Lessons in Job Creation from the Hoosier State Jay Hein behavior was not the result of a Will he or won’t he? That is Indianapolis. Yet, he explains the fad or to score political points, nor the question on the minds of many best preparation for running a state was it even a reaction to the severe Republican faithful desiring Mitch came from the place he worked in distress his state was experiencing. Daniels to throw his hat in the ring between federal service: Eli Lilly Rather, running a tight ship is for the White House in 2012. & Co. simply what makes Mitch Daniels, It will be another year before Daniels served as part of Lilly’s er, Mitch Daniels. there is an answer to that question. top brass, first as President of North As a former political director to But what makes Mitch (as he American Operations and then as prefers to be called) such Senior Vice President for an attractive national Corporate Strategy and candidate is his success Policy. He learned that in the only campaign that every great business has a matters to him: restoring clear goal that employees Indiana competitiveness. can understand and When he took office embrace. Immediately in 2004, the state was upon election as governor, $200 million in debt with he made raising the state’s a $700 million structural per capita income the deficit. Six years later, the State of Indiana, Inc.’s #1 state enjoys a billion dollar goal. The new governor surplus and the first two carefully explained to balanced budgets in nearly each of his agency heads a decade. This success that their success would has not gone unnoticed. be determined by how Standard and Poors well their departments …in 2004, the state was $200 awarded the state its first improved Hoosier AAA bond rating, notably salaries. million in debt with a $700 earned while neighboring This jobs focus was million structural deficit. Six states like Illinois were easily applied to the newly years later, the state enjoys a going bankrupt. This led formed cabinet-level Forbes Report to list the economic development billion dollar surplus and the first state #1 in the Midwest agency (see below) of two balanced budgets in nearly for business climate and course, but less obvious numerous similar rankings agencies had the same a decade. have placed Indiana on the measuring stick. Take “best places to do business” the EPA, for example. Ronald Reagan and budget director map. Governor Daniels did not ask the for President Bush, Daniels could Governor Daniels achieved this “enviros” to lessen standards in offer impressive Washington remarkable turnaround by making deference to business, but rather bona fides to a growing horde of fiscal discipline and managerial to simply expedite their rulings. national media paying visits to excellence his raison d’etre. Such Previous administrations allowed 24
RIPON FORUM Fall 2010