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PEOs bouncing back following shakeout: Professional employer organizations enjoying growth as companies seek better ways to manage benefits

Even though Sentelligence Inc. in Noblesville has only five employees, the tiny tech firm offers an appealing benefits package rivaling that of a large corporation. The designer of diagnostic sensing devices for diesel engines has not discovered the Holy Grail of human resources. Rather, it’s using what’s known as a professional employer organization. Companies contract with PEOs to handle all the headaches of human resources, including payroll, payroll taxes, Worker’s Compensation claims, health plans, and other employee benefits, not to…

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Loss of institute may polarize Statehouse debate: Board considers shuttering respected government research organization

If the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute remains shuttered due to a lack of funds, the public won’t notice immediately. After all, the Indianapolis-based organization focused on long-term analysis of complicated communal questions, such as how to equalize property taxes, diversify state pensions or finance public schools. But taxpayers eventually will feel the impact. For 20 years, the institute has played a key role in Statehouse debate, helping frame major issues with hard facts and figures that conservatives and liberals alike…

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THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW: Hey dude, the boss is parking in my space!

I’ll admit it: Until recently, I thought “My Space” was simply where I stored “my stuff.” My bad, it turns out. Just ask that young staffer down the hall: The new place to see and be seen is MySpace, Facebook or one of the other online social communities. This summer, MySpace announced it had more than 70 million unique users in the United States-meaning nearly one in four Americans used the site, for a total of nearly 50 billion page…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Long road ahead for financing transportation

The recent Indiana Logistics Summit framed a number of issues that matter to Hoosiers young and old. I’ve done a fair amount of transportation and economic development research, but this conference held in Indianapolis was a chance for me to listen and learn. Here’s my take on some of the issues: Nationally, a significant piece of the public transportation infrastructure (roads and bridges, for example) has already outlived its anticipated life span. Solid engineering and construction coupled with continual maintenance…

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Capital key topic at forum: Fourth life sciences event grows with local industry

The pulse of Indiana’s fledgling life sciences sector will be taken later this month at an annual conference featuring some of the industry’s strongest advocates. Experts will weigh in on several topics ranging from the discovery of technology to accessing capital, which is a growing concern for the earliest-stage companies that are riskier investments. In its fourth year, the Indiana Life Sciences Forum will take place Oct. 22-23 at the Westin Indianapolis and will be hosted by Indiana business-development initiative…

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Commentary: Here’s the skinny on why we’re fat

A week rarely passes without news of our obesity epidemic. Fattest-state rankings and the like are a staple of our news diet. These stories are often served with dire health warnings, which politicians invoke when they encourage us to eat less and exercise more. But does anyone really stop to think about why obesity has become our national obsession? Our infamous rotundness isn’t only a byproduct of poor eating habits and a reluctance to hit the gym. Chalk some of…

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INVESTING: Market isn’t as strong as major indexes show

Experts are doing their best to convince us everything is right with the world again. A few hundred billion dollars in liquidity here, a few cuts in the discount and fed rates there, and we’re back in Shangri La, right? My question to all of the experts then is this: Why isn’t it working? On the surface, things seem like they are getting back in shape. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 are within 1 or 2 percent of new…

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Navigating the credit crunch: Will subprime woes leave you dry? Here’s what to look for.

For months, we’ve been reading and hearing news about the so-called subprime mortgage crisis and the resulting “credit crunch.” For thousands of families who have lost their homes to foreclosure, the crisis is clear. For most people, however, the impact isn’t so obvious. Beyond those directly affected by mortgage defaults, who else should be concerned about the aftershocks? Some economic forecasters are warning that the subprime mortgage situation and the ongoing weakness in the housing market could linger long enough…

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VIEWPOINT: Avoiding Chinese ‘fifth-shipment’ follies

The recent announcement by the Indianapolis company Gilchrist and Soames that it would recall its privately branded toothpaste because of concerns regarding its diethylene glycol content is a small part of a larger global concern about the quality standards of goods made in China. The same week, Mattel recalled more than 9.5 million U.S. toys over concerns about the use of lead paint. Many Indiana firms rely on a steady stream of qualified products from China, so now seems a…

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Commentary: Get the smoke out of our eyes

Andy Jacobs Jr. wrote in an IBJ column that smoking is an expensive and painful way to commit suicide. He’s right. But he didn’t go far enough. Breathing secondhand smoke at one’s place of employment is also an expensive and painful way to go. The world is beginning to read the smoke signals. Many countries have passed laws to protect their work force from secondhand smoke. Today, you cannot smoke even in an Irish pub. In our country, 22 states…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Give tax relief to those who truly need it

No topic brings me more mail than property taxes. Some of this mail is silly, some is tragic. Many writers are concerned that they or their neighbors will lose their homes because of propertytax increases. This is a serious, legitimate concern. However, it is not a reason to abolish property taxes. Those who are hard-pressed to pay their property taxes are not different from those who have problems paying utility bills, medical bills, and the costs of other necessities. These…

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VIEWPOINT: Why shouldn’t churches pay taxes?

Though it probably should not have been, a recent headline in The Indianapolis Star-$2.7 billion in property untaxed in Marion County-was a bit of a stunner. And more so was an adjoining article revealing nearly half of that property to be owned by churches and religious institutions. In the article, the Rev. Kent Millard, senior pastor at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, invoked the separation of church and state as justification for St. Luke’s quarter-million-dollar annual tax dodge. And I’m…

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Township wrestles with incorporation: As Greenwood, Bargersville annex commercial corridors, rest of township declines

White River Township in northwest Johnson County is dotted with an increasing number of high-priced homes and anchored by one of the area’s strongest school districts. But the area, known as Center Grove, also is marked by crumbling roads, poor drainage and an anemic parks system. To preserve its strengths and shore up its growing weaknesses, some in the area think White River Township needs to incorporate into its own city. The township of more than 40,000 residents faces the…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Time to make government accountable

The biggest change the Kernan-Shepard commission could recommend for improving local government would be to focus responsibility. Some folks want to consolidate government horizontally; that means combining units of the same type. It might take the form of consolidating school corporations or bringing the number of library districts down from 238 to some smaller number. (It could mean reducing the number of counties from 92 to a more realistic number, but I should not try to make you laugh.) Many…

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BRIAN WILLIAMS: Indiana needs to get energy-wise

As the 14th-mostpopulous state in the union, Indiana generates a gross state product that is 16th-largest of the 50 states. Unfortunately, despite significant investments in equipment and processes by manufacturers and public-policy efforts to encourage the attraction and growth of knowledgeand technology-focused industries, our economy remains energy-inefficient. In 2003, Indiana was the country’s sixthlargest consumer of energy per capita, according to the Indiana Energy Report. Ninety-seven percent of Indiana’s electricity is generated by coal. Indiana is the fifthlargest emitter of…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Mike Hicks: It’s time for a little perspective on home foreclosures

A big financial crisis spreads the notion that the interests of Wall Street differ from the interests of Main Street. The “liquidity crisis” of the past few weeks, with its difficult jargon and complex financial instruments, is a prime example. Unfortunately, the notion that the tumult represents a failure of markets is exactly the wrong lesson to take away from this experience. In a nutshell, here’s why. In the past few years, mortgage lenders-ranging from the George Baileytype savings and…

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INVESTING: Time to protect assets; more turmoil lies ahead

Heroes are for sporting events and battlefields, not investing. With some of the damage repaired from the early August rout, it is a good time to raise a little cash and wait a few weeks. There certainly will be no shortage of things to watch while you wait. It is easy to make either the bull or bear case right now. The technical damage suffered by the market leading up to the July high was more short-term in nature, not…

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Increasing demand for land surveyors sparks changes: Despite some criticism, Purdue University moves program into different department to attract more students

Purdue University is mapping out a controversial strategy to produce more land surveyors amid growing demand for graduates entering the profession. The number of Purdue students interested in pursuing a surveying career has dwindled to just a dozen out of roughly 500 enrolled in the university’s School of Civil Engineering. M. Katherine Banks, head of the school, attributes the dearth to a lack of visibility the surveying program endures tucked within the larger department. “We need a fresh start,” she…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Should we consolidate libraries?

At last, we have a commission working to see if we can improve government in Indiana through reorganization. Former Gov. Joe Kernan and Supreme Court Justice Randy Shepard are leading the effort. Some of us are concerned that the commission has been established to find ways not to improve government services, but to cut local property taxes. The two goals might not work in the same direction. Public libraries are often cited as ripe for consolidation. There are 238 of…

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Commentary: Is this any way to run a government?

As someone who writes and pontificates about the events of the day, summer is usually my slow season. I have to work hard to find things to write and talk about for public consumption. However, this summer has been a whole different matter. We have all been taken aback by the tax protests and subsequent government actions to mitigate the damage. But that wasn’t the big story that caught my attention. The story that stuck in my craw was the…

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