

>> And when you go to each legislators site online you can follow different bills and the states thereof.

You say you are an author and coauthor on two of the top five Senate priority bills this session.

She's kind of a big deal.

What what are they?

Well, it's good that you're here because one thing that I'd like to have you help us understand is the water management and permitting concepts in and around Senate bill for looking for permitting and the sharing of of resources from basin to basin water transfers, large long distance water projects.

>> What is that bill for ?

Well what it what it does basically you know, if you look at it and in in the whole is it was brought about by the district when the original siting was for Eli Lilly to build a major campus up in Boone County along with a number of other large businesses and economic development all that were water intensive and they realized after they decided it and we can't begin the acquisition of of land in that area that the aquifer wouldn't generally sustain it.

There wasn't enough water in that aquifer without bringing it in from somewhere and so water studies have been done.

One of the proposals was to bring it in from the Tippecanoe River and or the Wabash.

OK, when you get to the Wabash you're talking about one hundred miles from a different basin from a different aquifer.

>> Those kind of things cross many counties.

They would affect livestock operations.

They would affect other businesses or water intensive significant water users are considered to be anyone who draws one hundred thousand gallons a day out of a single well.

And so what that bill would be is that under the I.R.S.

the Indiana Utility Regulatory Committee that they were commissioned they would have some authority to grant permits to allow that withdrawal but only after public carrying over only after study has been done about what effect it would have to make those large withdrawals ,how it would affect other significant users and residential areas.

You have to remember some of these areas are areas of tremendous residential property and residential growth and that affects everyone in those areas as well.

So we're just trying to get a level playing field, make sure that if there's significant water withdrawals that their permits issued so that everybody knows ahead of time what impact there could be.

And then there's a second bill that we also had with Senate Bill twenty eight which would call for if there was a if you had a water well and you were a significant water user and suddenly your water pressure dropped or your ability to use that water was seriously impaired, you would notify the Department of Natural Resources which has the authority over wells and they would why there was you know, what impact what impacted your water use and make sure that that water was replaced either by someone stop over here who's withdrawing too much what's affecting your water and that's especially important to residential uses and livestock if you're a person with a thousand head of livestock or even you know, two or three hundred head of livestock, you don't have water.

You can't operate very long and also the large water users in terms of irrigation, all we want to do is make sure we protect our natural resources and share them and share them in a responsible manner and that's what these bills are designed to do.

>> No easy Segway.

>> But when you want to talk when you want to talk about film and production credits relative to water management but you have a couple of bills I'd love you to speak of .

One is that Senate bill three or six on its way to the House.

>> Right.

And then you work with rural broadband so take them in any order.

Well, what better place to talk about that film and production credit than here in the studio with papers?

But but in reality, you know, Indiana has a proud history of some some very iconic movies whether it's you know, breaking away at Indiana University many moons ago Rudy up on the Notre Dame campus, Hoosiers in the infamous Milind Jim and right right now in today's tax climate and culture in the movie production arena, it wouldn't be feasible to make those movies here and so we've seen an explosion out of California looking where a lot of these movie producers and content creators are looking for new homes.

We know a lot of people know what's happened in Atlanta with Tyler Perry's investment in the Marvel studios in those down there and we're certainly not going to jump to that level but we're at a point where we have an opportunity here to create a culture in a climate where we can take charge of some of this content creation.

We have some great folks doing here.

Huntington University has a world class production studio with Lance Clark and their digital media arts program down there where they're training students that are all going away to these other areas and he would love to keep them here.

And so this is a beginning step of being able to transfer those tax credits and allow private industry to help and funding some of the content creation right here in Indiana.

So this is a simple step that we hopefully can build on within IDC to to get some investment in that kind of thing and on the other the pivot to broadband which is just our outreach we really want to blanket our state with high speed broadband.

I've been working on that for a number of years.

Have you the state itself has invested three hundred and fifty million in that outreach over the last two budget cycles.

We're on the precipice right now in the next few months of getting eight hundred and sixty eight million dollars in federal funds that will build an on a capital investment of about five billion dollars and with that is the intent is to have high speed broadband in every home in our state.

And you know, my what my bill does is it tries to bring the parties together as far as utilities and the polls and getting the broadband attachments there and that we can get them to play together well in the sandbox as we roll this out over four years.

I mean because what we've done now in the state investment was over five years.

We're looking at doing three times that here in about the same window and we've got to make sure there are as few problems and speed bumps rolling that out as possible to get the impact that we want to need with this service to support education, support health and certainly support our economic development throughout the state of Indiana and the rural areas that we both represent.

So it'll be a critical infrastructure on the way we're in the lightning round portion with less than thirty seconds apiece for the unfair question of what other legislation that you've written or are noticing from your colleagues that you're following during the weeks of the session after Hafsa particularly well we're just now getting bills from the House of Representatives that they have passed through the entire House they passed now and they have named us as is the Senate sponsor of the Senate authors.

So we're each getting some of us are getting bills that are ones that we have passed.

There's some carbon sequestrations bills that I had over in in the Senate and some that have that have kind of stumbled a little bit in the in the House of Representatives.

We're going to take a look at those in our committees.

There's some bills that if they mirror the the our bills bills entirely we can merge those bills are dispense with one or the other.

>> But we'd like to move these towards towards the finish line as quickly as we can and and review those as they come in because some of them we haven't even seen before.

>> So I think she spoke for you.

I think she did got we got a lot of health care rolling around too.

We're trying to save some money there so there are a lot of wheels and they are all moving and we thank you for keeping that machinery intact in Indianapolis.

We have been speaking this evening with Indiana State Senator Sue GLIC, Indiana state senator and he's a lady gentlemen, thank you again.

Thank you as well for joining us.

For everyone with prime time, I'm Bruce Haines.

Thank you for watching.

Take care.

We'll see you next.

Goodnight Purdue University Fort Wayne will host Marcus Collins, cultural scholar and professor, Thursday, February 27th at 7:30 as part of the Omnibus Speaker Series - Inspiring Fresh and Diverse Thoughts.

Details at PFW.edu/omnibus.