The Fishers City Council received an update from State Representative Todd Huston on what to expect from the 2017 legislature.  It will be a budget session, where the 2-year state spending plan will be passed.

Huston serves on the Ways and Means Committee and will be part of the team putting the budget together.  He plans to focus on cutting regulations he feels get in the way of entrepreneurship.  He also plans to be involved with the transportation piece of the 2-year budget.  With vehicles more fuel-efficient, gas tax revenue is down, which hurts road maintenance funding.  Allowing local governments to enact a Wheel Tax is an option for cities…Fishers has enacted such a tax which will become effective in 2018.

Mayor Scott Fadness asked about the Venture Tax Credit, and Huston said lawmakers would be looking at all the state tax credits to determine how successful they are in achieving their stated goals.

Huston reiterated his stance that he will not support a commuter tax, an idea championed by many in Indianapolis, including the Indy Chamber of Commerce.

Mental Health will get some attention in the upcoming session, and Huston credited Fishers with being a leader on this issue.  Huston expects one or more pilot programs to be approved to test how they work before being implemented state-wide.

Council members asked about the strange formula for distributing money collected by the state, then shared with local governments, of the County Option Income Tax (COIT) funds. Huston indicated he wold look into that.

The local Hamilton Southeastern School Corporation benefited from a change in the state school funding formula in the current budget.  Huston said he is a big proponent of state funding tied to the number of students.  However, a number of school districts in Indiana are losing student population, which creates a more complex situation for budget-writers. Huston made it clear the funding should “follow the kid.”