To view this email on the web or to access archived issues of the report, please click here.
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Voluntary Contractor Registry Update
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The Jobs Creation Committee (JCC), which was established to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of all professional licenses regulated by the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA), met yesterday and approved the $50 fee that the IPLA would receive for establishing the voluntary contractor registry. The next step is for the IBA to present the proposal for the voluntary contractor registry to the JCC on May 19. The voluntary contractor registry is an outgrowth of discussions with the Governor's Office, IPLA and Attorney General's Office on creating a voluntary program that contractors and consumers would utilize across the state. |
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Immigration Panel Has First Meeting
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An Indiana Senate Select Commission on Immigration Issues, chaired by State Senator Mike Delph (R-Carmel), met for the first time earlier this week and took testimony from several members of the public as well as presentations from the Immigration Reform Law Institute. The Commission was an outgrowth of legislation (SB 285) that stalled earlier this year in the Indiana General Assembly. Proponents of SB 285 would like to see businesses lose their license to operate in Indiana that hire undocumented workers. The Indiana Builders Association has been an active participant in the immigration debate and believes that comprehensive reform of immigration law and policy should be discussed and debated at the federal level. Immigration reform should protect our borders; provide a process by which immigrants can legally enter the country to work to meet the labor demands of a growing economy; create an enforcement system that is fair, efficient and workable for all U.S. and Indiana employers; place the responsibility of verifying a worker's immigration status with the employer who hires and pays them; and establish a common sense path for foreign workers to earn the right to apply for permanent legal status. IBA will be engaged with the panel over the summer as they have meetings scheduled through the November election.
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IBA Past President Appointed to Governor's Council
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Governor Mike Pence has appointed David Kovich to the Indiana Land Resources Council. David will serve a four-year term through April 1, 2020. David is a builder member of the BA of Greater Lafayette and served as president of the Indiana Builders Association in 2003.
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Indiana Scores A+
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Indiana has earned a perfect score for financial transparency in 2016, improving its score from 97 in 2015. Indiana joins Ohio, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut in earning an A+ grade. California, Alaska and Idaho are at the bottom of the list, each receiving a grade of F.
The report, "Following the Money 2016: How the 50 States Rate in Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data" focuses on public online access to financial information.
State Auditor Suzanne Crouch says the state's transparency portal "provides citizens with a robust toolbox and unprecedented access to interact with the state's finances, including expenditures, revenue, contracts, salaries and assets." |
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Primary Election Day - May 3
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Indiana's primary election will take place on Tuesday, May 3. When casting your vote, please keep in mind a candidate's history and philosophy of support for pro-growth and affordable housing as well as support of overall business issues. To find your polling place and review the candidates on the ballot, visit www.indianavoters.in.gov.
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May is Home Remodeling Month
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Did you know that Americans spent $129 billion dollars on home improvement and remodeling in 2015?
NAHB kicks off the annual National Home Remodeling Month campaign on May 1, and has tools you can use to market the benefits of hiring professional remodeler members to home owners who are planning a home remodel. Click here for the National Home Remodeling Month toolkit.
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Fort Wayne, Indiana is a Residential Remodeling Hot Spot
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Wondering which U.S. cities are enjoying the most remodeling action? BuildFax provides a list of the top 20 U.S. cities for residential remodeling. Click here for the full story and view the top 20 cities below.
Top 20 Cities
1. Colorado Springs, Colo.
2. Orlando, Fla.
3. Denver, Colo.
4. Minneapolis, Minn.
5. St. Paul, Minn.
6. Tampa, Fla.
7. Aurora, Colo.
8. Portland, Ore.
9. St. Louis, Mo.
10. Madison, Wis.
11. Fort Wayne, Ind.
12. San Francisco, Calif.
13. Kansas City, Mo.
14. Austin, Tx
15. Sacramento, Calif.
16. Omaha, Neb.
17. Winston-Salem, NC
18. Columbus, Ohio
19. Fremont, Calif.
20. Dallas, Tx
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Homeownership Month Event - June 1
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Homeownership has long been the foundation of the American dream, and we celebrate this by recognizing June as National Homeownership Month. Join IBA and other housing advocates to celebrate Homeownership Month on Wednesday, June 1 at 10 a.m. in the North Atrium of the Indiana Statehouse. Please RSVP to Rick at 800-377-6334 ext. 204 or rick@buildindiana.org.
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IBA's Golf Outing Set for September 20
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Join us for the Indiana Builders Association 2016 Bill Carson Memorial Golf Outing on Tuesday, September 20 at Juday Creek Golf Course in Granger. Proceeds benefit NAHB BUILD-PAC and IBA. Registration and lunch begin at noon followed by a shotgun start at 1 p.m. A tail gate party and awards will take place following golf. The cost is $400 per foursome and the deadline to register is September 1. Sponsorship opportunities are also available. See the attached registration form for more information or contact Rick at 800-377-6334 ext. 204 or rick@buildindiana.org.
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NAHB Welcomes New Chief Economist
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After 27 years as an NAHB economist, last month David Crowe retired, as NAHB's chief economist. Succeeding Dr. Crowe, is Robert Dietz, Ph.D. With 10 years of NAHB experience, covering tax policy and housing market analysis, Robert earned his degree in Economics from Ohio State University in 2003 and previously worked as an economist at the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. You can reach Robert at rdietz@nahb.org or at (800) 368-5242 ext. 8285.
The primary publication platforms of the NAHB Economics group are Eye on Housing, a daily economics blog, and HousingEconomics.com, a subscription-based data and forecasting service. |
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Meet Indiana's New NAHB Field Representative
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After nearly a year and a half on the road as our Region C Field Representative, Michael Blake Bezruki has accepted a new position as Director of Grassroots Programs with NAHB's State and Local Government Affairs team. Our new representative is Ashley Wucher who will join forces with current Region C Field Representative Alex Martindale. Ashley comes from the National Association of Realtors, where she served as the government affairs specialist lobbying on behalf of the housing industry. She has additional policy experience from her time working in the Michigan House of Representatives. She earned a Master's of Jurisprudence from Michigan State University College of Law and a bachelor's in journalism from Baylor University.
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Home Builders, Others File Suit Over Silica Rule
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Eight construction industry organizations have filed a petition for review of the final crystalline silica rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The affiliated national organizations for these groups-NAHB, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, American Subcontractors Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, The Associated General Contractors of America, Mason Contractors Association of America and Mechanical Contractors Association of America-will join the petition.
The construction industry raised numerous concerns regarding OSHA's proposal, which is effective for the construction industry on June 23, 2016 and the industry has one year to comply with the rule. The agency failed to address many of these issues when promulgating the final rule. In particular, the industry presented the following concerns:
- Technologically impracticable. To meet the new standards, the rule would require construction firms to develop and install engineering and work practice controls to mitigate or remove silica dust that are beyond current technology.
- Economically infeasible. OSHA's Preliminary Economic Analysis failed to recognize the distinction between new construction and remodeling, or the relationship between a general contractor and its subcontractors. The agency's out-of-date economic data drastically underestimates the costs to the construction industry, which could run $4.9 billion per year, an amount nearly eight times larger than OSHA's estimates. The cost of this most significant health and safety rule ever issued for the construction sector will be passed to the consumer in the form of higher prices. As the cost of housing increases and access to credit remains tight, home buyers and renters will have fewer safe, decent and affordable housing options.
- Unworkable in terms of requiring medical surveillance of construction industry workers. The rule offers no guidance to determine if employees may reasonably be expected to be exposed to silica dust. In the absence of such guidance, the employer's only option is to perform health screening that OSHA itself estimates will cost $377.77 per employee. Virtually all the nation's 3.2 million construction workers will cut and drill and grind during the course of their work without knowing the silica content of the material they are working on. If each employee required only one screening per year, the tally would be roughly $1.2 billion.
- The wrong solution to make the workplace safer. Though the intent of the rule is to protect workers from toxic dust particles, the final provisions display a fundamental misunderstanding of the real world of construction. This one-size-fits-all rule places restrictions on certain construction site work practices, which contradict existing safety procedures.
Click here to view the most recent update on this issue. For additional information, contact Rob Matuga at (800) 368-5242 ext. 8507.
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116,000 Supervisors Eligible for Overtime This Summer
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Please contact your member of Congress today regarding the U.S. Department of Labor's recent overtime proposal. Time is of the essence to halt a plan that could do our industry great harm.
If this proposal goes forward, you may have to pay overtime to employees who are now exempt. In fact, NAHB estimates over 116,000 construction supervisors would become overtime eligible under this proposal, which could take effect as soon as this summer.
The new rule would double the federal overtime salary threshold from $23,660 to $50,440, and, for the first time ever, index the salary threshold to inflation. This would mean that for any employees earning less than $970 per week, you would need to track their hours worked and pay overtime.
NAHB is working on a solution, but need your help. The Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act (S.2707/H.R.4773) would force the U.S. Department of Labor to withdraw this proposal until it has considered the economic effects of nearly doubling the overtime threshold. Please ask your member of Congress to co-sponsor and support this bill.
Please click here to send a letter to your representative and senator.
You may direct questions about this initiative to Suzanne Beall at NAHB or call her at (800) 368-5242 ext. 8407.
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