INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana has a new property tax czar.

Gov. Mitch Daniels on Monday appointed Tim Rushenberg, of Elkhart, the new commissioner of the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, the state agency that reviews local government budgets and accompanying property tax rates.

Rushenberg, the agency's general counsel since August 2007, replaces Cheryl Musgrave. She resigned Friday after less than 18 months at the helm of a state bureaucracy that frequently has clashed with local officials.

Musgrave took the reins at a time when an overhaul of the state's property assessment system was helping fuel double-digit tax increases that sparked protests outside the Governor's Residence and Statehouse.

"There's not a harder job in state government than the one I asked Cheryl to take," Daniels said in a statement. "Indiana taxpayers will never know all of the dollars she saved them and the improvements Cheryl made in the operation she led. I accepted her resignation reluctantly and wish her well."

The governor's office said Rushenberg, a state-certified tax assessor who earned his law degree from Valparaiso University, helped draft the property tax relief package lawmakers approved last spring. Rushenberg is expected to issue a ruling today on a $165 million plan to build a new Hammond High School and convert Gavit High School to a middle school.

Daniels also selected Alex Huskey, Indiana Excise Police superintendent since 2004, to serve as interim chairman of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission. Former Chairman Dave Heath, who held the job since 2005, resigned Friday.

And the Republican governor, elected to a second term last month, reappointed state Inspector General David Thomas.