Less than a week remains for candidates to make their cases before the election, and incumbent and Democrat Allie Craycraft said he would work to revitalize Muncie's economy, but only if he can top his opponent, Republican Andrew Phipps, on Nov. 5.
Craycraft has written legislation, known as the "edge bill," to create a special taxing district for empty buildings, and he said he would meet with leaders in Delaware County's Chamber of Commerce and the mayor to better stabilize the job market.
"We're going to have to put politics aside," Craycraft said. "We've lost so many jobs - good-paying manufacturing jobs."
Phipps also lamented about the declining job base in the city and county, but he blames the current senators' attitudes toward taxing, particularly embodied in this summer's House Bill 1001, which raised cigarette taxes by 50 cents, gasoline tax by 3 cents, and the sales tax increase from 5 percent to 6 percent.
"I think we saw ... an attempt to tax everything that moves," Phipps said. "We have created an unfavorable environment for economic growth."
Phipps said less taxes and more-efficient management is needed at the state level. Like Tom Bennington, who is running against Tiny Adams in the state's House of Representatives, Phipps said the state should only spend 99 percent of its projected income.
Craycraft voted against 1001, but primarily because he thought it gave businesses too many breaks at the expense of the common person.
And while he has supported abolishing the business inventory tax in the past, Craycraft said, he couldn't support it amid the struggling economy.
Regardless of their positions, both pundits' potential agendas will most likely be superseded by Indiana's lagging economy and the state's impending budget - predicted to be a tight one.
Craycraft said he expects the budget's provisions, including funding for higher education, to flat line this year, so that last year's allotments won't increase.
"I don't see any other way to keep this ship afloat," Craycraft said. "I will be working to try to get every dime I can to the university."
Craycraft, however, said he also wishes the university would evaluate its spending priorities and focus more on the people, and less on the buildings. Currently, he said, legislators have very little say in how the universities spend their money. If he had the power, he said, he would alter the budget to give legislators more guiding power over how money is spent.
But such an endeavor would be difficult, Craycraft admitted.
"You can always offer an amendment, but you can't get the support. So far,we have not," Craycraft said. "It's sort of out of our hands. You could say we (legislators) will not give you any more money, but that's not the way to go."
Republicans in the Senate, Craycraft said, could prove to be a stumbling block, he said, because they usually vote the same.
Republicans own 31 seats in the Senate and control the chamber by 12 seats, and only half of the 50 senators are up for election this year. The chances of Democrats taking over the Senate is slim, unlike the Republicans House of Representatives, where only four seats prevent the GOP from taking control.
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