By Jack Colwell in the South Bend Tribune:
How did the governor do?
That's a question always pondered after a legislative session. The answer is especially significant after a new governor's first legislative session. Is he off to a good start, getting what he wanted and looking strong for the future? Or not?
Let's ponder.
Q. Did Gov. Mike Pence get what he wanted in his first experience in dealing with the Indiana General Assembly?
A. Sort of.
Q. What did Pence want?
A. A 10 percent cut in the state income tax rate. That was his No. 1 goal. What he campaigned on last year. What he implored the legislature to approve. What he needed to establish himself as a successful state executive and enhance his chances for his ultimate goal, the White House.
Q. He got his tax cut, right?
A. Sort of. It's kind of like asking if Manti Te'o achieved his goal. For the Notre Dame star it was a sort-of result. He reached his goal of selection for the National Football League. But as a Heisman Trophy runner-up, he was hoping for something better than the second-round, No. 38 pick, in the NFL draft. Pence was hoping for something more than the slightly less than 5 percent cut he got, with it taking over four years to reach that.
Q. With Republicans holding supermajorities (so Democrats couldn't even break a quorum) in both House and Senate, why didn't the new Republican governor get exactly what he wanted?
A. Doesn't always work that way. Legislators have minds of their own, priorities of their own, and they don't always bow to wishes of a governor, even if he is from their own party. Republican legislative leaders had priorities of their own and wouldn't go along with the full 10 percent tax cut.
Q. What did legislative leaders want?
A. They wanted a little more for schools to make up for some of the cuts in recent years and more for transportation, particularly to fix up some of the state's crumbling roads. They too favor tax cuts -- and approved such other cuts as elimination of the inheritance tax -- but they feared draining off too much revenue in an income tax cut at a time of economic uncertainty and with a lot of unfunded state obligations.
Q. Was the governor mad about what happened?
A. Not publicly. He called the final budget and tax package a "great victory." Pence and the Republican legislative leaders praised each other upon adjournment and hailed what they calculated overall as the biggest tax cut in state history.
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See the full article here:
http://www.southbendtribune.com/sbt-sort-of-a-good-session-for-gov-pence-20130506,0,5369285.column
