Pence asks groups to tone down rhetoric against opponents of tax cut

This week Pence told leaders of Americans for Prosperity, which is in the second week of an advertising campaign that blasts House Republicans and champions the governor’s effort to lower the state’s income tax from 3.4 percent to 3.06 percent, that those ads are too negative.

“I did take the opportunity earlier this week to contact that organization and just encourage them to consider a more positive approach, and I’m hopeful they’ll do that, because this matters — this is important,” Pence said Wednesday.

Those comments echoed what Pence told a group of Marion County Republicans Tuesday night. During a speech, he reminded them of President Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment:” Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

However, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Pence’s call might have been more effective if he had made it two weeks ago, when those ads hit Indianapolis airwaves.

He called Pence’s move a “positive development,” but added: “We would have appreciated that request 10 days ago, when we asked him to do that. Their current media buy was already completed as of tomorrow.”

The top item on Pence’s first-year legislative agenda is the individual income tax cut, but that proposal has thus far received a chilly reception in the General Assembly.

In a budget the House approved last month, Republicans dropped that tax cut in favor of extra funding to restore K-12 education to its levels before previous years’ economy-driven budget cuts, as well as extra dollars for state and local transportation.

Pence said he was “very disappointed” with that budget, and has asked lawmakers to approve the tax cut before the April 29 end of this year’s session.

On Wednesday he discussed the issue with Bosma and Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, during a morning meeting.

He handed them a two-page letter in support of the tax cut from Larry Lindsey, a former aide to President George W. Bush. .

“There is no question that states compete with one another and that the level of state taxes is one of the important determinants of business location and the growth of a state economy,” wrote Lindsey, who was fired from his job as the White House’s chief economic adviser in 2002.

As he flipped through 100 pages of his own notes on the issue, Bosma called Lindsey’s letter a “windshield appraisal” and said it is a step Pence took toward fulfilling the speaker’s request for details on why the tax cut would boost Indiana’s economy.

“I certainly appreciated receiving the letter, and it was in response to my request to the governor a couple times for some hard evidence that a rather small income tax cut would have a profound positive effect on our state’s economy, as he’s asserted a few times,” Bosma said.

“It confirmed what I already know as a conservative, and that is that keeping as much money in the pockets of people, where it belongs, is a great thing. What it didn’t do is analyze in any fashion our specific tax structure here, or acknowledge that our income taxes rank the best in the nation of the 41 states that have one.”

The speaker has done some public relations of his own. He laid out his position in a letter to GOP county chairs, and also sent a letter to Indiana newspapers that highlights a series of taxes lawmakers have cut in recent years and says the next budget might instead speed up the phaseout of the state’s inheritance tax.

As Pence and legislative leaders discuss the tax cut, lawmakers have taken note conservative groups’ efforts to persuade them.

The Koch brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity has offered a withering critique of House Republicans’ performance through the first half of Indiana’s four-month, budget-writing 2013 legislative session.

The organization graded House members’ votes on 12 bills and produced a scorecard that showed Republicans occupying 13 of its bottom 15 positions.

It launched a television ad in the Indianapolis market during the days lawmakers are in town that criticizes the House Republican budget and asks: “Will Indiana grow the economy or grow government spending?”

And in a new radio ad released this week, an actor says that “the House thought that money should go toward government spending instead of hardworking taxpayers.” The actor adds that there is “still time to make it right” and urges listeners to call their lawmakers.

“We wanted to show that there was frustration out there with the way the budget process has been going,” said Chase Downham, the Indiana state director for Americans for Prosperity.

“This is not a personal attack on them. It’s not an attack on the Republican Party. It’s not an attack on a particular caucus. We fight for taxpayers and for less government spending.”