Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook
Welcome to 'Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook', a heartening podcast where embracing vulnerability is the key to success. Join your host, Kevin, as he dives into the stories of remarkable individuals who have transformed their lives by opening up, facing challenges, and finding strength in their most vulnerable moments. Each episode features inspiring conversations with guests from various walks of life. Kevin's journey of embracing vulnerability has led him to meet amazing people, and now he brings their wisdom, laughter, and insights to you. Tune in and discover how embracing your vulnerabilities can lead to your greatest victories in life, both personally & professionally.
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Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook
State Rep. J.D. Prescott - Indiana Tax Reform, Personal Milestones, and is Everyday a Holiday?!
What happens when International Coffee Day, World Vegetarian Day, and National Sausage Day all fall on the same date? Grab a cup of your favorite brew and join us for a laugh as we dissect these quirky celebrations. Ever wondered why we love made-up holidays like Pie Day? We share our thoughts and even compare the complexity of legislation to making sausage – trust us, it’s a deliciously tangled mess. Plus, we're diving into the world of virtual tours, spotlighting projects for non-profits like the Boys and Girls Club of Wayne County, and dreaming up ways to make statehouse visits more engaging for schools.
Switching gears, we tackle a bold proposal to replace property taxes with a 7% sales tax on services. Imagine eliminating property taxes entirely while still generating billions in revenue for local governments. We'll walk you through the plan, discuss its potential impact on communities, and share our thoughts on gaining bipartisan support. We even get personal, celebrating milestones like 551 days of sobriety and sharing the inspiration we gained from Gary Vaynerchuk’s VeeCon.
To wrap things up, we address pressing local governance issues like township corruption and the financial burdens on renters and homeowners. We explain the legislative process behind tax reform and the importance of public feedback. We also touch on important upcoming changes to ambulance billing practices and introduce a new mental health facility with potential for statewide expansion. This jam-packed episode promises a comprehensive look at quirky holidays, groundbreaking tax proposals, and the human stories that tie them all together.
Life Inscripted with Kevin Shook.
Speaker 2:Welcome back, jd. Yeah, nice to be back. First I want to wish you a happy International Coffee Day.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:International Sausage Day. World Vegetarian Day. It is the kickoff of Bat Appreciation Month and it's Lincolnshire Day, cd Player Day, national. Green City Day. Appreciation month. And it's lincolnshire day cd player day, national green city day and national black dog day.
Speaker 3:That is interesting. I did not know all that and I'm just curious how do we get sausage day and vegetarian day at the same time?
Speaker 2:I don't know. It sounds like something a state representative would do make up. Make up this list of holidays.
Speaker 3:Well, there are all kinds of interesting pieces of legislation that come through.
Speaker 2:So you never know that's wild, it is, that's wild. What's your favorite made-up holiday? Made-up holiday.
Speaker 3:I don't know that I've got a favorite.
Speaker 2:Not like Christmas or nothing, but a made-up holiday.
Speaker 3:I honestly don't follow them too much. So maybe Pi Day just an excuse to eat some pie.
Speaker 2:I forget when that is.
Speaker 3:I forget when it is too Well of course, because we eat sugar cream pie. Exactly Wix. Yeah, it's right there in the district.
Speaker 2:In Winchester. You're married, correct.
Speaker 3:I am and um you're married and correct I am, and do you celebrate national sweetest day?
Speaker 2:oh, she's just sweet every day, dang, that's. That is a made-up holiday too. I did not know that. One sweetest day. Yeah, I didn't know that one.
Speaker 3:Uh-oh, I hope she doesn't listen to this well, I just said she's sweet every day, so i'm'm covered right.
Speaker 2:It is wild. I didn't really think about that today, and I really didn't think about the vegetarian and the sausage day being in one day, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I guess with me being on, they do say legislations like sausage being made, so you just put a bunch of shit in it to wrap it up.
Speaker 2:That's right Sell it and repackage it and sell it. Well, welcome back yeah it's. It's changed a little bit up here. Since you've been improved some things on the set, things look good in here, yeah um, I feel it's like there's a lot more comfortable, yeah, a lot better conversations come out when you can look at each other. Because you know, I think we were yeah I was trying.
Speaker 3:I didn't know where to look. The last time did I look over here at jeff I look, I look at the camera where I'm looking I know. So yeah, you don't have the new chairs together yet still in these other ones they look comfortable, but yet we can't set it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll. Uh, it's been a busy morning. That was on my list, but I I was up at five. I actually did go to the gym good for you.
Speaker 3:I say it like I've been in months.
Speaker 2:I remembered where it was at. You know I started sweating so I left. Then I had to drop the jeep off. Yeah, it's just been busy day already. Good, oh, finished up, a well, almost finished up. Um, you remember the virtual tours? Yeah yeah, so, um, I'm getting a lot of those for non-profit organizations and a lot of it. Uh, it's a great like this one I present today at one. Um, well, we go through other options is for our boys and girls. Club of Wayne County.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's really cool for marketing, right. But I think a really good solution is being able to take it and send to donors across the states that can't come visit so they can see the facilities and see where their money's going and everything else. So it's pretty cool. So plug that in somewhere at the statehouse.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, I mean those really are great. Great tools, though, where you can go and see everything in and get a I mean it really is you get to see every aspect of the building without actually being there. I mean, from a real estate perspective, it's, I mean it's great for those buyers that are that are looking at buying a house and and a community they don't live in. I mean they wouldn't have been able to do that in the past.
Speaker 3:They buy inside on scene really don't know what they're getting. At least now they have kind of an idea, and then, yeah, all kinds of uses for that we've we've done.
Speaker 2:We started with real estate industry but then you know we have one live at randolph county tourism for tourism purposes, which is super cool because you can literally like thumb your way through, click on a restaurant, order pizza. Thumb your way through, click on the hotel, book a room, you know. And then we have some in adult education, ivy Tech, out here, covid came along that bad C word and you know students couldn't visit the campus, so then they took the campus to them through a virtual tour. You could get on the Oculus, see the campus, ask questions. You could ask questions in the virtual tour like a Zoom integrated with the tour itself. So I talked to Jeff about that, about doing a tour of the Statehouse.
Speaker 3:Oh, that'd be great yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you could literally use this for field trip purposes e-field trip.
Speaker 3:You know everything's e nowadays well, and when you look at for some schools you're looking at two and a half, three hours to get all the way to the state house from a far corner of the state. So by the time they get down there and then drive back, they don't have hardly any time there. So, and and we do live stream all of our, all of our days of session so they can follow those in the classroom and so, yeah, they can do the virtual tour and we can integrate, yeah, stream inside the tour, yeah, where they can go into the room and pop, yep, absolutely, talk about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's crazy and I seen one that was really neat. Uh, actually, I was staying in dc for some meetings meetings this summer and you may have done this with some of the hotels that you work with too where there was a little area to go by the riverfront, where they had a bunch of restaurants and shops and things clear on how to get down there, though based on how it was laid out. So when you turned on the tv in the hotel room, what it would do is it would that first screen, the welcome screen, it would show a virtual tour of how to walk from the basically a map and it would guide you down to where all the entertainment was and there was then the next thing that flipped through it would walk you to the uh, to the national mall and to other areas as well in dc wow and it and show you like what bus lines to get on which uh um subways to get on, to get to where you want to go.
Speaker 3:So it was kind of neat how they utilize that that's.
Speaker 2:That's on the super, super small scale right same theory, yeah um, and that's why I told cheryl uh, you know, that kiosk is really nice at the hotel and then people come in from outside of the county, outside of the state, they stay at the hotel, they can get on that kiosk and see where to eat, see what parks, where these parks are. You know you can go to the racetrack, buy tickets all right there on that Right, exactly, it's all right there on that right, exactly. So, um, what's cool is I can tap in and always update all of that in real time. Um, as businesses open, close things, update, um, so it's huge. And what's great is, with technology all evolving quicker than we can, even like our phones, man, do you remember, like when we had a flip phone?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 2:So could you even imagine wearing glasses that gets your text messages and your watch your YouTube and everything inside glasses?
Speaker 3:when we had those flip phones. Well, I remember the Google Glass that was supposed to be the first one, which I think they were just out of their time. If they had came out a little bit later, they probably would have. I remember the Google Glass that was supposed to be the first one, which I think they were just doing it at the time.
Speaker 2:If they had came out a little bit later they probably would have been okay, I know. And now so Meta dropped the Ray-Bans and now they have another pair that they just dropped last week and I think they're called Orion's, but I'm not sure they're getting a little more stylish. Well, obviously I wear some silly glasses, but uh, so I could just it don't matter what glasses I have on, but um, where it's augmented reality? So text messages, phone calls. So our phone is going to be put in a drawer along with that pager that we used to carry. Did you ever have? One I never had.
Speaker 3:I never had a pager.
Speaker 2:You weren't cool, were you? Or you weren't selling drugs.
Speaker 3:Actually, I think the pagers might have been a little before my time. How old are you? I'm 33.
Speaker 2:Dang bro, I'm 39. You're state representative and I can't spell representative man, I need to get with it, I need to do something productive, so educate me then. So you are Indiana State representative. I say it like that because you ever make them phone calls and they're automated and you're just screaming representative. You're trying to get to that customer representative but so your district 33, which is randolph j delaware blackford, blackford, a little part of henry henry or newcastle, or just just uh, stony creek township.
Speaker 3:So I've got one township. It's um, and the only reason I really have that township it was to keep all of Union School Corporation together and just needed a few extra in the population. So that was kind of the natural fit to keep that community of interest together and keep Union Schools together.
Speaker 2:Are you all a Blackford?
Speaker 3:Blackford Randolph complete. I've got two-thirds of Jay and a little over a third of Delaware land area-wise.
Speaker 2:Do you know a really fun fact about Blackford?
Speaker 3:What's that?
Speaker 2:They had a uh, probably one of the only drive in adult movie theaters not theaters, but drive-ins.
Speaker 3:Really, I had no clue.
Speaker 2:Look it up. Huh Well, don't look it up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you don't want that.
Speaker 1:You don't want that on your search. Yeah, you don't want that on your search history.
Speaker 2:I'll look it up for you my stuff's already and then I'll show you later on. That had to have been years ago, oh yeah, in our six years difference it was in that six years. Yeah, it was years ago.
Speaker 3:Years ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now that would be shut down real quick.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely we wouldn't allow that.
Speaker 2:What towns are in Blackford, Hartford City?
Speaker 3:Montpelier, dunkirk's not in Blackford. Well, I guess. Actually there's two streets in Dunkirk and Blackford, the rest of it's in Jay and actually a little bit's in Delaware County, so it's right on the corner.
Speaker 2:Are you serious?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's right on the corner of Jay Blackford and Delaware.
Speaker 2:Three counties.
Speaker 3:Yeah, jay, blackford and delaware three counties yeah, so actually go into jay, or that go into dunkirk they go into dunkirk, yeah so how so I represent all of dunkirk okay, um so so really, before redistricting I technically had a sliver of blackford county, because I had two, because I had all of dunkirk so those two streets, wasn't? That was in blackford county the shady.
Speaker 3:They call it the shady side of dunkirk because shady street north and uh, so. So yeah, there's there's whole six voters in blackford county that I had before redistricting, but then, once we did redistricting, I picked up all of blackford county. So, uh, yeah. So I like to say, my first election in 2018, my very first election, my first primary. I had 100% of the vote in Blackford County.
Speaker 2:It was six voters, but I had 100% because I actually went and knocked on their doors. You could actually take all of them out to eat. So how would like government services work, county services, ambulances, that type of stuff work?
Speaker 3:One town would see, see, like three different services or no, I mean because they're going to be. It's both jay and blackford are utilize iu health for their services. So it's going to be the same. Um regardless there and delaware iu health is heavy too, so um, but yeah, I, there is some overlap. I mean a lot of it is when you've got those small rural communities. You know how it is. It's EMS personnel. They're going to assist out wherever is needed, and bounce back and forth. So I mean, you know that better than anybody.
Speaker 2:I know I can't get out of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like I left my last paramedic job probably five months ago, just because, you know, all of this is just taken off. I stay sober and business goes like this so uh there, so let's go, and uh um, but then, like saturday I am, I'm at home and I still have like a little scanner or whatever and neighbors and cardiac arrests across the street Run over there and start pumping on his chest. So I think it's always going to be with me.
Speaker 3:Well, it's in your blood.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's that sense of service it is.
Speaker 3:And I really appreciate all you've done for the community.
Speaker 2:I like it. And what's fun is I started in Randolph County in 2005. I remember my very first run being released Cardiac arrest on a moped. I'm like, all right, this is a dumpster fire already.
Speaker 3:It hits you all at once, doesn't it yeah?
Speaker 2:because you're like well, did he code and then wreck, or did he wreck and then code because he wrecked? Is it trauma? Is it medical? It's wild man, I love it, so I'm pretty passionate about that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3:So you have you said the sober Is that the 500 days sober, is that what that stands for? Yeah, Five.
Speaker 2:I guess I'm 551,.
Speaker 3:I think yeah, because that's 810.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was kind of cool because the 500th day I was in LA for VCon. So Gary Vaynerchuk, the major social media influencer, marketer, serial entrepreneur, all that good stuff um, then my cat after him, that guy, so, um, last year he had vcon and look at lucas oil in indianapolis, right, and what he? What he does is he brings in a whole smorgasbord of businessmen, businesswomen, athletes, pop culture artists, musicians, just all of these like very inspirational and influential people. Um, I think so. I last year, uh, drew barrymore was there and then, uh, a rapper named young gravy that was like really cool and I butcher her name every time Bazoma St John. So she was the chief marketing officer at Netflix. She was there. So you meet all these people and what they do is they do all these John Taffer, bar Rescue, have you.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure you never watched that show. I haven't watched that one oh man, this guy's wild.
Speaker 2:I'm not very cultured. I'm going to, you're going to, we're going to get this between this and our next stop on your way out of town, roscoe's. We'll get you cultured. But just real inspirational, influential people that really put a twist on everything I'm doing, and I do a lot of my stuff based on that. You know, and so, gary, he owns the largest independent marketing agencies VaynerMedia, and some of his clients are like Starry, which was Sprite or 7-Up or something, and he's about to buy the Jets.
Speaker 2:He's always going, man. And so then I went to L, to la, this year to see it. Uh, that's just second time I ever flew commercial, never been to la, never been to california. It was just like only second time flying commercial. Yeah, yeah, unless you want to count layovers for my first time. But uh, yeah. So I just hop on a plane, me and my carry-on I didn't take another thing bag.
Speaker 3:Yeah, never take more than a carry-on. You don't want to lose a bag.
Speaker 2:No, especially with cameras and stuff in it. So yeah, I just by myself, man just roll. But yeah, so the 500 day was day one of VCon, which I just lined up. That was just really. It's really weird how it starts to learn, you know, um, but yeah, and then I think Friday, so I have another podcast Friday with the sterns. Okay.
Speaker 2:And that's a really cool story You'll have to listen to because that was based on. She sent the wrong number a prayer, um, and then it ended up being this guy like four states away and he just bought that phone like 30 minutes prior and he got that on his phone. He ended up calling her, they talked, she's like he sounds cute and all that. So they've been on the today show and all of this stuff talking about this story and they have like six kids, I believe now, and she's a big time influencer on instagram and, um, just a really sweet, kind family. They're all gone. I told them to bring all the kids and everything like, but, uh, yeah, so yeah, it'll be a fun one I have to listen to that that'll be interesting, just really good, inspirational, positive stories you know um.
Speaker 2:But then I think I'm going to some 555 thing for my 555th day but okay, so you got papers. I, I do, I'm excited. So what I read on this is a property tax repeal and replacement plan by state representative JD Prescott.
Speaker 3:Yep, yes, sir. So, as you know, property taxes have been kind of the number one topic facing the General Assembly going into the next session, with assessments going up, tax bills being higher for families and before we kind of get into the details on this, you know the biggest, I guess, problem that I have with property tax. I think it's most unfair tax that's out there. Honestly, In DC we're talking about the Democrats are talking about putting a tax on unrealized gains. Well, if you really think about it, we have a tax on unrealized gains. It's property taxes.
Speaker 2:Well, what would you consider unrealized gains?
Speaker 3:So what I mean by that is you buy property 30 years ago. It's gained in value but you haven't realized that gain, you haven't sold it, you haven't actually collected that gain but yet you're paying an increase. You're paying based on your assessment, which has gone up every year. So you're paying taxes based on the gains that you haven't realized. You haven't actually captured that gains.
Speaker 3:So, when they're talking about in DC. It's different. They're talking about it with stocks, but it's really the same thing with property taxes. You're talking about paying taxes on the assessment, which would be the gain. So that's one reason I don't like property taxes. The other thing, too anytime we change with property taxes, anytime we do any type of assessment or any I'm sorry any type of deductions or abatements, what we're doing is we're pulling from the tax base, we're shrinking that tax base, and those that remain paying property taxes pay a larger share of the tax base. We're shrinking that tax base and those that remain paying property taxes pay a larger share of the tax burden year over year. So we just keep shifting that tax burden from one group of individuals to another anytime we try to do a fix.
Speaker 3:So a lot of the discussion that you're hearing from the governor's candidates, from others around the state, is relief for homeowners, which I think that's important. We need to have relief for homeowners, but there's more than just homeowners that pay property tax. Right here in this commercial building, it'd be taxed at a 3% tax rate versus the 1% tax cap. Then you've got the 2%s your rentals, your agriculture around. So what happens is, if we provide relief for homeowners. Most of that relief, those dollars in savings for homeowners get shifted to the 2% and the 3% brackets, which end up causing them to pay more. Plus your higher value homeowners that may not be against the cap, they're going to pick up more of the tax burden as well. So we're really not shrinking government.
Speaker 3:There might be some decreases, but it's minimal. Really, all we're doing is shifting that tax burden and we just keep putting a Band-Aid on the problem and kicking it down the road. A few more years and then the next thing you know, people are going to be complaining about property taxes again because they continue to go up. We'll put another Band-Aid on it.
Speaker 3:So I think the system is broken. So I think it's time to eliminate the system and replace it with a different funding mechanism, because we have to fund local units of government. We have to pay for roads, bridges, ems, police, obviously. So what I'm proposing is to completely repeal property taxes, get rid of all TIF districts, get rid of the assessor's office in all 92 counties, including township assessors for those counties that still have township assessors. It would eliminate half of DLGF Department of Local Government Financing at the state level. And then it would get rid of referendums as well any school referendums. Those would go away too, because they're based on the property tax structure, and the way I would replace that would be a 7% sales tax on services. So think you go and get your oil changed in your car. Under current law, you're paying sales tax on the oil and the filter. You're not paying any sales tax on the labor.
Speaker 3:So, what I'm doing would be adding sales tax on the labor. So in fiscal year 2026, if we don't change any laws we're looking at collecting $10.6 billion worth of property tax revenue statewide. That'll go to all local units of government. None of that goes to the state, it all goes to local units of government.
Speaker 3:And with the plan that I'm working on, if we would implement the 7% sales tax on services, any industry that's already sales tax exempt would remain sales tax exempt. And then I would also exempt medical services, because we're also trying to get medical costs down as well. So you don't want to add the 7% to the medical. So exempt all medical services, including nursing home, assisted living and then also education. Most education would already be sales tax exempt because most is nonprofit, but so it would just be adding making sure that private universities are on the same. That way they're on a level playing field with the nonprofit universities as well as public universities. So by doing that we would generate between $12 and $15 billion worth of revenue, and fiscal year 26 is what would be projected. So obviously that's more than property taxes.
Speaker 2:So okay. So next property taxes. Add that 7% services with exemptions, and we're on top.
Speaker 3:We are, we'd actually bring in more revenue, which I'm not wanting to grow government either.
Speaker 3:So the reason that I want to collect more in those first couple of years is we need to build up a healthy surplus in that account. So we collect property taxes in the rear. So right now this year we're paying the 2024 payable. It's really your taxes from 23. You pay property taxes a year behind and with this you're paying it a year in advance or you're paying it basically as you go, not necessarily in advance.
Speaker 3:You got, so we're going to start collecting and if this would pass in 25, we would start collecting on july 1st of 26. So you'd be collect for six months, but then payments would not start building out of that fund until January. So you'd have six months basically runway ahead of time. You'd still be local units of government would be operating on property taxes still in 26. But then going forward it'd be on the sales tax. So once you created a healthy surplus in that account, then I would drop the rate a quarter percent at a time until you hit equilibrium of what you need to actually fund local units government and I also think you're going to see tremendous economic growth come into our state.
Speaker 2:So you drop the rate of that 7%. Sales on services.
Speaker 3:Yep a quarter percent at a time once certain economic thresholds are met and we'd allow government to grow at the rate of inflation. So going forward that way you're still having more funds for local units of government, as obviously inflation, everything else, all the different factors that go in year over year and the distribution is key on this. So that's where a lot of the focus I think is going to be during the discussion. Roughly 40% of your property tax dollars statewide goes to schools for their operation funding for their building maintenance. So I take 40% of the revenue generated on sales tax on services, put it into a school's operation fund. Those dollars would follow the student, just like what we do on the education fund. So that's pretty simple. That's an easy formula to work out On cities and on counties it'd be two different buckets but it'd be a similar formula for each.
Speaker 3:I'm looking at a combination of miles of roadway and population. That way you get into a fair funding distribution between a rural county and an urban county. That way you've got some parity there. I'm still working out the details on that formula but legislative services agencies working with me on that and I'll be putting out a county by county, a city by city breakdown on a school run report on exactly how this bill, if it was to go through, what that would look like from a funding perspective from each local unit of government. And one thing that I am also looking at too, with generating that additional revenue, this would actually allow local units government to capture the circuit breaker losses that they've had in the past. So I would be replacing the circuit breaker losses, but then after that they could only grow at the rate of inflation. Now explain the circuit breaker losses, but then after that they could only grow at the rate of inflation.
Speaker 2:Now explain the circuit breaker losses. Is that tax caps years ago?
Speaker 3:Yeah, from the tax cap. So on the property taxes, what they do is they set the rates. If the rate is above 1%, that's capped. It goes into a circuit breaker loss. So from a homeowner's perspective so that is the if the rates above that 1% local units, the government are going to see a circuit breaker loss on anybody that's under that 1% rate. If it's over 2%, then they would see a circuit breaker loss for anybody that's above the 1% plus the 2%. Plus there's another circuit breaker loss at the 2%, same for the 3%. So if you have a higher rate than the tax cap, that's where that circuit breaker comes into play.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. That makes sense. That's exciting. I think that would be huge.
Speaker 3:We'd be the first in the nation.
Speaker 2:Nobody else is talking about this, no other state.
Speaker 3:No other state.
Speaker 2:Now LG Susan, she's been up here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Love her to death. And she was talking about, you know, along the same kind of lines, getting rid of income tax, which sounded great, you know. So it's really cool if, obviously, there's always going to be taxes, Absolutely, Because we need money for roads, we need money for um government, but, uh, government entities, Um so, but it is kind of exciting to hear when, when there is a cut in in, that makes you know, cause that that's going to spread it out a little bit.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Cause not everyone owns a home but everyone does go get that oil change Absolutely so. So yeah, everyone pays services of some sort, right, and? And so what you're doing is you're you're broadening your taxing base across all citizens throughout the state plus non-citizens. You're going to get tourists coming in to the state as well, that also going to purchase service type, uh, goods, and, and then all and then, as well as illegal immigrants now, what about?
Speaker 2:we'll touch on that a little bit. Um, what about utilities?
Speaker 3:so utilities are already taxed, so so any industry that's already taxed that, that would uh, that would not change there wouldn't be a new tax on top of that If they're already.
Speaker 2:That's where I was going with that, because I was like, well, let's you know, we've got 10 utilities going on, yeah, yeah, so there there you already pay a sales tax on utilities and then on the generating of utilities.
Speaker 3:the way that works in the back channels they there's a specific tax tied to the utilities within that, so this would not put an additional tax on utilities okay I like it, man.
Speaker 2:I I just like it because it spreads it out. It spread, it spreads out the expenditure. It'll be a huge incentive for uh home buyers, especially first time home buyers, I mean everybody.
Speaker 3:I mean you actually get to own your home after it's paid off.
Speaker 2:I know because, like now, you know we talked about this at the picnic Uh, the government owns your home If you, if you always have to pay on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're running the ground, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, so, um yeah, what's the chances you can pull this off?
Speaker 3:So I've got an uphill battle, just to be honest, and just from the fact that I am literally proposing to upset the apple cart on how we fund local units of government. Now I will say, as I've been out talking, I've talked to the Speaker House, I've talked to our Ways and Means, our Republican caucus on Ways and.
Speaker 3:Means. Everyone seems to be open to it. They're asking a lot of questions and I think the biggest thing from all the different members and the general assembly as I've as I talked to there anyone's hesitant to support a plan this big until they see how it's going to affect their community. And that's a fair point, because if somebody came to me and said, okay, we're going to throw this taxing structure outside and restart with something else, the first question I'm going to have is how does this affect my community? Right, I want to see how. I want to see how the numbers work. So until they see it on paper, I think that is going to be the turning point when I can start getting buy-in. Now I do have some key members that I'm working with on this. Senator Alexander he's. He's working right alongside me in the on the Senate side. Senator Gaskell's on board as well. I've got some other state reps up in the northeastern part of the state that's working with me on this. We've got a small coalition.
Speaker 2:Do you have any bipartisanship support?
Speaker 3:Not yet and, to be fair, I haven't approached too many members on the minority side. Yet but I anticipate that we will get some with this.
Speaker 2:But you never know I mean, and you don't know, you absolutely do not know in politics, um, I think so what would would this be like? A light switch comes on, light switch goes off on the same day no it.
Speaker 3:So here's the way it would work. So starting in uh, so say, I'm just making the assumption right old assumption, say this passes in 2025, uh, this next general assembly session on upon passage, no new tiff districts could be created.
Speaker 3:That's key, because we wouldn't want communities to go out and starting a bunch of tiff districts as they're getting ready to go away. Uh, then calendar year 2025 would be the last year of assessments, property tax assessments, and then those will be payable in 26. So 26, calendar year 26 would be the last year of property taxes payable, so it'd be the last year you pay property taxes. Then in also in 2026, we would start collecting sales tax on services on july 1. Okay, so, so there would be six months where you're paying both property taxes and sales tax on services, but really you're paying the previous year's property taxes. And then on uh 2027, on july, on january 1st. That's when we would start um sending out the funds from the, from the sales tax revenue, to local units of government. So, starting January 1st of 2027, that's when local units of government would be relying on sales tax on services to fund local government operations.
Speaker 2:Man, that's wild, so okay, so obviously you know me very well.
Speaker 3:You know how my brain works. I'm like ding ding, ding, ding, ding, squirrel hey coffee yeah, and there's a lot of details to this, so there's a lot coming at you I know I love it, especially if we can come out ahead, because?
Speaker 2:So explain this to me, educate me on this, on a local city government where does their general fund come from?
Speaker 3:so their general fund mainly comes from property taxes.
Speaker 2:You've also got a local option income tax that it could go into as well, or they could fund that as well, but it's a combination of property tax and local option income tax so that would switch over to sales tax on services, and would that be sales tax on services in their city?
Speaker 3:No, so it would not work if you did it. If you're collecting it locally, it's got to be all go, be collected statewide and then distributed back out. Okay.
Speaker 3:And, and the reason being, look at how many small rural communities don't have necessarily the service base in their community but, like in Randolph County for example, there's a lot of times where I'll be coming down and hiring a service out of Richmond or hiring a service out of Muncie, but yet I'm still paying in, right. So that's why it has to be collected statewide and then distributed back out. And what this does is now it makes from an economic development perspective which is a whole other discussion we're going to have at the Statehouse the future of IEDC and economic development. But what it does is it forces Indian economic development to look at everything from a statewide approach versus a regional approach. Because now it behooves Wayne County for Blackford County to do well. It's good for Randolph County if Marion County does well, because we're all in this boat together, right, because it's all generating revenue statewide.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what's the? So going to EDC, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:So going to uh edc well, we'd still need 92 counties of them to I think that's a discussion that's worth having, with or without this bill, to be honest with you, um, but but I think that's mainly a local, local level. So now it would change their tools right, because mainly what local economic developments do is give out tax abatements. Well, there's no tax abatements because everybody's abated at this point. There's no property taxes period, if this passes right. So, and also business personal property taxes. I don't know if I said that earlier, I'm also repealing business personal property taxes as well. So no tax on equipment either. So that does.
Speaker 2:Hold on, I'm going to order some iPads. I need 20 more iPads.
Speaker 3:But so, yes, that kind of takes away an incentive that economic development has. I don't necessarily say that it goes away, but I think it would be restructured, There'd be different tools and really economic development at that point within a county it'd be funded directly out of this general fund operations. There might be different incentives and things they can do, but really if you look at economic development offices, especially at the county level, when when they got started there was a handful of them that really went out there and around the state and really brought in businesses, One was right before you.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely that man Yep, he really worked it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he worked it and he did a great job, yeah. But now all 92 counties has their own economic development office. We've got the state economic development office and it's. It comes down to the philosophical question of how much should the government be getting involved in these business deals and are we bringing in jobs? Are we just trading from one area to another and passing them back and forth? Are we really doing any good with them? And I think that's a genuine debate that we can look into and I honestly don't know the answer to that completely without looking in. I think it's, and I think it depends on the community you're in and what they're doing. So I think the role of economic development is going to change over the years. There might. If you're, if you continue to do the same thing, you get behind, you get complacent.
Speaker 3:So, you constantly have to be evolving, so I don't want I'm not saying that we need to get rid of all economic development. I'm saying I'm saying we need to restructure it and think differently and think of new ways to bring in business and I think this is a way that bring in business Cause. Can you imagine from the business community's perspective to go to a state and not have any real property or business personal property tax?
Speaker 2:Well, and that's, that's the, I don't know. I just see that as the number one challenge of an entrepreneur whether it's a solopreneur or it's a CEO with a team of 300, is taxes.
Speaker 3:Yep Well, and you pay property taxes, whether you make money or not.
Speaker 2:It's due every year income taxes it's based on it's based on the revenue you bring in.
Speaker 3:This one is the one tax that you pay, whether you make money or not, even with a sales tax. You can only pay sales tax if you have money to to pay for the good, pay for the service, right? So if you're making less money, you're going to pay for less services and goods. So so that's so. It makes it a more fair tax.
Speaker 2:I think it's pretty exciting and kind of going back to I know Susan talked about, you know she was talking about there's a lot of state agencies that don't really need to exist. I agree and I see this. So you know, I was a city employee for Richmond Fire Department and I've seen this as a catastrophe at the bottom because it's all of these general funds, not all of them. A lot of these general funds are so underfunded to where a lot of public safety entities are understaffed. So not only are we providing less than adequate services at the, you know, at the bottom on city government, um, we're also overtaxing these people, the human beings in these positions.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:And that's why I'm kind of like when I see this. I'm like 7%, go 14, and then increase these general funds.
Speaker 3:Well, there's actually a way to help out with public safety without increasing the 7%.
Speaker 2:So there's another aspect to this, yeah.
Speaker 3:So right now there's an option for local units of government to take 1.25 percent and add it onto their lit tax, their local option income tax, so you can have an additional one and a quarter percent that is supposed to be for property tax relief, so they can use that local option income tax to lower their property tax rates, to give them to spread that out, to basically shift that tax burden from property tax to income tax. So if there's no property taxes, there's no reason to have that extra one and a quarter percent of local option income tax, right, because it's not going to property tax relief, because there's no property taxes.
Speaker 3:So what I am this is not in the bill yet, but it's something I am Proposed. I am working on exactly how I want to do it. But what I'm looking at doing is taking that 1.25% and allowing part of that to be used for public safety police, fire, ems to allow them to keep that 1.25% as a local option income tax. So I'd probably take 1% of that and put it towards police, fire and EMS and have that quarter percent left over and allow that as an extra option for schools for additional school funding, if a county would want to do that, because the schools are losing the referendum ability, which I'd make the argument that the schools have enough margin to operate within budget within the budgets they have and don't need that referendum ability, which I'd make the argument that the schools have enough margin to operate within budget within the budgets they have and don't need that referendum ability, but that is a something that I have in my back pocket as a as negotiating piece.
Speaker 3:to be honest, you always have to have plan.
Speaker 2:A, B, C, A point.
Speaker 3:B Right. Right. So that can be broken down a little, down a little.
Speaker 2:there's different ways you can do it, but that is one way you could direct specific funds uh to to boost public safety dollars okay, because, um, I see it, I see it, uh, you know, on the, on the very bottom, on the local level, um, where they're kind of forced to do things for profit, uh, on one side of the street, yeah, like the fish fries or the other things.
Speaker 3:Well, that yeah, they're like to raise money the, the ems services.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm sorry, fire has to go out and make a bunch of money to sustain the fire trucks, not really the ambulances. So, um, and they've had to do that. Um, I know Union City kind of did that first, where then they started taking salaries out of that non-reverting fund because it wasn't part of their general fund, it wasn't part of their, and now I think Winchester's doing that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they are. I have a lot of communities that are starting to do that, I know.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like well, how can we like, does Indiana really need 92 courthouses, 92 county Like, is there some consolidation that can be done to kind of alleviate some of this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think one area that always comes up is township governments, whether that could be combined or not. And, to be fair, I've always been to the aspect. I always want to keep township governments, whether that could be combined or not. And and, to be fair, I've always been to the aspect. I always want to keep township governments, um, because they're, they know the people in the area, especially when you're talking about poor relief, when you're talking about the, the fire departments volunteer fire departments.
Speaker 3:it's kind of the identity, um, that there are some areas where, uh, there's abuse, though in other parts of the state, so it's.
Speaker 2:What's expenditure?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, some expenditures.
Speaker 2:Some fraud taking place.
Speaker 3:Oh, whoops, oh yeah, so that is one thing that if we're going to keep township governments, we need to make sure that everybody's operating the way they should be.
Speaker 2:Bro, did you see that the sheriff that was on 60 Days In know 60 days in on a and e that television show?
Speaker 3:yeah, the one down in southern indiana. Yeah, that's crazy isn't it? And that was all the township money yeah, it was township money, county money, um, and I don't know all the details of the case, but I I know enough to know that he's. He did a lot of inappropriate thing and I I honestly am not sure how he's the only one that's gotten wrapped up on. I don't see how somebody could pull that much fraud off over that long a period of time and nobody else caught on.
Speaker 2:It took down his wife, it took down his daughter, him. I bet, man, that there's more connections.
Speaker 3:Well, he was really close friends with our governor.
Speaker 2:Our current Mm-hmm, really Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:He was in state party for a while. I don't know, it's just a weird. It's wild bro. Yeah, I don't know, there's just a Pull back the curtains on some people.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying governor has anything to do with that. I'm not saying governor has anything to do with that. I'm not saying that, but he was well-connected is what I'm getting at.
Speaker 3:Those are the people you got to watch sometimes, yeah, so I don't know. Those are the type of people I try to steer clear of.
Speaker 2:I know You'll end up on Netflix series. No, no, no, no. You know that's going to be a Netflix series.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm sure it will be. I mean, or some sort of series like that, right, whether it be Netflix or Hulu or one of them right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was crazy. A lot of crazy things have happened lately. It's wild.
Speaker 3:There was a township trustee. This was a Democrat up in Adams County that just got busted for embezzling funds as well. So that's what I'm talking about with township governments. They're great when they work good and I think in a lot of our area. They do work really good, so you want to protect that. But at the same point, we cannot allow for a system where there's been multiple abuse in different parts of the state time and time again.
Speaker 2:So I think that's one of the things that have to be looked at because the money goes missing, then these taxes just have to increase exactly to make up for it, exactly. You know, um, that's really exciting. I'm, I'm excited. What's the next step?
Speaker 3:so this is house bill 33 uh, so there's not a bill number yet on this. Oh so, so I'm in the I'm in the early stages now. So what I'm doing is I'm still in the process of drafting the bill, finalizing the the details of it, but since this is such a big proposal, I'm trying to get out and talk about it early and build.
Speaker 2:I mean the way you explained it. Um, I think it'd be huge because it spreads it out a little more, um, and it's not going to add an extra tax to something that's already being taxed. I think it'd be huge because it spreads it out a little more and it's not going to add an extra tax to something that's already being taxed. And I mean, I don't know what percent. Do you know the percentage of people who rent versus homeowners?
Speaker 3:I don't off the top of my head. I can pull that number up, but I don't off the top of my head.
Speaker 2:So that's just that's another thing.
Speaker 3:But renters pay as well in property taxes and they pay at a higher rate than homeowners. So renters oh yeah, I didn't know that, yeah because landlords pay a 2%, they're in the 2% property tax caps. So they pay the 2% rate versus the 1% rate. You know the landlords aren't eating that out of their own pocket.
Speaker 2:They're passing that on, I know.
Speaker 3:So the property tax system actually charges renters more than it does homeowners, and especially when you take and those homes don't have any of the deductions on them either, like you've got your standardized homestead deduction, if you've got the 65 and older deduction, if you've got your military deductions, your geothermal, I mean there's all kinds of deductions that are available for homeowners property that is not eligible for those, those rental properties man, I'm just thinking about a couple of my buddies.
Speaker 2:Um, I have some really wealthy friends I almost feel like they write me off on their taxes as like their charity work I've no.
Speaker 3:I know some of those too right like why are you hanging out with?
Speaker 2:me. Why are you letting me come around? I think I'm like charity worker, um, but you know they have um gosh. One of them probably has 50 um properties, rental properties throughout richmond, um, well into cincinnati and everywhere else.
Speaker 3:But I'm just thinking like whoa but but you know he's passing on that that uh increase to the landlord. I mean any business person you have to. I mean we stay on top.
Speaker 2:That's what we do, I know well, I have a, so I live and own um or a new res mortgage owns it really. But a three bedroom on a slab, nice place on the West side, and that's you know. I pay like a 400 for mortgage and that's escrow insurance tax, everything 400. But if I was to rent it out, everyone's like, oh, eight $900 to rent it out.
Speaker 3:But your taxes are going to go up too, because then you lose your homestead. On it it'd be yeah, yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 2:It's wild. What, what it what that would do? Um? So I was. So I looked around. I was looking at some other stuff and I found this survey, a 2024 survey. So were these. So is this like um? A survey that you did amongst?
Speaker 3:yeah, so that survey. So each year, each before session, we do legislative surveys and, uh, the way the process works on the surveys, um, it's each caucus does one. So the democrats, all the members do one, are, all of us republican members do one. We've get, uh, so our caucus, we, we have a list of I don't know, 85 to 100 questions that we can choose from, and so I go through the the list of survey questions and I pick the ones that I think are pertinent to the district or the session that's coming forward.
Speaker 3:On the short session ones, I try and pick ones that I think may be both pertinent that year plus the following year, because by the time we get in and get this, get the survey data back, we're kind of late into session already. So I try and pick something that can kind of give me some guidance, not not just for that session but moving forward as well, and then in the long session we get them back a little bit sooner. But it's not just the questions I actually get, I mean the survey questions itself, those questions that are on there. That data is important to kind of give me a pulse of where the district is.
Speaker 3:It's non-scientific, it's just whoever turns them back in but, um, but just as important are the answers on those questions. There are all the comments that come back, so I get, uh, I leave a comment all the like, why yeah?
Speaker 2:you know like it's, I love it. Uh, all of them you know, know um again, straight ticket voting, that's, that's always been huge Cause. I think that if you, if you can fully, if you vote straight ticket every time without knowing who you're voting for, and knowing like man because I've seen on a local level. I've seen someone flip Democrat Republican to Democrat, like in three years. So it's like you need to know what that person is actually, what their beliefs are, what they're wanting to do.
Speaker 3:Um well, and then the other thing was straight ticket voting your County council at large seats where you pick two out of three or pick, I mean, depending on it, doesn't even pick those, right it doesn't pick those, so you have to.
Speaker 3:so, even if you vote straight ticket, you have to go back down and select those individually. Or school board races, which are still technically nonpartisan, even though we all know they're partisan. Everyone has a political viewpoint, so but so those seats as well, you have to go down and individually select those. There's a lot of voters that don't realize they think they voted. They voted straight ticket. They think that's all they need to do. They don't. They didn't realize they didn't vote for the County council members or the school board races.
Speaker 2:So so yeah, breathe your ticket, so they're they're all under voted.
Speaker 3:So, uh, I mean I pretty much vote straight ticket Republican, but I go through and check each box individually.
Speaker 2:I want to see. Make sure. Kevin Shook didn't slide in as president, that's great, but one of them, you know first responders administering drugs like Narcan. Should these patients be involuntarily committed to a certified addiction treatment program? Absolutely, you know. I've seen it firsthand many times and then I've had family that many times could have used it Myself, I could have used it with alcohol. But so what were some of the comments on that? Did you were they? Because people you'll have people um, talk about them, them damn druggies and all that stuff.
Speaker 3:But and not understand, not be empathetic and understand addictions and stuff but yeah, so I'm not having any comments that are jumping out to mind on that one specifically off the top of my head, except for the fact that they pointed to relatives and stuff that they knew. Just similar stories like that, but I mean that was the gist of the comments on that one specifically. We did have a regional mental health facility that we're we're starting in dullware county. It's going to be the first one and it'll cover wayne county.
Speaker 2:Now, who's that through or can you talk?
Speaker 3:it's actually with the county and the state is starting it and it's really um, yes, it's going out at the dullware county justice center. It's, it's not. It's on the same campus, but it's a separate building, so it's, so it's you're not in jail, yeah, so it's separate from the Justice Center, but it's on that same campus, so it's a county facility.
Speaker 3:That state is. It was. One of the funds that we had in this last state budget was for these regional mental health facilities, and the first one that got awarded is our region. Wayne County is actually included in that, so it'll benefit Wayne County as well, even though it's not here, and so I did have some comments on that, specifically because that was being established, and so I had some people thanking us for getting that through and approved. So that was a few of the comments that we had and that broke ground about a month ago. So, yeah, the groundbreaking started on that Construction's underway.
Speaker 3:So, I'm looking forward to a ribbon cutting coming up soon.
Speaker 2:That'll be exciting. Let me know when that happens.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll do.
Speaker 2:I'd love to come up to here.
Speaker 3:And we really hope that this could be modeled around the state, in different regions around the state. So that's the plan and so it's starting off with, I think, 20-something beds on each side and rooms, but then there's actually the ability for it to be added on to and expanded as well, if it's successful.
Speaker 2:So do you know the process yet on intake I do not yet.
Speaker 3:They're still setting up those. I know they've got a plan and a process but on the day-to-day details I have not been involved to that extent. I mean just the general concept is I'm working on it at a high level overview, helping them secure those state funds and get that the locals are actually running it.
Speaker 2:From that standpoint forward, that because we have, you know, like in Richmond, we have to stay hospital and then we have a, which is well they do. Meridian used to have an addiction center out there, but you would have to jump through like 13 hoops before you could become a patient, so somebody couldn't just be taken there.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:By ambulance or just taken there by POV. So that's always been the problem and that's where people usually fall off. So we would transport from the street an overdose and, um, get them to the hospital and then a lot of times they'll sign out before we even get done with our report. So in the hospital is not going to do anything yeah they're going to tell you like, oh, there's a treatment center in indianapolis or something like that, but they're not. They're not going to do anything.
Speaker 3:So with this one it's not part of this facility but it's in collaboration. So the city of Muncie is also developing a one-day it's just a 24-hour treatment facility and from the collaboration standpoint is they can those that meet the criteria to get admitted for that long-term treatment and care for the mental health, for the regional mental health facility. I think they're working on it. I know they're working on a process as to how to utilize that quick-term, that short-term treatment, the 24-hour hold that muncie has in their facility, because it's it's geared towards just the 24 hours, but how to properly vet and roll those over into uh, who, who meets the right?
Speaker 3:criteria and can fit into that, into that long-term mental health and it'll be another shift, like kind of your tax shift.
Speaker 2:It'll be another shift in a way because you know, and that in that um survey they talked about, you know, um, because it costs so much to provide that narcan but now, if it's involuntarily, the staff, the nursing staff, the facility, all that will have to be funded absolutely. So, um, no, that was pretty cool and I know I sent you a message that kind of ties in to the mobile integrated health Yep. I sent you the 1385 house bill that Brad Barrett just signed and I tried to make sense of it because it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me and I didn't know if. Now I know, you know, I think every state representative has their own little niche.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:He's a physician, so healthcare's always going to be his niche. Yep, but I wanted to see what your take was on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean the intent of that bill was to stop surprise billing on ambulance services. It was at least one of the aspects of it. So it capped the rate that could be charged to 400%. I had to refer back to my notes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fine bro, I'm not this topic. I know enough to be dangerous about to's.
Speaker 3:Fine, bro, I'm not uh this uh topic. I know enough to be dangerous about. It's not my area of expertise, so I trust guys like Brad and others that are in the industry.
Speaker 2:He was going to join us but, I guess he's.
Speaker 3:It's our time where he's uh, but that, that was the what was the main part. Also, there was a provision to make sure that local EMS or the EMS services are being paid on a timely manner by Medicaid Medicare on those government payments coming back, so that is supposed to get paid within 30 days now.
Speaker 3:So those are the two primary factors that was in that bill was to try and help with that surprise billing perspective. From the out ofof-network billing is what was happening. When you have a car wreck you don't have an option to ask is this an in-network ambulance, is this an out-of-network ambulance? Just get me to the hospital right.
Speaker 3:If you're bleeding out, you don't care, just get me there. Well, what was happening? In some cases, providers were charging extremely high rates for out-of-network ambulance services. It was just not fair to people, to be quite frank. So that was part of trying to rein that in a little bit, okay.
Speaker 2:So the ambulance service not charging as much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so so it still allows. Uh, so the cap the rate at 400% of the published rate for the ambulance service. Um, so whatever the in network rate was it could the outer network rate could be 400%. The end network that's still quite a bit higher. Right, so they were there were some charging more than that. Um, at least that's the way I understand it. So, so it at least limits it it's wild, because we already pay tax yeah to have those services provided yeah so, but but I'd ask, I'd ask doc barrett on a little more detail.
Speaker 2:I tried to give him a call on the way in, but I think he's on vacation, so well, it's wild because I mean, for one, he mentioned mobile integrated health, which has nothing to do with an ambulance, mobile integrated health and when he signed it he had the Richmond Fire Department in the background when he did the signature, which didn't make sense because their MIH program just went poof. Mih is huge, it needs to be everywhere, not ran by fire departments, because they don't understand it. Um, so, you know, my last position was a County service, putnam County, and they were the first County Um, I do believe, the first County in the state that actually, if you're a County resident of Putnam County, your insurance, your Medicaid, your Medicare, all of that's going to be billed. You're not, so the rest gets written off and if you don't have any of that insurance, you still don't get a bill Because they've seen it as you pay taxes for this already.
Speaker 2:Where we're at, when we come to fire department agencies, we're trying to make money. We see ems as extra money source, not emergency medical services. So that's where this bill, all this billing issue comes, because we're trying to make that money to pay for firemen, to pay for fire trucks, fire stations and and I think I may have misspoke I said 400% of the in-network rate.
Speaker 3:I think it's 400% of the Medicare Medicaid rate.
Speaker 2:I got it right here At the 400% of published rate for ambulance services established under the Medicare law.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, so. Yeah, so it was that. So it would be lower than than the than the in-network rate or it should be. It wouldn't be lower than the in-network rate, but it'd be lower than 400 the in-network rate.
Speaker 2:It'd be 400 the medic medicaid rate and when I was closer to this I've seen, uh, I felt like every year, medicare, medicaid, try to do stuff to get out of pain, absolutely Like, okay, here's my Saturday, so I'm not employed. I'm still licensed as a paramedic. I'm not employed, but so I'm just a bystander. That got this dude's pulse back. I got more praise right Now if I was an employee the first thing, they're going to say is get signatures and that's a medicate.
Speaker 2:That's are you? That's why there's so well between that. And then emts and paramedics make a fraction of what firemen make when it's not fire based. You know, right, um, on top of, you just saved a life. The first thing you hear is did you get signatures right from your boss? You know so. It's a very poor morale, but medicare, medicaid has been huge on that, on everything. Like you got to make sure your eyes are dotted, your T's are crossed and your signature. So it's like an ongoing joke in EMS. Like, dude, you could save 30 babies from a house fire.
Speaker 1:But the first thing they're going to ask you is did you get signatures?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's not what we want either, and with Medicaid Medicare it's a double-edged sword, because we need to make sure that the providers are getting paid adequately for their services and can take care and make sure we take care of employees, but we also have this growing Medicaid expense that's now eating up 18% of the state budget and growing rapidly.
Speaker 2:Because everyone can get on Medicaid.
Speaker 3:Well, and that's so. I have been the lone no vote numerous times on expanding Medicaid access for different services, and what services?
Speaker 2:are covered, like you've been against it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I voted no. I voted against expanding the eligibility and reason being twofoldfold.
Speaker 2:one seems like you can get anything right, and yeah, that's why more people sit at home exactly so.
Speaker 3:So the the government handouts again the entitlement program. So I'm against expanding those. But also I've seen this growing problem coming with medicaid funding. Everybody's just scratching their head wondering how'd we get here with it eating up 18 of of the budget. But yet we keep expanding it, a little bit at a time, year over year. It's like what do you expect if we keep expanding it? You got to expect to have a budget crisis at some point.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you get, passes it out but yeah, if you're the no vote on that, well, you voted against aunt Sally down the street because she needed those services.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it's not against that individual situation, I voted against Aunt Sally's son living in her basement because he can get Medicaid easy.
Speaker 3:But you know how politics are there's always the negative mailers, right, there's always the negative attacks and you could say that with any vote I mean anybody that has a voting record you could find a negative mailer to run against them, because it's all about perspective and how you look at each individual situation. People take things out of context all the time.
Speaker 3:But, when you look at big picture. We cannot continue down the path we're on. We've got to rein the spending and and but at the same point, make it to where those that are part of the program, those eligible service that do need to stay part of the program those reimburse. Reimbursement rates are are high enough to where that option's available because if you don't. If you're not reimbursing at a high enough amount, on one hand, you're not going to have enough providers that are willing to go through the bureaucracy to have the service.
Speaker 2:Why go to nursing school to become?
Speaker 3:a nurse. Right, exactly, so it's a balance, right, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:That's wild.
Speaker 3:So yeah. So my perspective is I want to help those that need the help. That's wild. So yeah. So my perspective is I want to help those that need the help, but we have got way too many people in our state and in the country that are part of the entitlement program that need to get off their butt and get to work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the big thing too. You see job postings and you hear no one wants to work. Well, it's almost easier to not work. And then some of what these employers are paying, you know, like a single mother, she prefers to stay home and babysit her own kids versus paying for babysitting and then going to work for 14, 15 an hour. So there's just so many dynamics to this structure, that pay structure, employment opportunities, that type of stuff. But you're right, it's like man, some of these people, you can't do the Willy Wonka and wait for the golden ticket. Right, right, right, exactly. Although chocolate does sound good sugar-free chocolate latte at roscoe's iced. Just keep that in mind all right um anything else you want to add.
Speaker 2:I the property tax repeal replacement plan. When does this go for vote?
Speaker 3:So I'm planning on introducing it in January for the legislative session. So I do plan on, once I get all the details and the numbers back from LSA, I plan on releasing it to the public well before sessions. People can have a chance to view it. So be on the lookout for a bill number. Sometime between organization day, which is November 19th, and the end of this year, so before January 1st, somewhere in that range, there will be a bill number out where people could follow it.
Speaker 3:See the fiscal analysis on it as well and have a complete breakdown and know how that's going to affect your community. So in the meantime I'm asking for feedback. So if you can think of a problem with what I've thrown, out there because right now I'm still working through the bill, so if you think of a problem, I can tweak and fix things. It's a lot easier to do that during the drafting stages and once it's filed. So I'd ask for feedback at h33 at igaingov.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I'll put that on the screen.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely. I'll leave a link in the description.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Link in the bio Like, share, follow. Yeah, that's, you get this passed. You're right up there with the. You'll be the next presidential debate.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know about that, but this is a big deal. If we can get this one across the finish line, it is a big deal. We'd be the first state in the nation to completely eliminate property taxes.
Speaker 2:So let me go back. Tif TIF districts. Explain the TIF districts yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 3:Tif districts are tax increment finance districts and there's different areas. It could be for housing development. What that is is you've taken an area, a certain segment, and you've bonded the infrastructure and the property tax revenue coming back that's generated in that TIF district goes specifically towards paying off the infrastructure and the debt to get that that area created. So that is revenue that does not go back into the county's general operating fund, so it takes money away from other units of government within that within that area.
Speaker 3:Um, so what I'm doing is uh, um, so what I'm doing is, uh, no new TIF districts can be created after, upon passage of the bill, any existing TIF district. We would on sales tax until the bonding obligations are all paid off. Once that debt is completely paid off, then that TIF district is dissolved. There's no more TIF district, and then that revenue that was going to fund the TIF, to pay off those bond obligations, would then go back into the pot to be split up between the counties, the cities, local units, government, so we'd get that money that was going towards those debt obligations and we'd get it back into government services across the board.
Speaker 2:I like it. And down here they're talking about moving it into residential development and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's residential TIFs as well. Yeah, and the concept is the reason to do a TIF under the current taxing structure is if there's no development there, it's a tax base. That's not so the existing. This is an important point. So if it's say it's a farm field, you're going to turn into a TIF area and bring in housing.
Speaker 3:The tax base that was already there at the agriculture rate that would still go towards local units of government. It's the extra, anything extra above that would go to fund the infrastructure with TIF. So you'd have more houses. So the thought process is let's bring in development and growth, let's pay for that development and growth through this TIF and then once that TIF is done if a TIF is done properly once that is dissolved, then you've got that extra tax base supporting the community as a whole. The problem with TIF districts is you've got a lot of communities that'll create a Tiff district. They'll get close to paying that bond off and then they'll go do another bond or do another project within that to keep that rate captured, to keep that higher rate captured. So they keep revolving it or they layer them on top of each other. So there's too many tiff districts out there. So it is an effective tool if used properly. The problem is like anything else uh, too many people have tried to figure out how to game the system. Wow.
Speaker 2:I love it, man, I love it. Well, thanks for coming up here and educating me, and then a couple people will probably watch this and they'll get some education. So this is really exciting. I can't wait to tell all my wealthy friends that own a lot of stuff. Yeah that's great.
Speaker 3:They should love it. Most people around the state should like this plan.
Speaker 2:It's going to— oh, yeah, and not just wealthy people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's going to help everybody.
Speaker 2:Let me back up before we get canceled. But yeah, no, everyone's going to benefit from it and we need it, man, we need it Well thank you, appreciate it and now Roscoe's Coffee.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sounds good to me. Life Inscripted with Kevin Shipp.
