Daniels praised by Heartland

Steve Stanek with a complimentary piece on Gov. Daniels in Budget & Tax News...

Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) of Indiana does not presume to tell other governors or lawmakers what policies they should follow, but he does hope they’ll take note of his easy re-election in November.

“I think my re-election shows there is clearly still a market for fiscal prudence,” said Daniels in a recent telephone interview. “You wouldn’t know it watching Washington right now or over the last few years. It probably helped that we came into office at a time of real fiscal emergency for the state [in 2005]. We used that opportunity well and have really maintained a tight control on spending.

“Sometimes I joke about the brilliance of our method, things like spending less money than we take in. What a blinding insight that is,” Daniels said....

With most states reporting budget deficits and asking the federal government for hundreds of billions of dollars of bailout money and fiscal stimulus, Indiana enjoys a budget surplus of more than $1 billion. Neighboring states, including Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio, are hemorrhaging red ink.

With property tax reform, the first truly balanced budget in nearly a decade, the first AAA bond rating in the state’s history, and the lowest unemployment rate in the Midwest, Indiana voters apparently recognized these accomplishments and appreciated them....

Daniels hit the ground running. On his first day as governor he created Indiana’s first Office of Management and Budget to look for efficiencies and cost savings across state government.

Indiana saw its first balanced budget in nearly a decade that year as the state went from a $600 million deficit when Daniels took office to a $300 million surplus—without a tax increase. The surplus went to repay hundreds of millions of dollars the state had borrowed from Indiana’s public schools in previous administrations....