2024 Session Included Vital Steps Forward, Defense of Free Enterprise
Indiana Chamber President and CEO Vanessa Green Sinders says the 2024 Indiana General Assembly session, which adjourned Friday night, was successful in advancing key Indiana Chamber priorities – namely those in the workforce development area. “We’re pleased to see the Legislature pass notable bills that help expand childcare options for parents, improve literacy rates of Hoosier students and cultivate our talent pipeline. These are key areas impacting workforce that will advance Indiana’s future economic [...]
BizVoice Digital: Computing Success
The current edition of BizVoice® also contains several eye-opening features. They include: A years-long commitment to building robotics and coding programs at the K-12 level statewide is paying off – big. Indiana ranks sixth nationally for the number of high schools that offer computer science education, according to the 2023 State of Computer Science Report. That trend has put the Hoosier state in position to grow as a tech hub. But educators and policy [...]
JAG Program Puts Hoosier Students on Paths to Success
The Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) program is a state-based, national non-profit organization dedicated to helping high school students of promise who have experienced challenging or traumatic life experiences achieve success through graduation. JAG is a resiliency-building workforce program that helps students learn in-demand employability skills and provides a bridge to post-secondary education and career advancement opportunities. Currently there are 125 JAG programs available throughout Indiana. JAG students receive adult mentoring while in school [...]
Interest in ICHRAs Builds for Employers
A byproduct of the pandemic saw health insurance premiums largely stable with claims down as elective surgeries and even more serious diagnoses sat on the back burner for many. Now, as attention to both has returned, a steep cost correction continues for health insurance. That’s especially true for employer group plans with 50 or more total employees, which is the threshold at which a health care plan is underwritten by insurance carriers looking at [...]
Quality of Place Initiative Stalls Out
SB 61 / Chamber Supports House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton) announced last week that Senate Bill 61 would not be considered by the committee. The bill would allow a community to consider a petition to create a tourism improvement district (TID) and levy assessments from within the district to support local tourism. Until recently, there was little opposition to the proposal. The state director for the National Federation of Independent [...]
