BIC Matters – Register Now for Road Funding Day at the Indiana Statehouse

ROAD FUNDING DAY AT THE INDIANA STATEHOUSE
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Indianapolis Marriott Downtown

CALL TO ACTION
Now more than ever, we need to urge legislators to enact a long-term road funding plan that will keep roads and bridges safe, boost economic development and help create Hoosier jobs.

SCHEDULE
10:00 to 10:30 a.m. — Registration and Networking
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. — Legislative Briefing
12:00 to 1:30 p.m. — Road Funding Luncheon with Legislators
1:30 to 4:00 p.m. — Legislator Visits at the Statehouse (enter through the west doors)

REGISTRATION
While there’s no fee to participate, please RSVP, so we can prep for the event and assist you in making connections with your elected officials. Register here.

ROAD FUNDING PARTNERS
Check out the registration site for a list of all the sponsoring organizations, including all of the BIC member associations.

SIGN UP TODAY
In the near future, our coalition will send an invitation to all state legislators inviting them to attend the lunch portion of the program. Be sure to talk with your local legislators and local government officials and encourage them to register.

CALL BIC IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS
(317) 634-4774

BIC Matters: Email, Twitter, Town Hall Campaign to Support HB 1002 – CALL TO ACTION

Build Indiana Council is joining a broad coalition to urge passage of HB 1002 (long-term road funding) while also countering anti-tax efforts aimed at defeating the bill.

We ask all BIC members to do the following:

1. Call/email your state representative and senator.
2. Share your support on social media.
3. Attend a town hall.
4. Report back to BIC.

Toolbox:  The coalition has provided all the tools you need to carry out these steps and you can find them here.

Step 1
Call/email your state legislators with messages of support for HB 1002. A sample script and the list of House Republicans, including links to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, is included in the toolbox. To determine your legislator, go to “Find My Legislator”. Ask your employees to make contact and report back to someone within your organization when they have completed the assignment. That will incentivize them to take the action. Your designated person should then contact BIC with results from your company’s contacts. We need to call Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate.

Step 2
An anti-tax group has plans to bombard the Twitterverse with messages opposing HB 1002. To counter this, the coalition has prepared 33 sample tweets that you and your employees can use to show SUPPORT for HB 1002. It only takes about five negative tweets to make a legislator feel uncomfortable about supporting an issue. So, we must use social media to counter this. Activate those in your company who use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and have them post messages in SUPPORT of HB 1002. The toolbox provides sample tweets and graphics to share on social media. If your legislator is on social media, tweet them directly or post to their Facebook wall. Be sure to use the hashtag #Roads4OurFuture or #ReformRoadFunding so that we can monitor the success of our campaign.

Step 3
Our coalition is tracking local “town hall” or “cracker barrel” meetings. Each week we’ll publish a list of upcoming meetings and the House members that might attend. We expect anti-tax groups to show up; so we must have people there in support. This week’s list includes meetings in Muncie, Spencer, Greencastle, Indianapolis, Lafayette, Elkhart and Columbus. Check out this week’s list in the toolbox and be sure to attend if a meeting is in your area.

Step 4
Contact BIC when your company completes any of these steps. We will report back to the coalition.

Never before have we had a better opportunity to achieve long-term road funding. We will be asking you to be VERY ACTIVE throughout this legislative session. Thank you for your support.

BIC MATTERS: Action Required

Contact Your Indiana State Representative Before January 25

“Despite our standing and our ongoing momentum, we can’t afford to get complacent or take our eyes off the ball.” – Governor Eric Holcomb, during his inaugural address on taking Indiana to the next level.
 
“I need every one of your members to be involved!” – Speaker Brian Bosma, during remarks at an industry lunch earlier today.

BIC NOTE: As highway funding advocates, we must heed the advice from Governor Holcomb and Speaker Bosma. The stars are aligning as never before, but we cannot take the outcome for granted. As we begin this legislative session, we ask you to take action when the need arises. We seek long-term, dedicated, stable and adequate funding for Indiana’s state and local highways, roads, streets and bridges. Your contacts to legislators during the next four months will be critical to our industry’s success. Please watch for BIC MATTERS alerts and take action. We will only ask for action when we truly believe it’s warranted. And now for this week’s update…

In the last two weeks, leaders in both the Indiana House and Senate and Indiana’s newly elected Governor, Eric Holcomb, have announced long-term road funding as a top priority for the 2017 legislative session.

Indiana House Republican Leadership Announces Road Funding Plan (HB 1002)
Republican leaders in the Indiana House of Representatives have introduced a comprehensive and bold road funding bill (HB 1002) that would provide new annual road funding of at least $1.2 billion per year. HB 1002 includes new revenue as follows:

  • increases the gasoline tax, special fuels tax and motor carrier surcharge tax each by 10 cents to restore lost buying power since the taxes were last raised,
  • indexes all fuel tax rates annually using a formula that incorporates CPI-U and Indiana personal income growth,
  • transfers, over three years, the remaining 4.5 pennies of the sales tax on gasoline from the General Fund to the State Highway Fund,
  • implements a $15 annual statewide infrastructure improvement fee on all vehicles registered in Indiana,
    implements a $150 annual statewide infrastructure improvement fee on all electric vehicles registered in Indiana and increases the current alternative fuel vehicle fee to $150,
  • requires INDOT to further study tolling and submit a waiver to the federal government to allow tolling on existing interstates,
  • lowers the minimum population threshold applicable to the municipal wheel tax/surtax from 10,000 to 5,000.

You can access a fiscal summary of HB 1002 here, including how the bill allocates funds to INDOT and local governments.

The Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Representative Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) and the Roads and Transportation Committee, chaired by Representative Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso) will hear the bill in a joint committee meeting on Wednesday, January 25 at 9:00 a.m. in the House Chamber. BIC is working with our road funding partners to coordinate testimony in support of the bill.

ACTION REQUIRED: BIC strongly supports HB 1002. House members in both the Republican and Democrat caucuses are discussing this bill in private meetings. House members have various concerns. Anti-tax groups that oppose the bill have already been contacting legislators. It is important that ALL House members receive a phone call or email from supporters of this bill before it is heard in Committee on January 25. Obviously, members of the two committees are very important to this first step, and you can see the lists of committee members at these links: Ways and Means Committee and Roads and Transportation Committee. However, ALL House members need to receive a contact from supporters of HB 1002. Please contact your State Representative, regardless of political affiliation, by January 25 and express your strong support for HB 1002. Also, send me an email if you get a response from your legislator. For a link to your State Representative, click here. Remember, we will focus on House members only at this time; we will focus on Senate contacts later in the session.

Governor Eric Holcomb’s Priorities Include 20-year Plan to Fund Roads and Bridges
At a press conference last week, Governor Eric Holcomb announced that his legislative agenda for the 2017 session includes creation of a 20-year plan to fund roads and bridges (click here). He noted the importance of funding for both state and local roads and bridges. He said that funding options include fuel taxes, indexing, P3s, new tolling options and fees for alternative vehicles.

Senate Leaders Say It’s Time to Address Long-Term Road Funding
In a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Republican leaders said that their priorities for the 2017 session include implementing a long-term road funding plan. President Pro Tem David Long (R-Fort Wayne) and Senator Mike Crider (R-Greenfield) spoke about the issue. Senator Long acknowledged that while it’s hard for his caucus to talk about increasing taxes, they cannot continue to fund roads from the state general fund. He noted that U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has said the same about the federal budget, and that states are going to have to implement solutions to address road funding shortfalls. Senator Long said Indiana is $1 billion short annually and that he wants to find a solution for 20 years. He expects the final plan will include a mix of new revenue and fees. He also said that gas tax is the accepted method to pay for road improvements and that he could support tolling for new roads or new lanes.

Bottom Line
We are thankful and encouraged that our state leaders have made this a priority. However, we cannot be complacent. Everyone must engage during this legislative session. Please take the action requested above. Call me or send an email if you have any questions, and with any feedback you get from your legislator. Thank you.

BIC MATTERS – Local and Federal Updates

Update on Local Funding for Road and Bridge Projects
We’ve received several phone calls since the end of the state legislative session requesting information about the new local road and bridge funding authorized through passage of HEA 1001 and SEA 67. INDOT has scheduled several meetings around the state from May 23 to May 31 to provide more information about the local matching fund grant program and the required asset management plans. See the links below for the INDOT meeting schedule and other information that you may find useful.

  1. INDOT Local Road and Bridge Funding Meetings May 23-31, 2016
  2. INDOT Local Public Agency Programs website, containing links to Local Road and Bridge Funding Summary memo and Road Funding Presentation
  3. Purdue LTAP special newsletter describing grant process and transportation asset management plans.
  4. Table showing distribution of excess LOIT reserves to local units.

BIC Goes to Washington
About 20 individuals representing Build Indiana Council joined 300 others from across the country at the Transportation Construction Fly-In to Washington in May.

BIC’s group met with both Indiana Senator Dan Coats and Senator Joe Donnelly, as well as each of the nine Indiana U. S. Representatives or members of their staff. In a refreshing twist, BIC members were able to share a message of “thanks” with our delegation for their support of the FAST ACT that congress passed in late 2015. The Fast Act provides some certainty for our industry over the next five years, and all of Indiana’s congressional delegation supported the bill’s passage. BIC’s message, however, did include a reminder that Congress did not enact a stable, long-term way to pay for highway investment. BIC also reminded the delegation that Indiana’s rate of return on federal highway funds is only 92.7 percent, and may drop even lower as Indiana’s contributions into the trust fund rise. Check out the Current Issues page on BIC’s website for photos and talking points from the event.

If you have any questions about this issue of BIC Matters, call BIC at (317) 634-4774.

BIC Matters – Report Shows Estimated Distribution to Local Units

BIC has received additional information on one of the components that we reported on at the end of the 2016 legislation session. As described in BIC Matters on March 10, the legislature passed Senate Bill 67 which releases back to local units already-collected local option taxes that have been held in reserve by the state. The new law requires that of the amounts released to counties, cities and towns, 75% must be used for road, bridge or airport improvements or deposited into the rainy day fund. If the unit deposits the funds into the rainy day fund, then it must abide by the restricted uses when it takes the funds out of the rainy day fund. We have received a report showing preliminary estimated total allocations to each local unit (click here for report). The state is required to make the distributions to local units by May 1, 2016.

If you have any questions, please call the BIC office at (317) 634-4774.