Eric Holcomb proposes tax cut for veterans

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb proposed a new tax cut Friday.

He wants to exempt Hoosier veterans from paying the state income tax on their military pensions.

It’s a proposal he laid out in a speech to the Downtown Kiwanis Club. In that speech he also promised to maintain the $2.3 billion state surplus and and the state’s Triple A credit rating.

Democrat John Gregg advocates spending down the surplus to meet a variety of needs but Holcomb says that all of the surplus is necessary to attract new business to this state.

“If we get that, continue to get that right,” he said, “it makes everything else not easy, but easier.”

Following the speech he said he’s against spending any of the surplus. “I don’t want to jeopardize or sacrifice our long term advantage over a lot of the competition,” he said, “for some short sightedness.”

Holcomb has now produced 4 policy proposals that include new spending on schools, infrastructure and other needs. All of them cost money but none of them came with a price tag attached.

The tax cut for veterans which is part of a larger “good government” proposal would cost $18 million and Holcomb says he would phase it in over a four year period.