FOUNDATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION

Maximize economic and population growth in a sustainable and equitable manner by promoting regional cohesion and collaboration on issues impacting the Indianapolis region, such as the state road funding formula, workforce development, and health policy by:

• Creating fiscal capacity for transformational investments with regional impact, recognizing that basic services and infrastructure are quality of life and business climate priorities that must be adequately addressed

  • g. White River redevelopment and activation

• Addressing regional tax disparities by being open to creating additional revenue streams to mitigate funding inequities across counties

  • g. Local option sales tax, revenue distribution, or other alternatives

• Empowering flexible regional governance models to support technical planning, redevelopment and transformational growth priorities, and the implementation of shared revenue strategies such as Investment Hubs

HEALTHY WORKFORCE

Support a comprehensive approach to increase the health, wellbeing, and productivity of Indiana’s current and future workforce by advocating for:

• Increasing Indiana’s current cigarette tax by two dollars per pack and impose tax parity at point-of-sale for e-cigarette and vaping products

  • Revenue resulting from these tax increases should be used to address Indiana’s public health challenges including physical, mental health and addiction

• Raising the statewide legal age to purchase tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21

  • At a minimum, the state should remove restrictions on local governments from enacting ordinances to raise the age to 21

• Enacting a statewide ban on flavored vaping and e-cigarette products which have been shown to encourage youth vaping, exposing young people to detrimental, long-term health effects.
• Repealing preferential treatment for smokers in the workplace (“Smokers’ Bill of Rights”)

21st CENTURY WORKFORCE

• Employer-Driven, Sector-Specific Workforce Development: Build off of the recent work to better align state secondary education, workforce and economic development strategies that promote transferability, stackability, and permeability of credit awarding curricula
• 21^st Century Apprenticeships: Support development of curricula and credentialing standards to encourage businesses to provide workbased learning opportunities and apprenticeships with the final goal of leading to careers in high growth, high demand careers
• Next Level Jobs: Increase funding and provide greater flexibility by expanding the provider network, focusing on credentialing that leads to higher wages within an industry and skills utilized across sectors
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit: Support Hoosiers entering the workforce through the creation of state tax incentive which mirrors the Federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit (FWOTC) program focused on ex-offenders and the long-term unemployed. Support incentives for government contractors who hire and retain individuals eligible for WOTC credits