By Brian Howey
INDIANAPOLIS – Just as I let my subscription to Site Selection Magazine lapse, here we are with a jobs controversy.
It comes with another spike in the “Mitch for Prez” speculation with laudatory articles in the Weekly Standard, op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and health reforms are “my worst nightmare” at the American Enterprise Institute.
Make no mistake, however, about one four letter word that will have a huge impact in this election, and the next and the next: jobs.
And here we find the finely calculating Daniels administration hitting what the governor would call “a rough patch.”
This occurred in late May when WTHR-TV began running promos showing empty factories, breezy farm fields where new plants were supposed to be built, and the governor rapidly walking away from TV cameras at a recent Indiana Economic Development Corporation meeting. Investigative reporter Bob Segall was telling us that “at least 40 percent” of the jobs the IEDC said were coming … aren’t.
Our two Mitches – Daniels and Commerce Secretary Mitch Roob – are off their “A” game on this one. The testy governor told WTHR, “You seem to have a blindingly clear view of what is perfectly obvious. In a recession, a lot of businesses have to change their plans.”
OK. Got it. That makes sense. I suppose just about everyone reading this has had to make some adjustment due to the Great Recession of 2009-10.
Brian Howey
But when it comes to jobs, this is not an area where you want to fudge. It’s hitting too many families up close and personal. Particularly with former auto workers who are now selling paint at Lowe’s, greeting folks at WalMart or working at $8.75 per hour jobs at one of Indiana’s new call centers or warehouses.
The Roob part of this has been a PR disaster. I wasn’t the only one shaking my head at his hubris on the WTHR report. “We don’t share it with the public. We don’t release it to the news media. That’s confidential information,” Roob said of metrics surrounding tax breaks and the resulting jobs.
“People in Indiana — the businesses of Indiana — feel very strongly that their relationship with state government is between state government and that company.” (Wince!)
Remember, this comes with the state’s jobless rate blinking at or near 10 percent for more than a year now. With the governor’s job approval hovering around 60 percent, it’s pretty obvious many Hoosiers are willing to cut him some slack. They see the bigger picture.
And there was this part of the WTHR report: When 13 Investigates did receive the records it requested, wage, tax credit, employment, and job realization information had been crossed out. “That’s not a mistake,” Roob said. “That is a competitive weapon that companies believe can be used against them by their competitors.”
For an administration that displays itself as a defender of the taxpayer, they now appear to be telling us that when it comes to our tax dollars and their jobs deals, it’s none of our dang business.
This has simply handed Speaker B. Patrick Bauer “Exhibit A” in why the House should stay Democratic; why divided government provides a check and balance.
I awaited the reaction to the Segall report and for more than two weeks, there was hardly any, until the Indianapolis Business Journal reported last weekend that Bauer had filed an information request to see the data. And we’re hearing from the two Mitches that somewhere between 8 and 13 percent of the jobs didn’t materialize.
And this is a story that has the potential of getting away from the normally media savvy governor. Just yesterday it was front page fodder for the Indianapolis Star, the Evansville Courier & Press, Times of Northwest Indiana and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. The wires will spread it even further. So at this writing, the administration is setting itself up for a big hit.
It’s also worth noting that this is not the first time Roob has been enmeshed in controversy. His tenure at FSSA ended with the administration’s biggest black eye to date over how it automated the state’s social safety net. The state and IBM are now trading billion dollar lawsuits. The solution was to move Roob over to Commerce.
This is not the only jobs trouble Daniels and the Republicans could face this fall if Bauer and the Democrats play their cards right. On the week that Chrysler/Fiat announced a $300 million investment in Kokomo, Daniels, Treasurer Richard Mourdock and even State Sen. Marlin Stutzman are telling us why those are bad deals and comparing it to the bankruptcy of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. That may sell well on Wall Street (which received its own $780 billion bailout), but how about Main Street in Kendallville?
Maybe they are seeing internal polling that says that stance on the issue is playing their way. My gut tells me it’s a recipe for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
The columnist publishes at www.howeypolitics.com.
