ANDREA NEAL: You can thank Gov. Bowen for tax relief

Otis Bowen will go down in history as the governor who delivered landmark property tax relief to Hoosiers. He also deserves mention for what happened on Gov. Mitch Daniels’ watch: a tax reform amendment to the state Constitution.

ANDREA NEAL: Journalists still make a difference

A recent survey ranked newspaper reporter as the worst career of 2013, just below meter reader and lumberjack, but you wouldn’t guess it from the stories told by journalists who gathered in Bloomington to see six of their own inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

ANDREA NEAL: Pence's leadership challenge

Only three months into his term, Gov. Mike Pence has taken a beating for failing to lead. Opinion writers, Democrats, even fellow Republicans, have offered all manner of conflicting counsel.

ANDREA NEAL: Concerns mounting over Common Core standards

When right and left wing activists find themselves on the same side of a controversy, it’s worth probing why. Such is the case with the Common Core academic standards being implemented in Indiana and 45 other states. Conservatives and progressives alike see problems with them.

ANDREA NEAL: For growth's sake, cut Indiana income tax

Popular perception to the contrary, Indiana is not a low-tax state. When you add up all the different taxes – property, sales and income assessed by federal, state or local government – we rank right in the middle.

ANDREA NEAL: Obamacare bill sparks Long debate on democracy

Indiana Senate President David Long says he's trying to be a leader, not a dictator. That's why he assigned Senate Bill 230 to the Rules Committee, where it is not to see the light of day.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels sets sights on higher ed reform

Mitch Daniels’ recent letter to the Purdue University community was the equivalent of a 12-page research paper on the state of higher education, so Boilermakers can be forgiven if they didn't read every word of it. The content merits attention from all Hoosiers, no matter their college loyalties.

ANDREA NEAL: Indy lacks critical mass for mass transit

There is one inescapable reason that a regional mass-transit system will not succeed in the Indianapolis area.

ANDREA NEAL: Civic literacy should be on Pence's agenda

For a country saturated 24/7 in media, our ignorance of politics is stunning. Sixty-two percent of us can't identity the governor, according to a survey by Xavier University. Three-fourths can't answer the question, "What does the judiciary branch do?"

ANDREA NEAL: Government rules trump Indiana company's beliefs

When the officers of Grote Industries sat down to discuss a possible legal challenge to the contraceptive mandate in the national health care law, the vote was immediate and unanimous. “We decided that it was definitely against our beliefs,” says Chairman and CEO William Grote III.

ANDREA NEAL: Lugar solved problems before others even saw them

Dick Lugar set a record as the longest-serving U.S. senator in Indiana history, yet his career can be summed up in a single word: visionary. During 50 years in Indiana politics his chief concern was never the next election but the next generation and the common good.

ANDREA NEAL: Hoosier voters didn't renounce education reform

It’s ludicrous to equate Tony Bennett’s defeat in the school superintendent’s race with public rejection of a school reform agenda, as many in the education bureaucracy are trying to do.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels is education reform governor

Mitch Daniels used his first term to get Indiana’s fiscal house in order. His second term sealed his reputation as the education reform governor.

ANDREA NEAL: Daniels helped state weather recession

In his first State of the State address in 2005, Gov. Mitch Daniels announced, “Our state’s public finances are in ruins.” Unaware of the coming recession, he made four promises to citizens: To work to strengthen the economy, make government leaner and more efficient, modernize infrastructur…

ANDREA NEAL: Reading 20 minutes a day is reform that works

Before lawmakers throw money at the thorny issue of early-childhood education they should consider an experiment in Richmond aimed at getting parents to read to their children daily.

ANDREA NEAL: Cut Indiana's sales tax to 6.5%

At 3.4 percent, Indiana’s personal income tax is one of the nation’s lowest. A half dozen states, including Texas and Florida, don’t charge income tax at all; 41 states impose a rate higher than Indiana’s.

ANDREA NEAL: Why women don't run for political office

One day after Ann Romney’s Republican National Convention speech, the Associated Press devoted an entire article to her “tasteful, conservative and appropriate wardrobe.” Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered an issue-packed endorsement of Mitt Romney, and Wall Street Journal …

GUEST COMMENTARY: Centralized bureaucracies aren't serving local needs

Andrea Neal’s Aug. 16 column about the Indiana Department of Child Services highlighted the very concerns that worry so many of us who are disturbed about the agency and other departments under this administration.