INDIANAPOLIS – There is no doubting that Gov. Mike Pence has cut taxes and balanced the budget.
Standard & Poor’s on Thursday just reaffirmed Indiana’s AAA credit rating, complimenting “very active budget management,” “low overall debt levels” and a “solid level of reserves.”
But Pence isn’t afraid to spend money either, and fiscal management promises to be a theme in his race for re-election against Democrat John Gregg this fall.
Pence’s most expensive pet priority has been an initiative meant to improve the growth of regional cities. But he also added funding for Indiana Department of Child Services’ caseworkers and school safety grants he first cut as well as spending millions on bicentennial projects before revenue comes in to cover the costs.
“We’re still spending less than we’re taking in,” said Micah Vincent, director of the Indiana Office of Management and Budget. “That is the fundamental measure of fiscal discipline.”
He boasted that the current two-year state budget held recurring spending at the rolling 10-year inflation average of 2 percent.
And Vincent said Pence’s success at cutting individual income, corporate income, inheritance and business personal property taxes “clearly speaks for itself.”
The governor also fought a tax increase this year for roads.
“I would expect a free-market fiscal conservative to propose tax cuts, and he has done that. I have to give him credit for that,” said Andrew Downs, an associate professor of political science at IPFW.
But Downs said Pence runs into trouble with his handling of the Regional Cities Initiative. First, his administration essentially awarded 30 percent more than the legislature provided – or $42 million. And, Downs asserts, the entire program essentially subsidizes private-sector development.
Downs said it is more of a recent phenomenon for fiscal conservatives to aggressively oppose tax abatements or government investment in the free market.