Daniels brings changes to Indiana government

INDIANAPOLIS -- In the final words of his inaugural address, Gov. Mitch Daniels served notice that the freight train of change he had promised Indiana during 16 months on the campaign trail had left the station.\nHis first days as governor have lived up to that pledge, with a flurry of executive orders, a tough stance on collective bargaining and a budget plan designed to put Indiana back in the black.\nFlanked by cabinet members with a wealth of business experience, the state's first Republican governor in 16 years is doing what any new CEO might when taking over a troubled company: shaking things up.\n"In the friendliest, most cooperative kind of way, Mitch is a take--charge guy and always has been," said longtime friend Peter Rusthoven, a former aide to President Reagan. "I'm sure there will be criticisms while he is governor, but not one of them will be lack of leadership."\nDaniels spent years as a political operative in Washington, serving as a top aide to Sen. Dick Lugar and political adviser to Reagan. He earned millions as a top executive for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. during the 1990s, at one point leading the largest revenue-producing segment of the biggest company based in Indiana.\nHe spent more than two years as budget director for President Bush before stepping down to run for governor.\n"I never expected to hold political office, never expected to run," Daniels said. "I only did it because I became persuaded that we needed a change of leadership to have necessary changes in this state."\nHe spent most of the campaign traveling the state in a donated RV, stopping in small towns, eating in mom-and-pop diners and talking to folks about their lives and concerns. He promised them change; and so far he's delivered.\nDaniels signed 13 executive orders on day one, creating a commerce secretary to oversee job-creation efforts, an inspector general to guard against fraud in state agencies, and stricter ethics guidelines for executive branch employees, among other things.\nHe met with leading lawmakers to discuss a legislative agenda he calls the most ambitious in memory and asked the state's 35,000 employees to find efficiencies and get on board with him.\n"Please understand: things are going to be different," he said in a letter to state workers. "From now on, Indiana state government will be about results."\nBy the end of his first week in office, he had rescinded collective bargaining rights for state employees, saying they hindered his ability to swiftly reshape government. He created a separate agency to oversee child protection services and had seven top officials at the state's environmental regulatory agency removed.\nHe confronted Indiana's $600 million deficit head-on, proposing a plan that would freeze funding for schools, universities and prisons, hold Medicaid cost increases far below projections and impose a one-year tax increase for people making more than $100,000.\nThe plans, he said, were "regrettable and unpleasant," but necessary.\nSome say Daniels is doing too much too soon.\n"I know the governor came in with a wealth of experience, but not experience in this office or with these legislative bodies," said Democratic state Sen. Earline Rogers of Gary.\nMembers of both parties have largely balked at a tax increase, and education leaders say the school funding proposal could force them to cut staff and programs. Critics say his Medicaid plan could deny needed health care to Indiana's most vulnerable residents.\n"It is a life-or-death proposition for the people who need those services, mostly senior citizens, and if the governor thinks differently, he ought to go back in that RV and travel around the state and ask people who live in nursing homes today," said Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington.\nDaniels doesn't seem any more concerned about political risks than he is about redecorating his office, where a large wooden elephant and a few books, including one entitled "Remembering Reagan," are among a handful of personal touches.\nDespite his focus on changing state government, Daniels has kept another pledge: to stay in touch with the people he met during those 16 months on the campaign trail.\nHe opened the governor's office to the public on the day of his inauguration, staying nearly three hours to greet visitors.\nHe has been to southern Indiana to survey flood damage, to Gary to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and to Anderson to survey damage from an ice storm that left 100,000 homes and businesses without power for days.\nBut at the end of the day, Daniels comes back to his inaugural speech: He was hired to do a job, and it's time to get to work.\nThat's fine with John Riddick, a 42-year-old shoe shiner in Indianapolis.\n"I think he's going to be different. When he said he was going to start taxing everybody more who makes $100,000, that hit me right here," Riddick said, poking his chest in a display of surprise.\n"He seems to be a bit adverse in the way he does things, so I'm hoping he's the man for the job"