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September 14, 2012

Simpson visit focuses on manufacturing

Howard Greninger The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Focusing on manufacturing and growing small business is part of a more than 20-point plan Democrat Vi Simpson discussed Thursday outside Indiana State University’s Scott College of Business.

Simpson, a state senator and Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor running with gubernatorial candidate John Gregg, said 86 percent of exports for Indiana come from small businesses.

In addition, manufacturing accounts for a fourth of the state’s economy and leads the nation in per capita manufacturing jobs, Simpson said.

“We are very serious about job creation, and we are putting a lot of emphasis on the small businesses, where the jobs of the future will be, and the manufacturing sector,” she said.

Simpson identified four aspects of the plan: bringing jobs back to Indiana through a new “re-shoring” incentive; encouraging growth of “home grown” Indiana-based business by enhanced access to capital and financing; streamlining business regulations, “not a moratorium,” but making it easier for businesses to access state government; and creating more opportunities for small businesses to do business with state government.

Simpson said 61 percent of American companies with facilities in foreign nations “are interested in re-shoring, in other words, bringing their manufacturing processes back to the United States because of the increased costs in transportation. They want to get closer to their customers, which is a new trend, opposite of the last decade or two,” Simpson said.

To do that, the plan proposes to offer employers a three-year payroll tax credit for manufacturing jobs returned to the state from abroad. “It would be 100 percent of their employer taxes,” Simpson said.

“We want to encourage companies to re-shore and pick Indiana. We don’t think it will cost much, but the benefits will be huge. The employee will be paying taxes, which becomes revenue not only for the state government but also the local government,” Simpson said.

Modeling a program in Maryland, Simpson proposes to create a “technical development corporation, which is about transferring technologies and the research from universities or federal laboratories into a product that is marketable,” she said.

Simpson said Purdue, Indiana and Notre Dame universities have partnered with each other to transfer technology, “but they really need the state as third partner to help put together capital and financing opportunities to get that knowledge into the workplace.”

In addition, Simpson said the state should create “an innovation investment opportunity, also being used in other states, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.” It is taking dinosaur properties, which formerly housed manufacturing, and retooling the facility for “green energy jobs in those manufacturing settings,” Simpson said.

The plan also calls for matching Hoosier veterans with manufacturers. “We want to help veterans and manufacturers match the very high [technology] skill levels the veterans have when they come back from deployment,” Simpson said.

Simpson said instead of issuing a moratorium on regulations, that processes and regulations of state government “ought to be speedy, predictable and be fair. Any regulations that we have ought to be science-based, ought to have common sense attached to them and a minimum cost of compliance.”

An in-depth cost-benefit analysis would be applied to all regulations, Simpson said. “No regulation should cost more to comply with than the benefit the state is getting in terms of protecting workers and our environment,” she said.

She also called for more collaboration across state agencies. For example, she pointed to Indiana regulations on water. “If you have surface water, it is regulated by the Department of Natural Resources. If it is ground water problem, it is the Department of Environmental Management, and if it is a reservoir or surrounding areas, it is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Soil and Water Conservation districts at the local level.

“There are some 16 agencies that have some kind of regulation of water, which makes it very difficult ... for people to get their problem solved. We want to tear down those ‘silos’ between state departments,” she said.

On small business, Simpson proposes breaking up large contracts for state government work to allow small companies a chance to bid. She also advocated bringing small businesses into a consortium, allowing them to bid on more state contracts.

The entire plan can be viewed at www.greggforgovernor.com.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

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