Governor Daniels making government smaller

Once again, leading with the passion of his convictions, Indiana Governor Daniels moved to layoff some workers for the state. State workers are not unionized, or of course there would be no way to make these cuts and maintain the commitment to not raising taxes. Sure it's got to be tough to layoff anyone in the season building up to the holidays and in a recession. But this keeps government small, so that private industry and entrepreneurs in Indiana can create jobs ... the last thing we need a a great big government hanging over all our businesses like a wet blanket of taxes and regulations.

Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget ax fell Friday on 33 employees laid off by the Indiana Department of Administration.

Most of the laid-off workers had jobs managing public works construction projects, said Mark Everson, commissioner of the Department of Administration.

"As the governor's already indicated, the state's going to slim down the number of projects it's doing because of the revenue situation. So the people who are actually participating in running the projects, we're reducing that staff accordingly," Everson said.

Other laid-off workers had jobs maintaining the Statehouse and government center campus in Indianapolis.

The layoffs are expected to save $900,000 through the end of the fiscal year in June.