INDIANAPOLIS (April 30, 2007) -- Governor Mitch Daniels offered his comments on the 2007 General Assembly, which concluded its work Sunday, and issued his 2007 Legislative Agenda Scorecard. He discussed items on his legislative agenda as well as other major topics. Here is a synopsis of the governor's comments:
About the session
"I hope all Hoosiers feel as happy and gratified as I do this morning. I want to commend every member of the General Assembly. People who feared gridlock or paralysis instead saw another session of dramatic change and progress for our state.
"Thanks and appreciation to everyone. I'll single out Speaker Bauer and President Long, but really every member of the General Assembly deserves a lot of credit. We had vigorous debate but it was civil and constructive and there was lots of give and take, as there should be."
On passage of the governor's health plan
"The health plan passed last night can fairly be described as the most important health care legislation of our lifetimes. I have asked a host of people whether they can think of a better example and nobody has. I am excited about the passage of the plan and what it can mean for uninsured Hoosiers and for low-income children, and, of course, to try to bring down the second-highest smoking rate in America."
Full-day kindergarten
"We have inaugurated the era of full-day kindergarten. I think we have taken an irreversible step in that direction. I wanted it to be a longer step, everybody knows.
"I am going to want to see if there is a way we can accelerate and get to universal availability of full-day kindergarten as soon as possible."
Property tax relief and reform
"It's a start. We obviously have short-term and long-term issues in property taxes."
On the delays in the start of trending and elimination of the inventory tax: "That effect is a one-time hit, and they've dealt with it very directly. It won't be enough in every single case and there will be other people who will get relief probably beyond what is needed. But I think they did the best they could with the short-term issue. It leaves the long-term question of spending, which is to say, too much government, too many layers, too many offices and that's something we're all going to have to work on going forward."
On HB 1478, property tax reform
"We took a first step on the long term with the passage of a bill that gives income tax options to locals. I would just point out that if that were exercised statewide, it would result in twice as much reduction in property taxes as the slots money represents-more than twice as much. So that's a first step in a direction that we've talked about a lot-more flexibility and a shift away from property taxes to other sources. The next step has to be to get at the true root of the problem-and that is local spending-which takes you in the direction of consolidation and in the direction of greater efficiency, fewer redundant offices, and so forth."
On the measure to allow slot machines at Indiana horse tracks, using revenue to provide property tax relief
"Everybody knows this was not my idea, not my favorite idea. But in a session of give and take, I believe that all things considered, it's the best option available, and I will sign it. Many, many weeks ago, I told its proponents there were three conditions that would have to be met for me to take a look at such a bill. Every penny must go to the taxpayers, not one penny to make government bigger. They met that test. Two, it must act forcefully to reduce gaming if it was going to allow more gaming in. And they have done that. Some seek to dismiss the importance of the measure that gives new people, and new powers, and a new prosecutorial process to remove the illegal and very exploitative machines which number at least 12,000 in Indiana. The third condition was that we get reasonable value for the new licenses. Here I'm less sure, I would've liked to have seen more, but at the end of the day you have to make a yes or no judgment and I believe that given the incredible priority of property tax relief, to get us past the trending impact, this was the best available option."
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