Love him or hate him, Governor Mitch Daniels has moved the political debate at every level of Indiana government to budgets ... and the need to make them smaller.
In Indiana each local government unit is directed to develop and approve a budget. This budget must meet all the requirements of balancing, must be approved by the Department of Local Government Finance, and must take into account the property tax caps that are currently law and will become constitutional law in November.
From insurance to employee bonuses, new facilities and repaving, to investment in major projects and employee training ... every single line item is being meticulously scrutinized by Mayors, Commissioners, Councils and Trustees. This is a success for Indiana government and for Indiana taxpayers.
Many of you know that I work for a financial advisor to many of our local government entities. Although many of the cuts required by the tax caps have been tough, and in the case of Gary draconian, the cuts and savings have been found. This is a testimony not only to our Governor and his vision for the future, but to the local government officials all over Indiana who have done the heavy lifting and will continue to do so.
There are county level elections this year, and I'm sure budgets will be a very big part of those political races. Then next year the municipal elections, where officials will be tasked with seeking election without the ability to promise big spending or pork projects. So far, not too much controversy right?
Final thought, governments are poor job creators. Mitch Daniels said last week "school campuses should exist for educating our youth, not to create lifelong employment for adults employees of the schools". Sure a tweek at ISTA and school unions that often lose focus on the goal of school. But more importantly a reminder that real job creation is not a government strength. Government can get in the way with taxes or regulations. Government can slow the process of investment down, but seldom does government make things work faster.
The best goal for the budget minded politician going forward will be - Find every way possible to remove your government from getting in the way of the private sector recovery. Seek out regulations that prevent investment and risk taking, and eliminate them. Make sure your staff knows that their job is to assist, empower, and embolden new investment ... not the opposite which all too often reigns in big white buildings. Economic Development is huge, but Engineers who seek to destroy great ideas not so much.
To those who are anti-growth still in Northwest Indiana. Are you serious? You don't want investment, growth, new jobs, or opportunities? That may have been a winning formula for populist election in 2004 or 2005, but times have changed. Now the key will be economic development with a passion and vision for creativity and innovation. The key will be collaboration between public and private entities that allows investment and risk.
I once said "A developer can never win an election, no one likes a developer" after the political games in 2004 and 2005. Today we may well need leaders who have the heart of a developer, the passion and vision that requires, and the ability to balance risk and reward inside of a balanced and tightly restricted budget. This is surely no year or even decade for the CAVE people. (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) sorry.
