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BY PATRICK GUINANE
pguinane@nwitimes.com
317.637.9078 | Sunday, November 02, 2008 | (15 comment(s))
A hero's welcome awaited Mitch Daniels last month in Lafayette.
The Republican governor came to break ground on a highway project that had been promised for nearly three decades, and it looked as though every proponent and politician who had ever worked toward the Hoosier Heartland Industrial Corridor was on hand to help toss the first shovelfuls of dirt.
Over lunch, two congressmen and a state senator praised the governor's "courage" and "vision," ticking off two-thirds of the slogan that graces Daniels' green-and-white re-election yard signs. The final word is "results," and the $450 million project that a crowd of at least 200 had come to kick off was made possible by Daniels' decision to lease out the Indiana Toll Road.
"We are solving problems like this that are stumping other states," Daniels told the crowd. "And that's what we have to be all about."
No one has accused the first-term governor of lethargy, though not every solution has been greeted with open arms. The 75-year, $3.8 billion Toll Road deal that put money in the bank for dozens of long-sought road projects has been demonized by Democrats, including gubernatorial hopeful Jill Long Thompson.
Breaking ranks
"I've had a very good working relationship with Governor Daniels," said state Sen. Earline Rogers, a Gary Democrat. "I think that he has been attentive to this area. He has seen the future of our airport and what it could bring to this area. I appreciate what he's done. But I'm a Democrat, and I'm in full support of Jill Long Thompson."
Rogers was one of only two Statehouse Democrats that Daniels persuaded to break party ranks two years ago and vote for legislation authorizing the Toll Road lease. In return, she helped cement a $120 million state commitment to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, with $20 million of that earmarked for improvements at Gary/Chicago International Airport.
Rogers said she has witnessed Daniels evolve as a negotiator since his first legislative session in 2005, when he fumed that minority House Democrats had "car bombed" initiatives he campaigned on by walking out of the chamber just before a key deadline to move bills to the Senate.
"Getting along is better than not, but I don't regret forcing a confrontation at that point," Daniels said. "Sometimes you have to use a two-by-four to get the animal's attention. The good news is I've only ever had to use the two-by-four once."
He campaigned as a regular Hoosier four years ago, often donning blue jeans and a ball cap. But there's no denying Daniels, a former Eli Lilly & Co. executive and federal budget director, brought a CEO attitude to Indiana's top office.
On the road
Settling in for a two-hour drive from Fort Wayne to the highway groundbreaking in Lafayette, Daniels immediately turns his attention to a thick binder labeled "Governor's Travels, Oct. 21-22." It's a veritable playbook preparing him for any question he might tackle during the two-day excursion.
When the travel conversation turns toward attempts to prune local government in property-tax heavy Lake County, the governor flips to a page and begins parsing city payrolls. "In Fort Wayne they have 143 (residents) per government employee," he said. "In East Chicago it's 33."
Daniels emphasizes his efforts to end Northwest Indiana's perceived isolation from the rest of the state. At last count, he had visited the region 71 times in 46 months as governor. He expresses some frustration that Northwest Indiana viewers, served by the prohibitively expensive Chicago broadcast television market, are much less likely to have seen the bevy of re-election ads his campaign has placed in steady rotation since March.
Most of the spots highlight accomplishments, including the doubling of the ranks of child protection workers to 1,500, a move he says helped reduce by roughly a third the number of children who die in foster care or while under state supervision.
Facing constant criticism for the weakening national economy, Daniels turns to the camera in one ad and says, "We can't keep failing companies in business, but we can find two new jobs to replace any one that may go away." He created the Indiana Economic Development Corp., a quasi-governmental agency, to lead the charge.
The result has been more than 75,000 job-creation commitments, though many of those positions are years away, including about 80 new jobs tied to a nearly $4 billion expansion under way at the BP refinery in Whiting. Overall, the state has seen a net gain of nearly 38,000 jobs since Daniels took office in 2005, and Indiana's 6.2 percent unemployment rate is lower than any surrounding state.
Daniels said he didn't anticipate the double-digit property tax hikes that had homeowners howling a year ago. But he soon led the charge to impose new tax caps, which will limit homeowner bills to 1 percent of home value and force local government and schools in Lake County to reduce spending by about $150 million the next two years. He's made a campaign pledge to push for a referendum giving voters a chance to place the tax caps in the Indiana Constitution.
"If it gets on the board it will win, and a lot of (legislators) will vote for it because they know the taxpayers are watching," Daniels said. "If it gets to a referendum, it will win huge because the taxpayers are tired of being overcharged."
'Man of action'
Daniels also has promised to advance recommendations for streamlining local government that were offered last year by a bipartisan panel he appointed amid property tax protests outside the Governor's Residence and Statehouse.
Also high upon his agenda for a second term is making college more affordable for the middle class. Daniels dangled a Hoosier Lottery lease as a scholarship funding option until federal officials advised against such a move last month. He says bonding against future lotto profits remains an option.
Valparaiso Mayor Jon Costas, whom Daniels appointed to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, lauds the governor's commitment to making college more affordable. Costas says the governor, by leveraging the Toll Road to build roads, boosting funding for full-day kindergarten and engineering a cigarette tax hike to provide health insurance for the working poor, has balanced progressive ideas with Republican ideals.
"He is a man of action, and that's why I think he will do very well in the election," Costas said. "He's shown that he will persevere until the job gets done."
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Eric L. Ellis wrote on Nov 3, 2008 11:08 PM:
"Home Rule" Government in all 92 Indiana counites would be a start. Ask Anybody!! "
Terri wrote on Nov 3, 2008 2:37 PM:
It is clear you are not from Indiana
every thing you said is wrong
our taxes are 7% our property taxes were cut in half - and i agree the teachers and police deserve more than state toll booth workers that sit all day and dont need to use a brain "
Terri wrote on Nov 3, 2008 2:32 PM:
INDIANA take a look at all the money that was stolen by democrats we are paying for now.
look at gary Ind - the people are starving in the street and the mayor drives by in his hummer and waves at them "
audacious1-2many wrote on Nov 3, 2008 10:33 AM:
to man of action wrote on Nov 2, 2008 7:31 PM:
To Ron wrote on Nov 2, 2008 4:16 PM:
JB wrote on Nov 2, 2008 4:13 PM:
mike from munster wrote on Nov 2, 2008 3:12 PM:
to michelle wrote on Nov 2, 2008 2:36 PM:
Ron wrote on Nov 2, 2008 11:31 AM:
to man wrote on Nov 2, 2008 10:19 AM:
nwi wrote on Nov 2, 2008 8:31 AM:
john wrote on Nov 2, 2008 8:29 AM:
I think you're in Illinois "
michelle wrote on Nov 2, 2008 8:18 AM:
Man of Action BAH wrote on Nov 2, 2008 6:32 AM:
1) Tripled my real estate taxes,
2) Upped the sales taxes by 16%.
3) Leased the toll road causing higher tolls, lay offs of union toll collectors and let them be replaced by part time scabs.
4) Out sourced state jobs.
5) Took bargaining rights away from state workers.
5) Offered little or no help to flood victims in this area.
6) Is sitting on (he says) a 3 billion surplus of our tax money. We paid it, we should say where it should be spent
7) Let 50,000 GOOD paying jobs leave
I could go on as there is more, but you get the ides. "