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Pence seeks family analyses; Gregg proposes tax credits

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Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence gave a hint Wednesday at what social issues he would push for as governor, while Democrat John Gregg called for a new tax credit he claims would help companies return jobs from overseas.

The Pence campaign issued a "roadmap" Wednesday that included most of the campaign's previous policy announcements and added a few new ones. The campaign said it would improve law enforcement training and help foster families and adopted children get better educations.

The plan also stated that Pence would "promote marriage by requiring a family impact statement for state regulations." Pence spokeswoman Christy Denault said the campaign would explain what that meant in the coming weeks and declined to answer questions about the new proposals.

Family impact statements have a long history on the national stage, stretching from the culture wars of the '90s back to a Senate investigation on the status of the American family led by then-Sen. Walter Mondale in 1973. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan ordered that the executive branch look at whether new rules and regulations "strengthen or erode the family and, particularly, the marital commitment."

Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for the Washington-based conservative group American Values, said the goal of the statements was to help lawmakers and regulators see how federal laws and regulations unintentionally rip families apart. Welfare programs and tax laws, for example, discouraged low-income mothers from getting married by giving more money to single mothers, she said.

"It's in the federal government's interest if we live in the context of strong families," she said. Hamrick was unsure exactly how family statements would apply at the state level, but guessed that education would be an obvious choice for assessment.

It would be impossible, however, for government to properly determine personal concepts such as an impact on a marriage, said former Indiana Democratic Party Chairwoman Ann DeLaney. She said that the impact statements of the '90s supported only one narrow definition of family.

It's unnecessary for state leaders to assess family situations, she said. "Most of us who have been in a traditional marriage a lot longer than Mike Pence do not feel like we are under attack," DeLaney said.

The Democratic ticket, Gregg and running mate Vi Simpson, meanwhile spent the morning in Indianapolis talking about job tax credits and creating smaller state contracts they said are needed to help Indiana companies compete for state work against out-of-state contractors.

Gregg proposed covering the employment taxes for each job a company brings back from overseas over the next three years. He also proposed helping Indiana companies transition to supplying renewable energy ventures.

Simpson said the biggest complaint the two have heard from Indiana companies is that they can't compete for large contracts, consisting of smaller contracts bundled together by the state. The work often goes to larger companies from states like Ohio and Illinois, she said.

"If we are serious about job creation — and we are — we need to do everything we can to give Hoosier manufacturers and small businesses a leg up, and then get out of their way," Gregg said in a statement.

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  1. As a St. Vincent employee of over 20 years, I am saddened and disheartened by this announcement. Unfortunately, as the healthcare "industry" continues on this political and corporate path, all that St. Vincent Hospital has stood for spiritually for its employees and this community is being sucked dry. I know it truly has no choice. It is not just Obamacare or just competition or just any single thing. This trend started long before I was even born when the government became involved in healthcare and it became an "industry." I grieve for those who will lose their jobs, one of whom may be me, but I also grieve for this hospital which I have served for over 20 years. May God give us and it the grace to withstand the future of healthcare.

  2. Why do people constantly harp on this issue and act ignorant about what a city population measures? A city's population is the city's population. There is no argument or debate about it. If you want to measure the density of a city--measure it. If you want to measure the size of a metropolitan area, then measure the metropolitan population. City boundaries cover different sized areas--and they always have (though the disparity has probably increased since about 1900 or so when more cities began annexing their surrounding communities). For example, San Francisco only covers 49 square miles while Houston cover nearly 600 square miles. No one argues about the population rankings of either city even though they clearly cover extremely different sized areas. Indianapolis is the 13 largest city by population in the U.S. That is a fact. While the population of a metropolitan area may give you a better sense of how large a community is, as noted, even metro areas can vary widely in the size of geographic area they cover--so that is not a perfect comparison either.

  3. If Whole Foods went in, I doubt the Nora one would stay open, and with all those customers coming to Broad Ripple traffic would be horrible, and forget about a run to the grocery on weekend nights. I think concern over the number of apartments is misplaced, but the 400 space parking garage has me concerned - someone needs to ask the developer just how much traffic they think this development is going to generate. I am not against more neighborhood residents, but heavy commercial traffic going in and out at that location sounds like a mess.

  4. I thought everyone was innocent until guilt was proven. Seems people have already convicted Reggie in the press. My nephew was a good kid and is a good man, more to this story im sure

  5. Going by the Marion County population only is of little use. 13th largest? No Way! To judge the real size of a metro area, the easy way is to look at the Arbitron rating list. Indianapolis hovers around 40th largest in the nation--sometimes more, sometimes less. Advertisers want to know exactly how large the population is before they buy radio advertising. Arbitron figured it out long ago. Indianapolis is estimated at 1,427,500. The real #13 is Seattle-Tacoma with a metro population of 3,470,400. So, the population of just Marion County is completely irrelevant to anything useful as far as metro area planning.

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