Growing Our Economy

I want to be clear in saying that I do not believe that government officials can “create” jobs, but I believe the private sector does. Our responsibility as elected leaders is to create the best environment we can for businesses to flourish. Here is my plan to improve job growth opportunities for Southern Indiana:

· Work with the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and local community leaders to be sure any businesses that have an interest in investing in Southern Indiana gets our full attention.

· Work to continue improving the needed infrastructure to make existing businesses more competitive and make the area more attractive to new companies through the I-69 project and improvements to US 231.

· Provide tax incentives for companies that provide health insurance to their employees.

· Continue making reforms to the tax code to keep small businesses from paying inequitable taxes.

· Educate our workforce for the high-tech jobs of the 21st century. This will include making preparations for students seeking a college education and students interested in vocational training opportunities. We must be able to show new businesses that we have workers prepared to meet their needs.

If we can make Indiana the most attractive a place to do business and showcase the assets of Southern Indiana to any new perspective businesses, then our local newspaper will be the one with headlines announcing the next round of new jobs.