INDIANAPOLIS— Democratic former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg said he wants companies to get tax credits if they "re-shore" jobs as part of a plan to revitalize the state's manufacturing sector.
Meanwhile, his Republican opponent in Indiana's race for governor, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, rolled out a website – RoadmapForIndiana.com – that wraps all of the policy proposals his campaign has offered into one document.
Both moves came Wednesday, as the campaigns jostle for positioning with the Nov. 6 election less than two months away. "This race will look totally different at the end of September," Gregg said.
He held an event alongside his running mate, state Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, at Cannon IV, a printing and supply company in Indianapolis, to announce what he called "common sense reforms" that would create manufacturing jobs.
"If we are serious about job creation – and we are – we need to do everything we can to give Hoosier manufacturers and small businesses a leg up, and then get out of their way," Gregg said.
He called for a tax credit worth 100 percent of what employers would spend on payroll taxes for each manufacturing job that is "re-shored," or brought from overseas into Indiana, for a three-year period.
Gregg said he would create an Indiana Office of Manufacturing, which would be a primary point of contact for manufacturers interested in moving into the state, seeking suppliers and more. And he said his administration would focus on linking skilled veterans with job opportunities.
He also called for the creation of an agency that would help transition technologies developed at state universities or federal research laboratories into the private sector – an idea similar to one Pence proposed last month.
And, Simpson said, they would stop the "bundling" of state contracts in an effort to spend more of Indiana's $14 billion annual budget hiring small Indiana businesses – a move he said would unlock competition and bolster jobs.
"We'd break up those great big, giant contracts into smaller pieces so that smaller businesses can come forward and afford to bid on the smaller chunks," Simpson said. "We want to unbundle those contracts to make sure businesses of different sizes can compete."
Pence, meanwhile, unveiled his RoadmapForIndiana.com website in an e-mail to supporters and in a new television advertisement. It's a throwback to outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels' 2004 campaign, when he published a long set of policy proposals in what he called a road map.
"Without a clear plan of action, we cannot accomplish our goals," Pence said. "This road map lays out exactly what we need to do to create new jobs, get our schools working for all our kids, and make Indiana the state that works for all Hoosiers."
The website mostly highlights the ideas Pence has already put forward over the last two months, but it includes a few new items – most notably, a bullet point that says "Promote marriage by requiring a family impact statement for state regulations."
His campaign didn't explain what that meant on Wednesday; a spokeswoman said they planned an announcement related to it for next week.