Secretary of Commerce: Indiana must get with times

The joke broadcast on the radio still bothered Patricia Miller the day after she heard it.\nA public affairs program was discussing how most of the nation turned its clocks back as daylight-saving time ended. A commentator laughed about not knowing what time it was in Indiana; most counties haven't adopted daylight time but some have, leaving the state a mosaic of different times throughout the year.\nMiller, a Fort Wayne businesswoman, hopes to end those jokes as she leads Indiana's business efforts in the new administration of Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels. Part of her job will be promoting a time change that the Legislature has rejected at least 24 times in 30 years.\n"I think people are ready for that change," she said.\nThe first Republican administration running Indiana in 16 years creates a time for changes, and Miller represents a key one for Daniels.\nUntil now, the state's business efforts have been led by the lieutenant governor, with the day-to-day operations of the Commerce Department supervised by its executive director.\nDaniels wants lawmakers to approve a new position of secretary of commerce for Miller. He also wants them to move up the scheduled June 30 phaseout of the Commerce Department, which will be replaced by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Daniels would become the new agency's chairman and CEO and Miller its president.\nDays after Daniels won the Republican nomination for governor, he signaled his administration would depart from past practice in economic development and job creation. Even before he introduced state Sen. Becky Skillman of Bedford as his running mate, he announced Miller would become secretary of commerce and rank highest in his cabinet.\nMiller exemplifies the business success Daniels sees ahead for Indiana. Twenty-two years ago, she and a friend, Barbara Baekgaard, pooled $500 to create Vera Bradley Designs. Today, its sales of quilted cotton handbags, luggage and other merchandise have reached $70 million a year. The company created about 100 jobs in Fort Wayne and nearby Van Wert, Ohio.\nHer business experience sold Daniels on Miller, and he has made her a model for the people he will appoint to his administration.\n"We're going to be interested in a lot of people who probably never thought about public service. Pat Miller, for instance, would never have thought about that. She was operating a wonderful business," Daniels said at his first transition news conference.\nMiller said she will approach her new job as she did the duties she previously had at Vera Bradley. She will emphasize the qualities Daniels promised while campaigning -- customer service and prompt responses -- but she also knows something about sales and marketing.\n"I know what an entrepreneur goes through. I know about small business. I know about growing a business and the pitfalls you might encounter. And I know about running a successful business," she said.\nSmall businesses, such as Vera Bradley Designs, will be "very, very important" to improving Indiana's economy and creating jobs, Miller said.\n"Think about it: Every business, whether it's a GM or a Lilly or whatever, started in someone's garage or basement -- or started small. What we're looking for are successful small businesses, and hopefully some of those small businesses will eventually succeed in becoming the next Lillys, the next Guidants," Miller said.\n"Everyone starts as a tadpole. Everyone starts small."\nThe state's job is to help them get started and to expand through the tools it has available, Miller said.\nDaniels has promised automatic tax credits to businesses for creating jobs and automatic phase-ins of property taxes for new investments that expand the work force. In the past, the state awarded these as incentives. It also wants to exempt research and development tools from sales tax and increase R&D tax credits to 15 percent.\n"We certainly need to get into the 21st century when we're talking about research and development," said Miller, who estimates she visited 200 Indiana businesses over the past six months.\n"Almost every business right now is pretty high tech, and if it's not, it will be. So you're talking about a business climate right now that is in the 21st century," she said.\nAutomatic incentives such as tax abatements will attract the interest of businesses seeking to expand, said Patrick Barkey, director of economic and policy studies in the College of Business at Ball State University in Muncie.\n"Certainty is good for business and investment. There's also a central fairness to it," Barkey said. "But how's it all going to be paid for? There's still a supply-side mind-set"