I was disappointed to see the usually-sharp Ed Kilgore fall into the trap of buying Mitch Daniels’ spin – in a recent piece on Mitch Daniels’ presidential prospects, Kilgore wrote that “his state’s positive fiscal record stands out sharply against a national landscape of state fiscal disaster.” Ed, if you believe that, I think Mitch has a bargain-priced $50 billion invasion of Iraq to sell you.

Far from being the “island of growth” that Mitch Daniels likes to pretend we are, Indiana is struggling just as much as the rest of the region. And it’s not just Daniels’ phony jobs announcements that are the problem – Indiana has a real problem with unemployment. And I don’t see any hope of fixing that when the party that controls the state executive branch and the state Senate won’t acknowledge that there’s a problem.

Indiana’s unemployment rate over the last decade:

Source: BLS.gov 

A cursory glance at Indiana’s unemployment rate gives you the outlines – 10% unemployment, using the standard U-3 measure. When you look at the bigger picture, it gets even worse. Using the broadest measure – U-6, which includes “marginally attached” workers and those working part-time who would rather be working full-time – more than 18% of Hoosiers can’t find a real job. That means Indiana is worse off than our neighbors in Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky.

Just yesterday, the Indianapolis Star ran a piece on how Indiana’s job picture is worse than our neighbors. A recent study by the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project shows that Indiana ranks 6th-worst in the nation when they measure declines in employment from November 2007 to May 2010. It’s simply unacceptable for the Governor of the state that ranks 44th in employment growth to be celebrating our nonexistent jobs. The objective reality is that Indiana’s employment growth trails Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky (and almost every other state in the US).

It’s easy for Mitch to spin Indiana’s unemployment when our neighbors to the north in Michigan are facing the worst unemployment rate in the nation. But he shouldn’t get a free pass just because Hoosiers are marginally better off than the hardest-hit state.

But what about Indiana’s budget? It’s often asserted that Indiana has a “positive” budget and that we have a surplus. And that’s true – if you choose to selectively leave out a large chunk of Indiana’s finances.

Indiana is one of 26 states who are in debt to the federal government because they can’t afford to pay out their unemployment insurance benefits, according to ProPublica. Indiana’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund has been insolvent since at least 2008, and we currently owe almost $2 billion to the federal government for the state’s share of UI benefits. Just a couple of months ago, at Mitch Daniels’ urging, the state postponed a law that would raise UI rates to start paying off that debt.

March 2010 marked 17 straight months of Indiana’s revenues falling well short of projections. In April, we learned that:

Sales tax collections, though higher than April 2009, are lower than FY 2008, FY 2007 and even FY 2006 levels. Year to date sales tax collections are 5% below prior year. If the -5% trend continues for the full fiscal year it will be the worst performance in state history, exceeding FY 2009’s record of -4.7%. The budget as passed projected sales tax collections equal to prior year. April individual income tax collections are the lowest in five years. Year to date income tax collections are 11% below prior year—on top of an 11% decline for FY 2009. The budget as passed projected a 1% decline in individual income tax collections for FY 2010. (Source: Indiana State Budget Agency)

May’s monthly revenue report showed that “revenue collections through eleven months of the current state fiscal year are now $1.032 billion or 9% below the budget passed by the General Assembly.”

And too much of our state’s budget remains a mystery, even to those in charge of voting on it. When state lawmakers requested details on Mitch Daniels’ budget cuts, he released 476 pages of news clippings, but none of the actual information.

All this shouldn’t surprise Hoosiers. We elected – twice! – a man who oversaw record budget deficits when he ran the Office of Management & Budget for George W. Bush. We elected a man who rushed out to denounce critics in his own party by promising the Iraq War would cost only $50-60 billion. We elected a man who predicted that health care costs were done rising in 1994, so there was no need to address the issue. Given that record, it’s hard to believe anyone would buy Mitch’s spin about the Indiana economy.

The governor refers to Indiana as the island of prosperity. We’re the island of secrets. - Senate Democrat Leader Vi Simpson

On Tuesday, Indiana Senate minority leader Vi Simpson (D-Ellettsville) called out Governor Mitch Daniels and his administration for their culture of secrecy around state budgeting and spending. Specifically, Simpson and State Rep. Bill Crawford (D-Indianapolis) want to know what services, programs, and personnel have been cut under Daniels’ repeated budget crises.

Daniels’ budget director, Chris Ruhl, told Simpson that “a comprehensive list of executive branch budget reductions wasn’t available”. If our leaders don’t have access to this information, how can they make informed decisions? And how can citizens cast an informed ballot if neither voters nor lawmakers have any information?

Of course, it isn’t just budget information that the Daniels administration has been unable or unwilling to provide.

Indiana reporters, especially the team at WTHR in Indianapolis, have spent months trying to confirm the jobs numbers that Daniels has been touting, to no avail. Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) head Mitch Roob – last seen presiding over the disastrous privatization of Indiana’s welfare system – said of the jobs data, "We don’t share it with the public. We don’t release it to the news media. That’s confidential information." States surrounding Indiana, including Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, make that information public.

And when Mitch Daniels is asked to back up the numbers, all he can do is walk away:

It’s no surprise that Mitch Daniels doesn’t want the public to have this information – when WTHR went to investigate some of the jobs that Mitch Daniels says he’s brought to Indiana, they found abandoned factories and empty fields.

Mitch Daniels’ culture of secrecy also extends to the much-maligned Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). The Gary Post-Tribune’s Gitte Laasby has done some incredible (and award-winning) work investigating stories about BP’s environmental permits and the pile of toxic steel waste named after former steel executive and current IDEM director Tom Easterly. Laasby’s editor, suspecting that the agency was “intentionally withholding and otherwise seeking to squelch information,” asked her to request records from IDEM that mentioned Laasby. The result?

Note that, other than the note at the top, every single word is redacted because the words are of ultimate import to the secrets of the state Indiana that all words cannot be released. Every article, noun, verb, dependent clause, all fall under the heading of being so much of a sensitive nature that no one should know about it. And even Laasby’s name, which was part of the open records request — if it exists in the blackness somewhere — is too dangerous to release to the public.

Each of these instances of Mitch Daniels hiding public information from Hoosier voters is troubling, but together they form an unmistakable pattern. As Senator Simpson put it, it is a culture of secrecy that pervades the entire executive branch.

Senator Simpson indicated that Democrats will be developing and introducing legislation designed to increase transparency, including  “easy online access to budget and spending information”. And that’s a good start, but it isn’t enough. Indiana’s antiquated public access laws need a wholesale revision. And we need to start supporting candidates who make transparency and open government a key part of their agenda. In Indiana, that starts with electing Pete Buttigieg to the Treasurer’s office and Sam Locke to the Auditor’s office this November.

Crossposted at Blue Indiana and Daily Kos