Pence still pushing for ten-percent income tax cut - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Gov.-elect Mike Pence campaigned for a ten-percent across the board personal income tax cut. Once he was elected, however, reaction in his own party, has been hesitant at best.

In a one-on-one interview with Eyewitness News, Pence explained his position.

"Indiana is in a strong fiscal condition. We have the largest surplus in our states history and we will have choices to make," he said.

"I believe one of those choices should be tax relief for every Hoosier and almost every Hoosier small business. In our campaign we looked at a variety of ways to make Indiana more competitive and I simply believe that after we make sure we have strong reasons and fund the priorities we have as a state that we will have the resources to cut taxes across the board by ten percent."

Pence presents a three-fold argument for his plan.

"Number one, reducing the personal income tax rate by ten percent, we will put $500 million back in the economy and several hundred dollars into the pockets of every Hoosier. Secondly, since almost every business enterprise in the state files their taxes under this proposal income tax rate and we know the most effective way to cut taxes for job creators is to lower the personal income tax rate. That will help put people back to work by giving business more dollars to spend on hiring and creating jobs," he said.

"Lastly, we did a back-of-the-envelope study with the tax foundation and found that if we lower the personal income tax rate by ten percent Indiana will be the lowest tax state in the Midwest. Right now one of our neighbors edges us just a little bit. I'd like to fix that. I think when you add together our fiscal strength, the fact that we were the first right-to-work state in the Midwest, our education reform, the best people, the best location and then make us the lowest tax state in the Midwest. That will give us an even better story to tell to attract jobs and investment to Indiana and I look forward to discussions with lawmakers about how to move that forward."

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