Foundations for Regional Cooperation:

GOAL: 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

OUTCOME: SB350 Central Indiana Regional Development Authority (PASSED)

• Authorizes counties and municipalities within the Indianapolis metropolitan area to establish a central Indiana regional development authority pilot that will sunset on July 1, 2025
• Requires counties and municipalities that wish to establish the development authority to adopt substantially similar resolutions to adopt a preliminary strategic economic development plan (preliminary development plan)
• Codifies the establishment and governing provisions of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
• Requires the Indianapolis Metropolitan Planning Organization to:

(1) develop a comprehensive asset management report for the metropolitan planning area in collaboration with the Indiana department of transportation; and

(2) present the comprehensive asset management report to the city-county council of Indianapolis and Marion County, the fiscal and legislative bodies of each entity that is a member of the Indianapolis metropolitan planning organization, and the budget committee

Healthy Workforce:

GOAL: 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”)

OUTCOME: SB1 Tobacco and Vaping Smoking Age (PASSED)

• Raises legal smoking age from 18 to 21, including vaping products
• Doubles fines for retailers that sell to underage customers
• New tobacco retailers and vape shops can’t open within 1000 feet from a school

 21^st Century Workforce:

GOALS:

• 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

OUTCOMES: HB1419 Governor’s Workforce Cabinet (PASSED)

• Makes changes to membership of Governor’s Workforce Cabinet
• Increases membership from 23 to 32 people
• Cabinet must work with stakeholders from early learning through the workforce, including representative from technology
• Establishes alignment and coordination between Early Learning Advisory Committee, State Board of Education, Commission for Higher Education, and Department of Workforce Development

HB1153 Governor’s Workforce Cabinet (PASSED)

• Requires Governor’s Workforce Cabinet to create a comprehensive strategic plan by 12/1/2020 to ensure alignment of primary, secondary, and postsecondary education systems with Indiana’s workforce training programs and employers needs

Panhandling Enforcement:

GOAL:

A priority from Leadership Exchange (LEX) 2019 in San Antionio, increase proximity radius from 20 to 50 feet from all financial transactions. Expand the definition of financial transactions to include parking meters

OUTCOME: HB1022 Panhandling (PASSED)

• Prohibits panhandling within 50 feet of banks, restaurants, businesses, public monuments, or anywhere a financial transaction occurs
• Panhandling any time of day is a Class D misdemeanor