Daniels needs chance to finish job
EDITORIAL
Richmond Palladium-Item; October, 2008

The word "change" has been bandied about in this election year more than in previous campaigns it seems.

Indiana has experienced its share of change during the past four years, the first term of Gov. Mitch Daniels, and longtime residents know that.

Much of that change has arguably been for the better.

Uniform statewide daylight-saving time ends a four-decades-old struggle against a crazy-quilt pattern of times left largely to counties to decide.

The void left when multiple license branches were no longer the patronage plums controlled by the political party holding the governor's office needed to be fixed. That is being done by employing 21st-century modernization aimed at consumer convenience and efficiency.

Daniels pulled the state out of hundreds of millions of dollars of debt inherited upon taking office, debt that Indiana's Constitution prohibits the state from incurring. Indiana on Daniels' watch has returned to surplus cash flow, even building a "rainy day fund" as a hedge on continued hard times.

The climb in property taxes has quickened since the old "freeze-and-control" days of the Otis Bowen administration in the 1970s. Daniels has sought to renew some control over the dreaded property tax by imposing the language of caps, ceilings, on property taxes in the state's Constitution. Admittedly, he will fund it in part with a sales tax hike he backed.

The jury justifiably remains out on other changes Daniels has led, including especially a sweeping privatization of the state's toll roads. But the windfall revenue-generating initiative made possible record public works spending during the past four years and has been widely imitated by other governors, Republicans and Democrats alike.

People, especially candidates for public office, seem more apt to talk change than to embrace it, and especially when change bumps into vested interests. Daniels has dared stir entrenched interests in his party, in the public employee unions and in state and local government. It is a credit to the incumbent governor's vision and leadership that he has often prevailed.

But what about now and the coming four years and the issue uppermost on Hoosiers' minds -- jobs?

Daniels' Democratic opponent, Jill Long Thompson, criticizes the incumbent governor for the state's loss of so many manufacturing jobs.

But manufacturing jobs did more than leave this state; they've left the country. They did so during the past decade or more, and they did so by the millions.

The fact that Indiana's employment base is steeped in a tradition of manufacturing means this state was bound to suffer the manufacturing downturn more than most. The fact that Indiana's unemployment rate remains below that of its Rust Belt neighbors supports claims that, comparatively speaking, Indiana has done a better job than those neighboring states of retaining existing jobs and attracting new ones, including new auto plants.

Much remains to be done, and it needs to be done more equitably. East central Indiana counties, including Wayne and Fayette, have consistently through the four years of the Daniels administration ranked in the state's top 10 in unemployment. Long Thompson and her running mate for lieutenant governor, Dennie Oxley, propose a method of directing state job and incentive efforts to those areas most in need. Daniels and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman need to demonstrate that same kind of commitment to areas facing sustained, chronic hardship.

In announcing his re-election bid several months back, Daniels said he wanted to see through some of the hard-fought battles launched but not completed during his first term. These included, for example, capping property taxes and an equally bold initiative to provide high school graduates with two free years at Ivy Tech Community College.

On balance, we think those efforts represent a continuation of a well-chosen course for Indiana in these hard times and we hope Hoosiers will agree to keep Mitch Daniels at the helm.