February 2008 No. 6 Table of Contents General Assembly Half-Time Report Coming up – mark your calendars $$$ - IN and the states What in the World is going on?

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General Assembly Half-Time Report

With property tax reform dominating the 2008 Indiana legislature’s agenda, about one-fourth of the bills and resolutions were voted out of the chamber where they originated by the January 31 deadline. Of these, IaUW is focused on the following issues:

• taxation of nonprofits (aka PILOTs, Payments in lieu of taxes) – currently a dead bill, but could re-emerge
• 211 services – HB 1159
• property tax restructuring – numerous bills as they have numerous effects on community mental health centers, schools, local government, etc.
• human service issues such as foster care, homeless youth, domestic violence, and disaster relief
• immigration issues – IaUW is watching for possible amendments that could affect immigrant-serving organizations, though the primary bill exempts most nonprofits
• healthcare issues.

Contact IaUW’s Lucinda Nord for more details.

Coming up – mark your calendars

Feb. 21 – Hoosier Brian Gallagher—president of United Way of America—will speak at the Economic Club of IN luncheon on February 21 at the IN Convention Ctr. The Hobart native graduated from Ball State University and has been a United Way leader since 1981. To get tickets, call 800-824-6885 or go to www.economicclubofindiana.com.

Mar. 12-14 – The Indiana Assn of Rehabilitation Facilities meets in Indy. To register, call 317-634-4957 or go to www.inarf.org.

Mar. 25-26 – The 2008 Governor’s Conference on Service & Voluntarism meets at the Sheraton Indpls Hotel & Suites with keynoter Henry Lozano, Dir. of USA Freedom Corps. Go to www.IN.gov/ofbci to register or call 317-233-4273 for more info.

$$$ - IN and the states

How does Indiana compare with other states on its fiscal policies? out of sync? in line? at the top, middle, or bottom? Last month, the National Governors Assn and National Assn of State Budget Officers published The Fiscal Survey of States, and here’s what it says:

• Indiana’s property tax replacement and homestead credits state appropriation went up 13% in FY 2008 (that we’re mid-way through) to $2.554 Billion, and of that…
• $105.5 Million goes toward reversing payment delays to local governments
• 2008 changes in aid to local governments include a property tax buy-back of $295.5M, up 13.1%
• IN expected a FY 2008 revenue increase of $35M in sales, personal income, corporate, tobacco taxes
• Indiana began its “first real effort at performance budgeting” with the Indiana Office of Management & Budget’s PROBE effectiveness and efficiency analysis and recommendations
• Indiana’s 2008 budget has $13.5 Billion in revenue and $12.8B in expenditures (up 4.8%) with a FY08 ending balance of $466M and $360M in the “rainy day” fund
• Indiana’s FY08 budget pays for 31,246 full-time-equivalent employees, up nearly 1% from FY07, not counting state higher education or welfare jobs, with a new merit pay system
• Indiana went into FY08 with an extra $103M from FY07 revenues higher than budgeted
• a 44¢-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes will go toward the new Healthy Indiana Plan costs
• Indiana’s FY08 balance is budgeted to be $826M, about 6.4% of the fiscal year’s expenditures.

You can get the full report and compare IN to its neighbors at www.nga.org/Files/pdf/FSS0712.PDF.

What in the World is going on?

Perspectives. It’s becoming clearer that not the whole world sees things like Americans do. Take global warming, immigration, and global stability:

• do humans compound global warming? 92% of Germans say “yes” compared to 65% in the USA
• will global warming threaten you in your lifetime? in Spain 67% say “yes,” 27% in USA
• the non-national population in Italy is 3.4%, in Germany 8.9%, in USA 7.2% – illegal immigration a problem? Italy 96% “yes,” Germany 74%
• what country is the greatest threat to global stability – US tops lists in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain – North Korea tops USA’s.

See www.harrisinteractive.com/news/harrisreport.asp.

But Europeans are as pessimistic about their economic future as Americans. All but Germany had majorities saying their country’s prospects are worse in 2008. And only the USA had at least one-third who expected their personal finances to be better, according to a HarrisInteractive poll. All (87+%) think prices will go up for most things. And none (2% or less) think their governments will solve the economic challenges facing their country in 2008.

Globalization. Americans (68%) think the USA’s trading partners are benefiting the most from free trade, not us, a Fortune magazine poll found. Is this sense of victimhood fueling our anxiety about the economy, which has now surpassed Iraq as our #1 concern? And there’s a stand-off between consumers who think foreign-products are a blessing or a curse. Middle America sees the mega-rich and feels like they themselves are running in place, with median income only inching up in the past 10 years.

A disillusioned free-trader predicts as many as 40 million U.S. jobs are vulnerable due to outsourcing, says the Fortune article. Most Americans (79%) want their government to do more to aid technology-displaced and new workers—such as special training (90%), tax incentives for companies to relocate to areas hit hard by foreign imports, allow imports only from countries than ban child labor (82%) and/or meet clean air/water guidelines (78%). They want tax cuts for low- and middle-income folks (76%) and increased government spending on public works to create jobs (67%). Again, that’s from Fortune.

International cooperation. Condoleezza Rice, Bill Gates, Bono, Tony Blair, and Jordan’s Queen Rania Al Abdullah keynoted the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos (Jan. 23-27), which heard calls for a “new brand of collaborative and innovative leadership to address the challenges of globalization, particularly the pressing problems of conflict, terrorism, climate change and water conservation.” The lack of coordinated response and leadership was voted the single greatest threat to worldwide economic growth. Bill Gates called for “creative capitalism” that uses market forces to address poor-country needs that are being ignored. See www.weforum.org.

Meanwhile the World Social Forum met across town to hear civil society leaders debate how to reach Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. It focused on worldwide poverty eradication, human rights, and participatory governance. For more details, see http://wsf2008.net/eng/home.

Global Philanthropy. Some noteworthy examples:

• Eli Lilly & Co.—more than 40,000 of its employees will hold a worldwide Day of Service on May 15 to improve the communities where they work.
• Three leading logistic/transport companies—Agility, TNT, and UPS—will partner with the UN Logistic Cluster to aid humanitarian groups with emergency response to large-scale natural disasters.
• A new Global Fund named Chevron as its first “Corporate Champion.” Thus far, the Fund has committed $10 Billion in 36 countries to aggressively fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Chevron will invest $30 Million over 3 years in Global Fund-supported efforts. Learn more about the Fund at http://www.theglobalfund.org/en.
  

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