Consumers should see higher prices
for vehicles, a representative of the Center for Automotive Research
told those gathered April 26 for the Japan-Northeast Indiana Summit in
Fort Wayne.
Kristin Dziczek,
vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for
Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, explained the effects on the
vehicle industry of several known factors, including tariffs on China
imports, steel, aluminum, autos and parts as well as the upcoming United
Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit.
The keynote speaker for the event held at Purdue Fort Wayne was Naoki Ito, consulate-general of Japan in Chicago.
More
than 320 Japanese-owned businesses operate in Indiana, according to
Ito. Japanese companies have 24 locations in 10 northeast Indiana
counties and employ more than 67,000 people statewide, according to the
Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership.
Ito
represents Japanese nationals and Japan's government and communicates
with businesses in Indiana and nine other states, helping those who do
or want to do business in Japan.
In addition the summit, Ito also made a visit April 25 to Carlex in Ligonier.
Also
at the summit, Bill Konyha, president and CEO of the Regional Chamber
of Northeast Indiana, presented a list of bills that passed the recent
session of the Indiana General Assembly and which were of interest to
the chamber's members. Some the chamber has been working on for years,
he said.
"We had probably the
most successful legislative session we've ever had," Konyha said of the
chamber. "We were aggressive. We were ambitious. And we didn't get
everything we wanted, but we got so much that it's hard to get our hands
to wrap around it."
The session ended April 24 without a date for the legislators to reconvene.
Those bills passed by legislators that were of interest to chamber members included:
•
Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) Tax Credits.
Nonresidents can now participate in the program. Businesses in Indiana
counties along borders with other states, such as Allen County, can take
advantage of those tax credits and won't be penalized for hiring
out-of-state workers, such as those from Ohio.
•
Venture Capital Tax Credits. Out-of-state investors in Indiana projects
who can't use an Indiana tax credit can now transfer that tax credit.
• Pre-kindergarten was expanded past the pilot areas to include all of northeast Indiana.
•
Bias crime sentencing. "It was a really tough sell," Konyha said. Bias
concerning specifics such as gender identity and gender were not
included in the bill's language when it was signed into law by Indiana
Gov. Eric Holcomb.
• The
creation of a ?35-year?tax increment financing (TIF) district for the
use or repurposing of two or more buildings that are at least 75 years
old and located at a site where manufacturing previously occurred over a
period of at least 75 years. This will benefit the Electric Works
project in Fort Wayne.
One
issue close to Konyha's heart that the chamber had worked on for two
years was solving the absence of workforce-attainable housing.
"Population growth is critical in northeast Indiana," he said.
Several
counties were finding it hard to attract housing developers. Now with
the passage of Senate Bill 566, tax incremental funding can be used to
finance single-family homes, he said.