Behind Indiana’s Impressive CEO Ranking

Many of you likely saw the news yesterday about Indiana maintaining its No. 5 overall ranking – and tops in the Midwest – in Chief Executive magazine’s 13th annual Best & Worst States for Business survey. A few things that might have been missed:

  • As the name indicates, these rankings are based on CEO perceptions. It’s good for Indiana to be regarded so highly overall by the group making ultimate business decisions, but it also leads to few changes for most states
  • Texas was No. 1 for the 13th straight year and Florida No. 2 for the fifth year in a row. North Carolina (despite the turmoil over its since-repealed transgender bathroom issue) and South Carolina also topped Indiana
  • At the bottom, California was at No. 50 for the sixth year in a row. New York and Illinois were next in line
  • There has been some movement, however, in the middle. Ohio, now at No. 11, was No. 41 in 2011 and No. 22 just two years ago. On the other end of the spectrum, Louisiana was No. 7 in 2015 and No. 33 this time around
  • Indiana’s individual category rankings included: Workforce quality, No. 8 (although we know there is much work to do in this area); taxes and regulation, No. 14 (we would have expected to be a little higher there); and living environment, No. 16
  • Industry rankings were also part of the survey. Indiana was second in manufacturing and 10th in energy

Larry Gigerich, executive managing director of Fishers-based Ginovus and chair of the Indiana Chamber’s economic development committee, was quoted in the release of the rankings. He said simply, “The top-ranking states have continued to implement public policy supporting economic development to ensure that they remain as leaders.”

Complete rankings are available online.

Tricky Social Media Rules on Whistleblowing

The California Chamber's HR Watchdog Blog delivers this complicated tale, explaining a potential victim can even be fired for improperly using social media to document undesirable behavior.

A tech company, SendGrid, recently fired a female employee, Adria Richards, who used Twitter to complain about sexual jokes made by male employees from a different company.

During a conference in San Francisco, Richards tweeted that it was “Not cool” that the men were making inappropriate sexual jokes. She used her phone to take a picture of the men sitting behind her and then used Twitter to post the picture.

One of the men in the photo was terminated by his employer, San-Francisco based PlayHaven.

But Richards also found herself in the middle of a social media storm and was ultimately fired by her employer. SendGrid CEO Jim Franklin blogged that Richards was not fired because she reported offensive conduct, but because of how she reported it – using Twitter to post photographs and “publicly shaming” the offenders.

Franklin also went on to say that Richard’s actions caused division amongst the developer community that Richards serves as part of her job and that she can no longer be effective.

But this is what often happens when an employee complains of inappropriate conduct: A complaint is made, which may create division at work and with customers; people may take sides. Regardless of such division and the ultimate outcome of any investigation, the employee is supposed to be protected from retaliation for complaining of harassment or discrimination.

This situation poses difficult questions: Can an employee complain in any manner he/she sees fit? Airing information across social media platforms and posting pictures of co-workers, customers or collaborators?

The law provides strong protections for those who complain about harassment or discrimination. As demonstrated by recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board, the law also protects employees who engage in concerted activity with other employees to improve their working conditions — which may include employees complaining to each other over social media.

Pet Food Company Offering Different Kind of ‘BOGO’

We hear often that humans aren’t the only ones suffering in a recession.

Typically, when families can hardly afford to feed themselves, their furry canine friends are often abandoned or given to rescue organizations or shelters. But the animals still need to eat – and the cost of dog food is one of the biggest expenses for these organizations.

California-based FreeHand™ is trying to fill the gap with a new “buy-one-give-one” food donation program called Pound for pound, scoop for scoop, meal for meal™. For every pound of dog food sold, the company will give an equal amount of food to an Indianapolis rescue organization or shelter. Though the company is out of Los Angeles, animals in Indianapolis will benefit from the donations.

The more products it sells, the more dogs’ lives FreeHand and its partners can save. 

FreeHand Managing Director Tom Bagamane stresses that the donated food stays in the local communities where it is purchased. Affiliated resellers designate recipients from a list of local rescue groups and shelters screened and approved by FreeHand.  Online purchasers may select recipient organizations from a pre-approved list provided at checkout.  Importantly, all recipient organizations must adhere to strict criteria established by FreeHand to ensure the respectful treatment of the animals under their care.

To date, Indianapolis area rescue organizations and shelters that have qualified for FreeHand food donations include: Beagle Buddies, Greyhound Pets, Indianapolis Animal Care and Control and Indy Pit Crew.

“We are proud to announce the introduction of FreeHand dog foods in our clinic,” said Dr. Bill Neumann, DVM and medical director at Broad Ripple Animal Clinic and Wellness in Indianapolis. “FreeHand has a noble mission that we support wholeheartedly – to provide dog food donations to local rescue groups and shelters. The FreeHand buy-one-give-one concept is great and unique in that donations are given to local organizations as opposed to programs that send donations someplace around the world.”

Find a list of retailers offering FreeHand products by visiting www.LendaFreeHand.com/store-finder, or call (855) GIVEBAK. You can also learn more about the movement on Facebook and Twitter.

Breaking Down Incomes by County in Indiana and the U.S.

There are approximately 3,000 counties in the United States. The "approximate" comes from whether you include Louisiana parishes and Alaska boroughs in that total. Delaware has the fewest counties (3) and Texas the most (254).

How much money can you expect to make (or at least what is the per capita personal income) if you live in a particular county? The Governing web site has compiled data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, with a map that shows 1990, 2000, 2009 and 2010 income figures for each county — and that’s a lot of county shapes and numbers.

The top five U.S. counties with the highest per capita personal income:

  1. New York (New York): $111,386
  2. Teton (Wyoming: $94,672
  3. Marin (California): 82,936
  4. Sully (South Dakota): 80,165 (an increase from $26,832 in 1990)
  5. Alexandria (Virginia): $79,967

Check out the totals for the 92 counties in Indiana and beyond on the interactive map.

Biggest UI Hole: It’s California By a Wide Margin

Indiana is unfortunately all too familiar with outstanding loans from the Federal Unemployment Account (that means borrowing money from the feds to provide unemployment benefits for state workers who have lost their jobs). At least Indiana’s balance of slightly over $2 billion owed pales to, guess who, California.

According to U.S. Department of Labor numbers at the end of February, California owed $10.2 billion of the $38.55 billion total that 28 states had borrowed from Uncle Sam. New York is second on the list with a $3.7 billion balance, followed by Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois and Ohio.

California’s UI Trust Fund did not become insolvent until 2009, so the debt has been piling up quickly. Businesses suffer, however, as outstanding loan balances mean they lose credits and pay higher federal unemployment taxes until the situation is resolved.

Indiana Chamber efforts in 2011 helped move Hoosier businesses into a lower rate schedule to offset some of the increased federal payments. The move is expected to save employers a combined $2 billion through 2020.

Who else has outstanding federal balances? Florida, New Jersey and Wisconsin owe between $1 million and $2 million. Those with less than a $1 million balance (biggest balance first) are Kentucky, Nevada, South Carolina, Missouri, Georgia, Connecticut, Arizona, Colorado, Arkansas, Virginia, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas, Vermont, Alabama, Delaware and the Virgin Islands.

Sales Tax Battles Growing Nastier

The call is growing louder (from the Indiana Chamber and others) for a federal solution to the online sales tax dilemma. But while that fight continues to be waged, Governing magazine looks at the individual state battles with Amazon. They only seem to add more fuel to the fire for a comprehensive national strategy.

States have been coming up with a variety of ploys — some conservative, others more radical — to get Internet retailers to collect the tax. Their efforts range from a handful of states claiming nexus via in-state affiliates that sell on the big-name websites to a 24-state compact to streamline sales tax systems. At the same time, states that levy sales taxes have come up with new allies in the fight to get the U.S. Congress to redress the collection issue and undo Quill. These allies include not just small mom-and-pop stores on Main Street but also giant retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart — retailers with robust Internet sites that do collect the sales tax because they have nexus in almost all states.

At every turn, Amazon has gone to great lengths to block state collection efforts. In states that claimed nexus because Amazon affiliates were located there, Amazon ended relationships with those businesses and, in turn, pursued litigation in the state. In states where it had facilities, it threatened to pull them out, thereby raising the specter of eliminating jobs. And where Amazon wanted to open facilities, it insisted on a free pass on tax collection. Amazon declined interview requests for this story.

Its pugnacious ways have paid off in some states, where the company was given the green light not to collect sales taxes for years — so long as it kept or built a facility in the state. But those ways have left bruised feelings, especially among legislators. In Tennessee, where legislators have been rethinking a deal Amazon struck last year to build distribution warehouses in return for not collecting the tax on goods shipped from those facilities, state Sen. Randy McNally likens Amazon lobbyists to take-your-lunch-money bullies. “They are making demands on the states that if a smaller business came in and tried to do, we’d laugh at ’em.”

This fall, however, there was what may be the biggest breakthrough on the Amazon tax front: California’s settlement with the company. After fighting legislation that would require out-of-state online retailers to collect sales taxes if they had affiliates, offices, workers or other ties to the state, the company ponied up millions of dollars to put the issue to taxpayers via a ballot referendum. It also cleansed its website of California-based affiliates. Then, the company suddenly backed down — in part because the damage to its reputation was growing. The online retailer struck a deal with the state that will require it to begin collecting sales taxes in California after a one-year grace period. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the agreement into law.

The California deal suggests that Amazon may be changing its game plan. If that’s so, it would probably bring the rest of the Internet retailers into the fold as well. (Amazon recently made a similar deal with Tennessee.) Meanwhile, the states battle on, with legislators contending with the lobbying power of a giant — juggling the need for revenue versus promises to bring a few jobs to the state.

Revising the Electoral College: Time for a Change?

I, and many others it’s safe to say, are not in the habit of seeing something happen in California and wondering if that might be a good idea for the rest of the country. I’m not going to go that far here either, but at least this California development is worthy of debate.

Governor Jerry Brown has made his state the ninth (I honestly don’t know who the other eight are other than a reference to all being "solidly blue") to strive to change the way the president of the United States is elected. The group, now representing 132 electoral votes, wants to award those electoral votes to the candidate who earns the most votes at the ballot box nationwide.

A couple of law professors have spearheaded the initiative, which apparently has been around for nearly a decade. There is some credence to the fact that a small number of swing states seemingly hold a level of power far exceeding what would be expected. You can put Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and a few others (Iowa and New Hampshire at this time of the year) in that mix.

But maybe it’s just the biggest of the big — California, New York, Texas, etc. — complaining because they get little attention during the campaigns. And then there is the Indiana scenario, relatively forgotten based on its late primary date and consistent GOP backing until the spotlight shined brightly in both the spring and fall of 2008.

Does this measure give every state a real voice, as the supporters say? Check out the full story and let us know what you think.

Survey Says: Vacations!

You might have guessed that more Americans would be spending their tax refund money on paying down debts (like a mortgage or student loan) – one of the main pieces of financial advice during this year’s tax season.

But, it seems, according to a recent survey by Travel Leaders, that many Americans aren’t heeding that financial guidance. Instead, over half (57%) of survey respondents who are receiving a tax refund are planning to use at least part of the money for vacations and leisure travel this year.

Additionally, a majority (83%) of those surveyed indicated that they would spend the same or more on leisure travel this year than they did in 2010. Only 17% of respondents indicated they would spend less this year than they did in 2010.

In terms of where those polled want to spend that leisure time, Australia was chosen as the No. 1 “ultimate dream international destination.” Italy, Ireland, New Zealand and Mediterranean cruising followed respectively. The most traveled to (or anticipated to travel to) states include Florida, followed by California and New York.

Other findings include:

  • 89% of those polled noted that they have already or will take at least one leisure trip in 2011
  • Nearly 62% indicated they had already taken at least one trip in 2011; 22% have already taken multiple vacation trips
  • Almost 87% of respondents said they are planning to take the same amount, or more trips this year
  • Just over 75% of respondents plan to travel within the U.S. and further than a bordering state.

The group conducted the survey this year between March 10 and April 10 with responses from 953 U.S. consumers.

Is the U.S. a Nation of Takers?

Some chilling statistics from a Wall Street Journal article illustrating an alarming paradigm shift in the U.S. manufacturing sector. The conclusion seems to be: As long as the manufacturing sector is dwarfed by the current size and continued growth of the public sector, American states are in for a bevy of financial problems. So anyway, this doesn’t seem too encouraging. If you have a take on this that’s borderline positive, please share in the comments section as we could all use some good news after last night’s game.

If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.

It gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees. Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?

Every state in America today except for two—Indiana and Wisconsin—has more government workers on the payroll than people manufacturing industrial goods. Consider California, which has the highest budget deficit in the history of the states. The not-so Golden State now has an incredible 2.4 million government employees—twice as many as people at work in manufacturing. New Jersey has just under two-and-a-half as many government employees as manufacturers. Florida’s ratio is more than 3 to 1. So is New York’s.

Even Michigan, at one time the auto capital of the world, and Pennsylvania, once the steel capital, have more government bureaucrats than people making things. The leaders in government hiring are Wyoming and New Mexico, which have hired more than six government workers for every manufacturing worker.

Now it is certainly true that many states have not typically been home to traditional manufacturing operations. Iowa and Nebraska are farm states, for example. But in those states, there are at least five times more government workers than farmers. West Virginia is the mining capital of the world, yet it has at least three times more government workers than miners. New York is the financial capital of the world—at least for now. That sector employs roughly 670,000 New Yorkers. That’s less than half of the state’s 1.48 million government employees.

Hat tip to Chamber staffer Glenn Harkness for the article link.

Advocate Calls for Taxpayer Receipts

Do you know where your federal and state tax dollars go? Not too many Americans do. One man wants to change that by having the IRS (and state tax departments) send out a receipt with your tax return — letting you know just how your dollars were used. California, of all places, appears to be ahead of the curve. Governing has the story:

As Americans spend the next three weeks rushing to file their income taxes before the April 18 deadline, most will likely come to the realization that the amount they paid the federal government is greater than any other purchase they made that year. There’s a good chance their state income taxes will rank high on the list too.

Although each taxpayer transfers thousands of dollars to the federal and state government, they’ll get nothing to show for it. Sure — there’s roads, education programs, a standing military and things like that. But they don’t get a tangible piece of paper that comes with nearly every other purchase, large or small: an itemized receipt.

David Kendall, a fellow at the think tank Third Way, hopes to change that. He’s urged the IRS to send Americans an itemized receipt breaking down how much of their money funded various activities like defense, education and low-income assistance, and he says state tax departments should consider doing the same thing.

His organization already has already created a web-based tool that anyone can use to make the calculations, but he wants the IRS to automatically mail out individualized data…

So far, California appears to be the only state that’s doing anything like that. Residents can visit the state tax board’s website, enter the amount they paid in state income taxes and find out just what their money bought.

For example, a single person living in California earning $50,00 would pay $2,485 in taxes. Of that:

•$747.49 paid for health and human services for at-risk Californians
•$730.84 funded K through 12 education
•$250.49 went toward higher education

California’ receipt calculator — similar to the federal one posted on Third Way’s website — isn’t tremendously complicated. Each calculates a spending item’s percentage of the overall budget, and then multiplies that by an individual’s tax burden. It’s relatively simple stuff. But Kendall says it’s a powerful tool, and the IRS and states should consider automatically mailing those receipts to taxpayers every year.

For starters, it would help increase civic engagement and contribute to a meaningful debate about taxes spending. It could also help with tax compliance.

“Some people don’t feel like they’re getting good value for their money,” Kendall tells Governing. “It’s just one more reason not to comply.” Giving taxpayers a receipt would show them that their money, is in fact, funding specific activities and may make the payments matter more to citizens.