A look at news and events in the Daniels Administration

February 19, 2009– Governor Mitch Daniels announced this week that eligible Hoosiers who are collecting unemployment insurance will receive a $25 increase in their weekly benefits.

The $25 weekly increase is part of the just enacted federal stimulus legislation. The increased benefit could extend through the end of 2009. States that participate in the program with the U.S. Department of Labor will be reimbursed for its cost. For Indiana, that could be as much as $185 million.

“We filed immediately so as not to lose a day getting more money to those who have lost jobs,” said Daniels. “Indiana will be one of the first states in the nation to act on this opportunity.”

Eligible Hoosiers will start accruing the benefit increase when they file their weekly unemployment voucher beginning Sunday, February 22. Increased benefits will be paid with two $25 deposits for eligible recipients beginning Monday, March 2 and then $25 weekly thereafter.

The increased benefit will apply to all eligible Hoosiers collecting state or federal unemployment benefits. The average weekly benefit for Hoosiers collecting unemployment insurance is $290; the maximum benefit is $390 per week.

February 20, 2009- Governor Mitch Daniels will attend the National Governors Association (NGA) winter meeting in Washington, D.C. this weekend.  The governor will attend a governors-only lunch and business session for a discussion of implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act recently signed into law. Governor Daniels will be one of two governors to speak at the session and will discuss how Indiana will manage federal stimulus funds.  He also will join the governors for a meeting with President Obama and members of his Cabinet.

During his visit, Governor Daniels will be a guest on CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. (Eastern) and also will appear on the Fox News Network with Chris Wallace at noon (Eastern). 

Indiana requests federal public assistance for 15 counties

February 20, 2009– Governor Mitch Daniels today requested that President Barack Obama provide federal public assistance for 15 counties that sustained damage by a severe winter storm that began January 26.

The counties are Clark, Crawford, Dubois, Floyd, Gibson, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Orange, Perry, Spencer, Switzerland, Vanderburgh, Warrick and Washington.

If approved, public assistance means state government and local governments and certain non-profit organizations in these counties would be eligible to apply for federal assistance to pay 75 percent of the approved cost of debris removal, emergency services related to the disaster and repairing or replacing damaged public facilities, such as roads, buildings and electrical cooperatives.

Daniels indicated further damage may be identified and reserved the right to request assistance for additional counties.

The damage is a result of a severe winter storm which deposited heavy amounts of snow and ice coupled with high winds and a resultant warm up that caused flooding. 

Overheard: Governor Daniels in the news

Daniels visits Logansport: Governor calls combined dispatch an example for others to follow

Pharos Tribune

February 18, 2009

By: Kevin Smith

Gov. Mitch Daniels offered a positive endorsement of the Cass County emergency dispatch center during a visit to Logansport on Tuesday morning.

“It’s a great story,” the governor said before an assembled crowd of around 50 local government officials, combined dispatch administrators and equipment providers.

“You are spreading the gospel in Cass County and Logansport of our need to develop in this area. It is really a great display of leadership.”

Daniels was in Logansport to tout his vision for greater efficiency in local government by highlighting the city and county’s efforts to combine emergency dispatch operations to save money and improve safety.

During a tour of the facility, which opened last month, Daniels spoke with dispatcher Cassi Lane for several minutes on the transition to combined operations and the new dispatch system.

Lane said that she felt the governor left with a strong impression of the work that is going on.

“He liked it and thought it was very well put together,” Lane said.

During a 15-minute address, Daniels said the center provides obvious benefits to the citizens of Cass County.

“It is very, very impressive,” Daniels said. “It is clear that the public are better protected than before and have better protection than most other places. Of all government services that can be re-examined ... 911 is the clearest and easiest for people to see.”

Daniels emphasized improved response times for emergency services using a combined dispatch system.

He cited a tragic incident last year in Hamilton County where the occupants of car that was trapped underwater drowned. Despite calling 911, emergency services were not dispatched to the scene of the accident in time because of transfer times between various dispatch centers in the area.

“That would never happen here,” Daniels said.

The governor added the leadership exhibited by Logansport and Cass County government can be held up as an example for other communities also combining their emergency dispatch services.

“They are working on it to try and get where you guys are,” Daniels said.

Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher, who was in attendance, said he felt the governor’s visit emphasized the positive steps taken by the city and county.

“I think we left a good impression on the governor in how we set up the system and the idea that Logansport and Cass County now acts as a regional dispatch center,” Fincher said. “It may encourage other communities to look our way.”

As the discussion shifted to a question-and-answer session, Cass County council president Ralph Anderson asked the Governor about the proposed change to the structure of county government as part of his streamlining efforts.

While a proponent of home rule, Daniels said modernization is now required in state’s 150-year-old system of local governance.

Specifically, he supports a bill under consideration in the state senate that will eliminate the county commissioner system.

“The thought of the bill is that the county commissioners system is different to what you might find elsewhere,” Daniels said. “There aren’t three presidents of the United States, there aren’t three mayors of Logansport ... it is an odd way to have an executive situation.”

Anderson said after Daniel’s address that he does not feel Cass County will benefit from eliminating the commissioner system.

“I understand his position, but I wanted him to expand on that,” Anderson said. “For Cass County, it would increase expenditures. I have no experience on this but I don’t know if it would have that much effect. For three commissioners that are part-time we pay $48,000. For a single chief executive the county would have to pay a lot more, and it would also increase the work of the county council.”

Daniels eased Anderson’s concerns, though, by informing those in attendance that as the bill has moved through the legislative process it has changed to include a public referendum, with the “status quo as an option.”

Anderson said it would be three years before any vote on the change was likely.

For E-911 director Lori Forrer, the governor’s visit was an opportunity for the center to celebrate the successful relationships with the various companies that worked on the combined dispatch during the past few months.

“IPSIC, INdigital for phone and 911, WTH for mapping — all the people that have been working long and hard on the project from the very beginning,” Forrer said. “I was glad to be able to show what we’re doing. We have got a lot of good things going on here.”

She added that once a grant is secured and work begins on a new emergency operations center adjacent to the combined dispatch, Logansport was likely to see the governor again.

“He will be back,” she said.

Daniels, Kernan pitch government reform

Kokomo Tribune

February 17, 2009

By: Ken de la Bastide

The push to reform county government in Indiana started in Kokomo with a visit by Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Gov. Joe Kernan.

They argued the state system is antiquated and must be changed.

More than 200 people attended a meeting Tuesday at Pastariffic during which Daniels and Kernan answered questions on the proposal sponsored by MySmartGov.org.

Marilyn Schultz, executive director of the organization, said a vote on township government reform is scheduled in the Indiana Senate. She noted sample letters were available for people to send and cell phones available to contact lawmakers.

The key to local government reform is the Kernan-Shepard Report issued last year. It presented 27 recommendations to consolidate local government.

The intent of the reforms is to replace the current system of county government with a single elected county executive who would then make appointments, similar to a mayor.

If approved, it would mean county auditors, treasurers, recorders, assessors, coroners and surveyors would no longer be elected positions. It would also eliminate township trustees, consolidate library districts and seek to consolidate school systems of less than 1,000 students.

Daniels said the public has been opposed to some change, such as the switch to daylight-saving time, which he said was a good policy for the state.

“By every measure, the public supports the change in the system,” he said. “Last year in referendum votes most township assessor positions were eliminated.”

Daniels said those wanting to maintain the status quo are mostly the officeholders and they are mobilized and will show up at hearings.

“The public needs to make their position known,” he said. “We’re not sailing into the wind on this one.”

Daniels said he doubts any legislators will lose an election if they vote for the government reform bills.

David Bottorff, director of the Association of Indiana Counties, said the organization is supportive of most of the recommendations.

He said the AIC wants local options on implementation at the county level through referendum votes.

Bottorff said with three commissioners, each area of a county is represented.

“Rural parts of the county might like having a commissioner from their area,” he said. “They might not like a single county executive from Kokomo.”

Bottorff said the important thing is for people in the state’s 92 counties to have a choice.

Daniels said he was not opposed to a referendum vote that could result in a patchwork of differing government structures in each county.

In terms of economic development, Daniels said a single county executive would simplify the process for companies interested in investing in the state.

“It would create clarity and less confusion,” he said. “Companies looking to invest in Indiana are given a list of all elected officials to work with, something not done in other states.”

Daniels indicated that the counties that adopt reform in how local government does business will be more successful in attracting investment.

Counties slow to reform will eventually join in as they see it helping local schools and better government, he said.

A Ball State University study has estimated an annual savings of $400 million to $600 million, he said.

“Saving is not the No. 1 objective,” Daniels said. “The No. 1 goal is effectiveness of service and accountability. We want the money saved put back in services.”

Kernan said no local libraries or schools will close because of the government reform, and there is a lot of confusion.

“We didn’t recommend any closures,” he said. “We recommended the consolidation of small school superintendents. Students are being denied opportunities because the schools are unable to hire teachers in advanced placement course offerings.”

Kernan said students with limited access to Core 40 and Core 40 Honors diplomas will be unable to attend Indiana and Purdue universities in the future.

There are 54 school systems in the state with fewer than 1,000 students.

“This is the best friend of small schools,” Daniels said. “Administrative consolidation is the best way to preserve and protect the smaller schools.”

Daniels said to stop wasting so much taxpayer dollars on overhead costs that don’t teach anyone. He said those funds saved in administrative costs could be used to hire teachers.

Kernan said the committee didn’t feel comfortable with recommending that there be countywide school districts.

“We set a limit of 2,000 students, which has been reduced to 1,000,” he said. “We didn’t put a limit on the size.”

Daniels said he was open to the idea of the county council being required to approve appointments under a single county executive system.

“There would be a stronger county council with powers over policy and budget,” he said. “The council having oversight would not be the worst thing.”

Kernan said the committee wanted to make the county executive and legislative branches stronger.

“It would diminish the power of the executive to have someone approve the appointments,” he said. “The executive has the right to make those appointments. It would open the door to politics and personalities, which would not be constructive.”

Kernan said if there are problems, the public would know who to blame if there is one county executive.

There would be no state guidelines for filling positions and that would be left to the local units of government, he said.

Why delay reform?

Marion Chronicle-Tribune Editorial

February 18, 2009

If common sense and providing good government are the strongest arguments you take into a political battle at the Indiana Statehouse, apparently you had better find more help.

That might be about to become very clear to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and former Democratic Gov. Joseph Kernan, who lobbied together in Kokomo for a simple, cost-saving restructuring of Indiana government.

The effort, which would abolish an antiquated township government system and make government make more sense — but endanger the jobs of a lot of local pols around the state — was taking it on the chin at the General Assembly.

Wednesday, a Senate committee gutted a bill to eliminate township governments, instead passing a measure that would leave townships intact but add policies against nepotism and a review of the township budget. The committee outright defeated a proposal that could have been a first step toward making some county offices appointed rather than elected positions.

So another year in the 21st Century with Indiana stuck in the 19th Century may await.

While some people called the change vast, the proposal really amounts to nothing more than the way government business is done — better — by most of the rest of the United States. The proposals were mostly included in the bipartisan Kernan-Shepherd Commission report, which provided a roadmap to make our government responsive and recognized that perhaps some positions, like county recorder, don’t need to be elected as if we were still in the 1830s.

Regarding townships, some 40 percent of the 10,000 local officials in the state can be found at the township level, even though township responsibilities have waned dramatically in the past two centuries.

Townships might have made sense before people drove cars, spoke by telephone or e-mailed and sent text messages around the world (on an hourly basis in some cases).

Proposals to move away from a county commissioner system to a more accountable single executive for the county are also not gaining traction. Anyone who has seen the frustrating effort to repair our own courthouse can see that the structure of Indiana’s county government is often the biggest obstacle to its own ability getting things done.

A study by Ball State University found that Indiana’s local governments, which are facing revenue challenges, could realize roughly $360 million annually in savings if the Kernan-Shepherd proposals were enacted. Alas, even that doesn’t appear to be a good enough reason for many legislators to do the right thing by our citizens. Perhaps some members of the General Assembly are counting on federal stimulus money to solve our problems.

What remains for Indiana is a governmental structure that puts us at a disadvantage when seeking to attract enterprise that actually creates wealth, Kernan and Daniels said. Businesspeople from outside the state are confronted by a local government structure that is difficult to understand and populated with too many officials with too many fingers on the tax button.

This General Assembly seems on the brink of missing an opportunity to make our state better for years to come. Let your legislators know that we cannot keep doing things the same way we always have, and that we expect improvement.