State leaders from left on the bottom row, State Rep. David Abbott, State Rep. Craig Snow and State Sen. Ryan Mishler, participate in the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce’s second virtual legislative update on Friday, April 14. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — The state’s budget for the next two years was one of the items discussed during a virtual legislative update on Friday, April 14.

The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce hosted its second update then. Participating were State Sen. Ryan Mishler and State Reps. Craig Snow and David Abbott, whose districts cover parts of the county.

Mishler, who chairs the state Senate appropriations committee, broke down how that chamber’s version of the budget looks thus far. It consists of $43.3 billion.

“We left $3.2 billion in the reserves at the end of the biennium,” he said, mentioning he prefers to keep a lot set aside just in case. Pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, he said the state went through its reserves in a few weeks then.

He noted as a percentage of the budget, Medicaid spending is increasing more than K-12 education funding.

“Medicaid is outpacing K-12, and if we’re not careful our Medicaid expenditures are going to swallow K-12,” he said, mentioning that any Medicaid-related measures established couldn’t be undone as they’re “(entitlements that) we can’t take away.”

He referenced funding for day care and housing, which he said were “the two biggest issues for employers” he and others had heard.

Regarding the former, he mentioned how a small Warsaw company had advocated for help with it at the statehouse, causing leaders to establish an employer child care expenditure credit.

“And we limit the size of the company … If they form a child care within their company, they can get a credit for the expenses,” he said.

For housing, he talked of leaders working on revolving loans for housing infrastructure.

“It’s for the local communities to pay for the infrastructure and get a revolving loan to do that, so they don’t have to bond for it and then it lowers the cost to the (builders),” said Mishler, making it more likely they could build homes that cost less for buyers.

Tech Parks

Snow referenced Senate Bill 271, which he sponsored in the House.

It allows the state’s 22 certified tech parks, including Warsaw’s at U.S. 30 and Silveus Crossing, to recapture additional tax funding for “infrastructure needs and things of that nature,” he said.

It adjusts the level from $100,000 to $250,000 the parks can receive each year after they hit an initial funding cap “because these tech parks are really doing some good things,” said Snow.

“They’re growing in terms of employee count and new businesses to come, so it seems to be a pretty good economic engine,” he said.

Military Income Tax Exemption

Abbott mentioned a bill he’d co-authored, House Bill 1034.

The measure means those serving in a reserve force or Army National Guard won’t have to pay income tax on their military pay even when their units aren’t “mobilized and deployed.”

“The point of that is to retain our people that work and live in Indiana,” he said.