INDIANAPOLIS | Calling for "bravery and bipartisanship," Gov. Mitch Daniels used his State of State address Tuesday night to sell lawmakers on his plan to cut property taxes by nearly $1.7 billion.
"Some will say, how brave do you have to be to vote for a huge tax cut?" Daniels said. "But we all know how strong the pressure of special interests can be, how relentless the criticism, even from those with no plan of their own. So we know that our opportunity will not be seized without bravery."
In a 25-minute speech that served as a potential window into his re-election campaign, the first-term Republican also trumpeted accomplishments from his first three years in office. The highlights included customer service improvements at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, a cigarette tax funded health insurance program approved last year and "thousands of new jobs" brought by an overhaul of state telecommunications law.
"I hope he didn't hurt his arm trying to pat himself on the back," said Rep. Dan Stevenson, D-Highland.
Stevenson took exception to Daniels alluding to the $3.8 billion private lease of the Indiana Toll Road as the solution to "the "transportation funding shortfall of the state."
Meanwhile, Rep. Mara Reardon, D-Munster, was quick to note that the 2006 telecom rewrite allowed cable companies to drop public access television programming in East Chicago.
Other Northwest Indiana legislators praised the tone and message of Daniels' speech, including Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, and Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso. Both region lawmakers were part of the group that escorted the governor into the House chamber.
"I thought he hit a home run," Soliday said of the speech. "I thought he made some major efforts toward bipartisanship."
Daniels said a "businesslike stewardship" has put state government on strong footing while Illinois and other neighboring states face "financial crises." And the governor credited his administration's job-creation efforts for handing Indiana "the lowest unemployment in the Midwest."
"We have proven ourselves capable of great things," Daniels said.
It was in that spirit that the governor asked the General Assembly to embrace "Indiana's property tax dilemma" as a "glistening opportunity."
Daniels' framework for the turnaround hinges on legislative support for strict limits on local government spending and a penny sales tax hike, from 6 percent to 7 percent.
The $928 million generated by the sales tax increase and another $180 million from state reserves would be used to lift child welfare and school operating costs off the backs of homeowners. The other $573 million in property tax cuts Daniels has promised would come from local spending cuts -- $264 million in Lake County alone -- forced by his push to constitutionally cap tax bills at 1 percent of assessed value for homeowners, 2 percent for landlords and 3 percent for businesses.
Unlike his three previous State of the State speeches, the governor unveiled only one new initiative Tuesday night. He wants lawmakers to morph Indiana's courtroom-led child support bureaucracy into a more responsive administrative system.
As an employee of the Lake County clerk's office, Rep. Shelli VanDenburgh, D-Crown Point, said she's seen first-hand the inefficiencies of the state's current system.
"We definitely need to do more to get the money that the mothers deserve in their hands," VanDenburgh said. "So he's definitely on the right track there."
