Mitch Daniels is slashing expenses to deal with lower revenues
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 12/9/09 @ 9:15 pm - Filed Under State Politics
Every politician in this country could learn something from Mitch Daniels. Each and every time the state revenue forecast decreases Mitch Daniels cuts expenses. That is what any prudent leader should do; however, a frightening number of political leaders have proven unable to grasp this simple concept.
Consider this statistic; The State of Indiana has 14% FEWER workers today than it had in January of 2005.
That is amazing and it is encouraging.
We should get every government agency in the country to cut their staff by 14%…
Mike Sylvester
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44 Responses to “Mitch Daniels is slashing expenses to deal with lower revenues”
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Is cutting jobs really what is best for the state of Indiana right now? In fact, using the information I found at http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=228, cutting 14% of government employees would put around 2.8 million people out of work.
I wonder if the 14% reduction statistic is before or after Mitch has to rehire the 1,500 former FSSA employees working for IBM on the welfare privatization fiasco.
Justin and Hal are in denial.
The fact remains, in spite of their feeble attempts to discredit Daniels, he is among the best, if not the best performing Governor in the country.
If either of you chose to dispute my statement, I can come back with the facts.
Mark- Sure, I will dispute that- give me the facts. I want to know what the GOVERNOR has done- not the House and Senate- the GOVERNOR.
Let’s start here-
He “leased” our toll road and now we are getting more traffic on local roads that cannot handle the traffic and cannot upgrade due to conditions in the lease.
He just decided to make it more expensive to attend college in Indiana- “we don’t need no education”!
What do you mean denial? I was not critiquing Daniels’ performance. I am just making the point that cutting nearly 3 million jobs at a time when there is double digit unemployment might not be a very good idea.
Justin,
Yes I do think we should cut Government jobs across the board.
The taxpayers are paying an incredible cost to fund unnecessary Government functions. The Government pension plans are woefully unfunded and this will be part of a future financial crisis in a few years.
Right now in American the average Federal worker makes almost TWICE as much as the average private worker once benefits are considered.
That is absurd and unsustainable.
Mike
Hal,
It is a current statistic; if new employees are hired this statistic will change.
Mike
Mark A,
There are several things Mitch Daneils has done that I have not cared for including leasing the toll road and the insame compromise he made with Democrats to increase unemployment taxes rather than fix the problems in the Indiana unemployment system.
That being said, he has done a good job as Governor and he makes a lot of sense on fiscal matters. When revenues go down he cuts expenses…
Mike
Kevin Knuth,
The State SHOULD have cut its subidy to Indiana colleges. MItch Daniels did exactly the right thing.
The cost of college has increased even faster than the cost of healthcare. The cost of college has increased because State and Federal Government keep putting more money into the system which allows colleges to increase tuition each and every year by more than the cost of inflation. Colleges need to remove the “fat” from their budgets and college professors need to experience pay cuts…
Mike
Mike,
you are right about college. Does anyone really think that tuition could increase as fast as it has without cheap government loans financing it? Of course not. It’s another example of a noble idea causing perverse consequences.
Also, in and of itself, cutting govt employees is a net positive for the economy because all the savings are placed back into the private sector where the money is spent more efficiently.
Having said that govt provides essential functions that need to be weighed against the
savings gained by cuts. We could easily cut 14% in every state - just cut 14% from every police department. Done
I admire Daniels’ actions to cut government spending, but he is not entirely truthful when it comes to how the Indiana budget has been balanced. He was on Fox News Sunday a month or so ago dissing the Obama stimulus plan without mentioning that Indiana will be using about $5 billion of stimulus funds in 2009 and 2010 for schools, roads, medicaid, etc. In addition, the Indiana unemployment fund is over $1 billion in the red and the state republicans are hoping that Mitch will go groveling to the feds for a bailout, along with other governors. I hope Daniels resists this and comes up with a state solution to fix the problem.
“We should get every government agency in the country to cut their staff by 14%…”
But then what? The agency heads will delegate that cut to their deputies, who will then cut the workers who many of us work with on a daily basis. Most important…each of those people cut, still need a job.
Government is big… at the top. Have you EVER heard a cabinet sec. call for the elimination of their post?
Everything be OK when we pay for his $4 billion I69 highway, right? Good roads mean good jobs, right?
Knuth…speaking of facts, ya wanna tell us where those local roads are that are being over-run and fill us in on which roads specifically can’t be maintained? Remember, I live a mile from the toll road, and I travel us 20 and 120 daily and I haven’t seen any increase in traffic locally and the roads appear to be in fine conditition.
You’re pulling sh&t outta your arse again.
Macquarie-Cintra reported to their stockholders that traffic counts dropped considerably since they took control of the toll road and the DRASTICALLY increased the rates.
Further, Angola and other communities are NOT ALLOWED to upgrade local routes per the lease agreement. I still drive from Goshen to Angola often and traffic is indeed up.
Also, you should give this a read- IF we were going to sell it, we should at least gotten what it was worth.
Kevin,
Why don’t you cite the specific portion of the lease agreement for the following statement?
Also, toll road traffic across the country is down, and it’s attributed to the economy. People are taking alternative routes to save money. Google it and you’ll find stories about toll road traffic decreases all over the county, from Chicago, Pennsylvania to Orlando.
Mike,
You’ve complained about the toll road being leased, but you don’t provide a substantive “fiscal argument” as to why?
Kevin,
If improvements are not supposed to be made to alternate routes to the toll road, how do you explain this?
The I-80/94 Borman Expressway which runs parallel to the toll road is being upgraded, and is being paid for by Major Move Funds.
Mark,
The link no longer works, but here is what I had:
“The lease agreement includes a non-compete clause whereby no 20 mile stretch of road within 10 miles of the Toll Road may be upgraded to a 4-lane divided highway for at least 55 years.”
I found that here: http://www.alltolled.com/indianatollroad.htm
it used to link to the lease document- but that link is no longer active on the state website.
I agree- people ARE taking alternative routes- onto local roads that cannot handle the traffic- in part becuase of increases in the tolls themselves
With regard to Kevins comments, I sense another “teachable” moment here.
Let’s analyze the anatomy of a Knuth truth!
First sentence “Mark- Sure, I will dispute that- give me the facts. I want to know what the GOVERNOR has done- not the House and Senate- the GOVERNOR.”
This clearly IMPLIES The Governor has done nothing, and anything positive accomplished was by the House & Senate. Nothing could be less “factual” as it takes all three with the Gov’s signature to accomplish anything. A stunning example of the “drive-by” partisan slight.
Let’s look at paragraph #2:
“He “leased” our toll road and now we are getting more traffic on local roads that cannot handle the traffic and cannot upgrade due to conditions in the lease.”
I love this one, it’s CLASSIC Knuth, in order to slam a political foe without the benefit of having any facts, he throws out two statements that imply we are in deep shit, hoping readers will simply accept it as such. Well, there have been NO reports of ANY local roads that can’t handle the traffic they currently have, he pulled that out of thin air. As noted above, I live 1 mile from the toll road, I am on US 20 (a parallel route) no less than 5 times a day and on the toll road 2 times a week and on 120 (parallel road on the north side) 2 to 3 times a week. There hasn’t been a hint of any traffic being any different on our local roads. As for the “cannot upgrade” comment, he just needed something else to finish the sentence. If ANYBODY can think of a reason to build a new 4 lane highway NEXT to an existing one please fill us in, otherwise that clause of the lease is rather a “moot” point.
Lastly, paragraph #3:
“He just decided to make it more expensive to attend college in Indiana- “we don’t need no education”!
This is a textbook Knutherism, in that he always has to finish strong with a more personal slam. The old “up is down” play implying The Governor actually reached out with his wand and purposely RAISED tuition to all Indiana colleges which is patently false. Then he really “nails” it with the last line “we don’t need no education”!
implying The Governor Of The State Of Indiana is a: illiterate
and
b: entirely against education
Obviously any thinking person knows a man with two degrees who was named Indiana’s Presidential Scholar by President Johnson is a pretty strong advocate for higher education. To assert otherwise is pretty ridiculous, ya know?
There you have The Knuth, The Whole Knuth, and nothing but The Knuth. Three inter-twined paragraphs of innuendo and supposition and partisan hackery par excellence, usually offered up without much challenge.
Good job Mark A. for calling it out!
Tim,
I apparently struck a nerve- you had to spend time trying to attack me. Why make it personal? I know that I often demonstrate that you do not know what you are talking about, but still!
Are you syaing Mitch Daniels was a Presidential scholar?
Huh….wonder how he managed to do that. I thought he kept himself pretty busy being a drug dealer in college……Oh, that award is given BEFORE you go to college. He did not become a dealer until he went to college!
Kids- don’t sell drugs or the best that will happen to you is…you can be governor of Indiana.
Great role model GOP!
I’d point out what an ass you are Kevin, (by never really answering a single question, ever,) but I suspect you’ve already made that painfully clear to readers of not only this blog, but to most in your own party as well.
One would have to surmise you’re someone who’s tolerated rather than admired by his fellow Democrats. (and probably anyone else unfortunate enough to have a conversation with you.)
Tim- where in YOUR post did you ask a question? you didn’t. You never do.
Mark- the project you site appears to be upgrades to an existing interchange and a road that approaches it only. Again, if the citizens of Steuben and Lagrange county wanted to upgrade 20 to 4 lanes, it is PROHIBITED so a foreign company can profit.
“The IRT concessionaire only gets this protection from a state upgraded US20 for 55 years of the 75 year term. That precludes free competition. But it apparently allows US20 to be upgraded to be a competing toll expressway in the meantime by a competing private toll operator.”
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/1436
Kevin, uhhhh, I asked the following question above “■tim zank on December 12th, 2009 9:21 pm
“Knuth…speaking of facts, ya wanna tell us where those local roads are that are being over-run and fill us in on which roads specifically can’t be maintained?”
You didn’t answer that question, which started my dissection of your obtuse and comical posts.
Tim,
I noted that traffic on US20 has increased and I never said road could not be “maintained”. I said they could not be improved.
You sir, are a real piece of work.
If hyperbole were homeruns, he’d be Babe Ruth
He’s rude and crude and sometimes uncouth
He is a great mouthpiece
For the DNC’s latest press release
The Left has never been wrong, says Kevin Knuth
Please cite traffic study for US 20, you stated (I quote) “local roads that cannot handle the traffic and cannot upgrade due to conditions in the lease.”
Upgrade/maintain (for the implied traffic increase) would be the same thing to a normal person with normal interpretations.
I’m a piece of work alright, I’m frustrated with people (like you)casually dropping accusations, inferences, and untruths and passing it off as accepted fact, and I’ll continue to dissect all your obtuse comments, so phrase them accurately and carefully.
Tim,
I don’t have a study- just my own observation. This is an interesting point about you- YOU have no facts…none at all..just “what you think”. But when I use that logic, you say it is flawed.
You are a realtor- when someone says they paid for “upgrades” in a home, does that mean the same as they maintained it? Didn’t think so.
Kevin,
The term upgrade refers to the replacement of a product with a newer version of that same product. In other words, repaving the roads. That has nothing to do with expanding to four lanes.
As for traffic, maybe MacQuarie should hire you since you know more than they do.
You can put your dunce hat on and go sit in the corner now.
Mark- Macquarie has a great PR spin. The original lease says when and how much they can raise their tolls. After they did, traffic decreased- their spin? They reported they had to raise tolls to cover for less traffic!
So, if NO cars drive on the toll road, I think the rate will be adjusted to $4 Billion per car! (note to Zank- that was a JOKE!)
Macquarie paid $4 Billion for the toll road- it is now valued at $445 million. They may NOT really know what they are doing!
You may find this article about their San Diego toll road interesting: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/nov/18/city-light-2/
Kevin, didn’t you make the point earlier that we did not get what the toll road was worth? Now you said we got 10 times what it is valued at. Which one is correct?
Kevin,
Okay, okay, okay, now I get where you’re coming from. Since they paid $4 Billion for the toll road and it’s now valued at $445 million, Mitch did one hell of a job getting us ALL that MONEY. :)
No wonder I love the guy.
Here’s a question for you Kev.
Daniels is touted as being among the best, if not the best governor in the country. You however see him as just another evil republican, because he is a republican.
Take the BMV fiasco, he turned it around. FSSA was a mistake, he admitted it and now it’s slowly on the road to recovery. About the only legitimate bitch you or Sylvester may have is SUTA.
It’s kind of hard to argue about Daniels’ performance when Indiana’s one of the top ranked states in the country for budget surplus.
While I agree with Mike’s original premise that Daniels should be commended for atempting to get this state to live within it’s means, I think it is undue to credit him for fixing a mess (BMV) which he created to begin with.
As far as the toll road is concerned, I think when they began refusing to allow emergency vehicles to make u-turns in “their” medians was the point that I realized the deal was not made for the benefit of the citizens.
Mark A,
I did a lot of posts on the Toll Road Lease and why I opposed it back when it happened.
My main reason was the completely insane predictions the state government made about job creation due to spending the money from the toll road lease. They were laughable…
Mitch Daniels, The Republicans, and The Democrats have completely screwed up SUTA (Indiana Unemployment).
Mike
Mark-
The BMV fix was approved by Kernan- it took time to implement.
FSSA was a disaster. True, Daniels took the blame.
Yes, we have a surplus. We have often carried a surplus in Indiana. Two questions: When will we spend it? Seems to me, that times are bad…isn’t that what the surplus is for?
I will tell you what I dislike about Mitch Daniels most of all.
In his first book, Barack Obama talked about his own drug use. “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it,….”
How about Mitch Daniels? In 1970 he was arrested for selling LSD, Marijuana and Prescription narcotics to an undercover police officer 9 times in 4 months. He copped a plea bargain. He testified before congress (when being approved to be director of OMB): “I pled guilty to a disorderly persons charge”.
If he is not willing to tell the truth, the whole truth, then how can I trust him?
Jesus Knuth, you’ve been beating that dead horse for as long as I can remember, god let it go…..
It doesn’t matter what he was arrested for or accused of, you can be arrested and accused of anything with no proof. Here in America, what matters is what his conviction was for. Now tell us all Kevin, what was he CONVICTED of? Hmmm?
Did he ever try to hide it? Hmmm??
Just out of curiosity:
Do you have a copy of the arrest report Kevin? If so, please post it and back up the specifics you just rattled off, namely PLEASE CITE PROOF of the 9 times sold in 4 months. I find that a particularly strange number for you to toss out. Like the kind of number you figured nobody would call you on. . did you just make that up?
This story has been all over the media forever and on his resume since the day he left college and I’ve NEVER seen that 9 times in 4 months before….hmmmm….
Tim,
I will dig out the newspaper clippings later today and post them somewhere for you to read.
I may not have the 9 times in 4 months article…but I also remember that the drugs were stored in a shoebox! It is fact.
However, you need to defend YOUR statement: “This story has been all over the media forever and on his resume since the day he left college”
Really? Mitch Daniels put on his resume that he was arrested for selling drugs? REALLY??
Ooohh-
From a comment Tim Zank made in February on this blog:
“Kevin, as for Mitch, wow! Sweet Demmy spin!! Now he was a DEALer??…heh heh heh…
FROM THE INDY STAR:
While in college in 1970, Daniels was arrested for marijuana possession and spent two nights in jail. Daniels always disclosed that fact on job applications and was forthcoming about it in his public career, writing about the incident in a 1989 column published in The Indianapolis Star.
Dealer?? Give me a break. The one thing you and your “fuzzy memory” pals should make note of is, he never tried to hide it ONCE. That’s called moral fiber, unlike Bubba, Silky Pony, Cold-Cash Jefferson, Rod Blowme a witch, etc etc etc…”
Tim, does “manning up” mean telling the WHOLE truth?
Kev sez: “Really? Mitch Daniels put on his resume that he was arrested for selling drugs? REALLY??”
That’s another Knuthism.
Definition: A statement meant to slight an opponent by obfuscating the facts and implying untoward behavior not in evidence with the hopes if repeated often enough a handful of mentally challenged political fence-sitters will in fact vote for someone other than the subject of the aforementioned Knutherism.
For those of you that even give a shit about Mitch Daniels college age conviction, (we’ve been over it here and numerous other Ft Wayne area blogs about a million times) just type in “Mitch Daniels Arrest” in any search engine and you’ll find numerous references to it from years ago. He NEVER hid from it, he disclosed it to every employer he applied with because he knew it would “pop” up.
That’s known in most circles as being upfront and honest. Try it sometime, people might start taking you seriously.
Tim:
Zankism: Realizing that you put way too much faith in someone so you will pretend that the whole thing “does not matter”.
Mitch Daniels NEVER mentioned LSD or selling prescription drugs. You say he did….PROVE IT.
he was arrested for SELLING DRUGS. He took a plea bargain for possession of marijuana.
If it is no big deal, why doesn’t he “man up” like you say he already has?
Oh, and I posted something for you to take a look at: http://allencountydemocrats.typepad.com/allen_county_democratic_p/2009/12/per-a-request.html
Nice try, Kevin, but those articles fail to identify Daniels by date of birth or social security number. How can we really be certain this was the same Mitchell Elias Daniel Jr? Show me the arrest photo and I’ll believe you.
:)
And it really doesn’t matter who approved DMV changes. They were implemented under Daniels, and he did a poor job of it.
Phil,
I would argue that the BMV is improved. The FSSA however, he totaly screwed up!
Kevin,
He was charged with maintaining a common nuisance and possession.
Maybe you should post your arrest for bouncing a check, or your bankruptcy, or your garnishments while working at the Huntington Herald Press and Specialized Printed Products, or your default judgements from Major Video Concepts, Page Alert and Professional Federal Credit Union.
The point is, everyone has a past. Maybe you should let it go. He was a kid that made one bad decision and he did “man-up” in a 1989 Indianapolis Star column.