Daniels strangely quiet as fiscal issues fester
The Indiana General Assembly session will end with a focus on what has dominated discussion since Organization Day back in November: fiscal issues.
The Indiana General Assembly session will end with a focus on what has dominated discussion since Organization Day back in November: fiscal issues.
In the past, lawmakers ignored the need to fix financing for the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, and now they must come
up with solutions that will be difficult for both Democrats and Republicans to accept.
Brace yourself, because things in this legislative session are destined to get messy: the politics, the process, the personalities,
the context, and the issues and their substance, all at once.
The Indiana state budget will continue to be a work in progress for many more weeks.
Danielle Chrysler hasn’t met a challenge yet that she hasn’t embraced–and conquered.
Now expecting $935 million less in annual revenue than they did a year ago, legislators will spend the next four months arguing
over budget cuts.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has no plans to repeat Indiana’s tax-amnesty program that recovered about $245 million from delinquent
payers in 2005.
Gov. Mitch Daniels said he generally supports a federal stimulus package that would include some money for Indiana and other
states, particularly for infrastructure projects such as highways and bridges.
Could Gov. Mitch Daniels run for president in 2012?
Indiana’s blue vote for president-elect Barack Obama on Election Day was a sign that Hoosiers are ready for change. So was
the state’s red vote to keep incumbent Gov. Mitch Daniels in office. In this case, the status quo means more change. Daniels
has been making gutsy and sometimes unpopular moves since taking office four years ago. He ran on a promise to keep shaking
things up.
Libertarian candidate Andy Horning should have been covered in more detail in IBJ article about the governor’s race.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson promises to buoy Indiana’s slumping rural counties with a three-tiered
incentive plan. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has a different vision for stoking the state economy. He wants to build on Indiana’s
strengths–such as world-class research at universities–to innovate and create jobs.
Property tax reform is now Indiana law. Hoosier homeowners are thrilled. But many corporate leaders grumble the historic deal was brokered on the backs of business. Topping their concerns is the new 3-percent property tax cap for commercial and industrial properties, which they fear will slow business expansions and discourage companies from moving headquarters to the state.
The art of the deal is to get more than you give up. If Gov. Mitch Daniels convinces the General Assembly to pass his property
tax plan intact, he’ll meet the definition of deal-maker, and then some.
In the Democrats’ field of potential candidates to unseat Gov. Mitch Daniels, there are few household names. That’s why they’re
preparing to spend the next 19 months introducing you to Jim Schellinger.