Poll: Support for sales tax hike if property tax drops
INDIANAPOLIS — The majority of Indiana residents support raising the sales tax if it means a decrease in their property taxes, a new statewide poll found.
State lawmakers are considering several options for reducing the state’s reliance on property taxes — including a higher sales tax — but some legislators worry that the public would not support a tax increase of any kind.
However, The Indianapolis Star-WTHR poll published Monday found that 62 percent of adults in the state are willing to pay more sales taxes, while 27 percent oppose a higher sales tax rate and 11 percent are undecided.
The poll of 600 adults also found that Hoosiers are more divided on a proposal to raise the income tax to offset property taxes. About 45 percent said they are willing to pay a higher income tax rate, while 42 percent oppose an increase in the income tax.
State posts online applications ahead of media blitz
INDIANAPOLIS — Low-income adults without health insurance but access to the Internet can download applications for the new Healthy Indiana Plan due to begin Jan. 1.
The Family and Social Services Administration, which posted the application form Monday on the program’s Web site, www.in.gov/fssa/hip, estimates more than 550,000 people are eligible and it will enroll up to 130,000 in the program approved this year by the General Assembly.
Beginning next Monday, FSSA also will make applications available at its local Division of Family Resources offices, at Hoosier Healthwise enrollment centers and at some private social service providers.
The state is making the plan available to uninsured adults ages 18-64 in households earning up to twice the federal poverty level, a sliding scale that varies from $20,420 for a single individual to $41,300 for a family of four.
Ineligible are people whose employers offer health insurance, whether they’re enrolled in those plans or not.
FSSA will begin accepting the completed applications on Dec. 17.
Carson, ill with cancer, won’t seek re-election
INDIANAPOLIS — After persevering through years of health problems, Democratic U.S. Rep. Julia Carson has decided that this will be her last term in Congress following a diagnosis that she has terminal lung cancer.
Carson, who grew up in poverty and attended an all-black Indianapolis high school, will not run next year for a seventh term representing the city.
The decision was bittersweet, Carson said in a statement released Monday, because she will miss her friends in Washington but can engage in other personal interests at home.
“It will be a time to weep and a time to laugh — it will also be a time to heal,” she said.
Carson, 69, has been away from Washington since she was admitted Sept. 21 to an Indianapolis hospital for about a week. Her office said she had a deep infection in her leg, near a spot where a vein was removed in January 1997 when she underwent double heart bypass surgery just weeks after she was first elected to Congress.
Carson’s chief of staff, Len Sistek, said Carson wanted to complete her current two-year term, which runs through 2008.
State News
10:39 p.m.: Indiana state briefs
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10 Indiana measles cases confirmed; 1 at SB Village
Indiana health officials say the number of confirmed measles cases in central Indiana has grown to 10 children and adults.
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Bedbugs found at Indianapolis children's hospital
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Court upholds convicted molester's sentence
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Indiana court rules governor doesn't have to testify
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INDOT: Plow truck drivers prepared for expected snow
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Proposed bill would streamline college credit transfer process
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Speedway will acquire 88 GasAmerica stores
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First Merchants says Shelbyville acquisition will aid bottom line
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Shift to online learning raises questions about costs to schools
Legislation that would require high school students in Indiana to take at least one online course is meeting resistance from some school administrators who say they can’t afford any more mandates from the state.
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Stolen car arrest in Spiceland leads to abducted New Jersey boy
Indiana authorities say a 6-year-old New Jersey boy abducted two months ago will be reunited with his father after a stolen car arrest led police to his whereabouts.
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10 Indiana measles cases confirmed; 1 at SB Village
