Dear Editors of Current in Carmel and Fishers:

As President and CEO of the Indiana Manufacturers Association, I want to express our appreciation for the pro-manufacturing legislation supported by your state senator, Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville), during this most recent session of the Indiana General Assembly. Specifically, Sen. Kenley served as primary sponsor of House Enrolled Act 1001-2013, Biennial Budget.

There are five key provisions in the $30-billion state budget most helpful to manufacturers:

The retroactive repeal of the state inheritance tax will save taxpayers about $180 million during the next two years.
The phased-in reduction of the individual adjusted gross income tax rate from 3.4 percent to 3.23 percent will benefit manufacturers organized as pass-through entities.
The recoupling to many provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and elimination of various “add-backs” under the state individual income tax and corporate income tax is good policy and, hopefully, a first step in easing the tax preparation burden while providing additional tax relief.
The budget requires 100 percent of the excess reserves in calendar year 2013 to be transferred to the Pension Stabilization Fund to pay down our unpaid obligations.
The state will maintain a structural surplus each year and a total combined reserve balance of about $1.8 billion providing a sufficient buffer in case of another economic downturn.

Indiana has the highest share of manufacturing as a percentage of private industry Gross State Product in the U.S. (29.7%), and the highest percentage of the workforce employed in manufacturing (16.4%). Therefore, legislation that is good for Hoosier manufacturers benefits the overall Indiana economy.

We commend Sen. Kenley for his leadership and support of pro-manufacturing legislation.

Sincerely,

Patrick J. Kiely

President & Chief Executive Officer