<b>By ANN HINCH<br>
Assistant Editor</b> </p><p>

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Hot on the heels of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual conference in New Orleans, the Indiana Farm Bureau (IFB) Young Farmers Leadership Conference convened in east Indianapolis last weekend, capping its Saturday luncheon with remarks from Gov. Mitch Daniels.<br>

As expected, the talk was chiefly about Daniels’ property tax reduction proposal, which the Indiana House passed last week, with amendments, to include a cap of 2 percent assessed valuation on agricultural land. In fact, IFB President Don Villwock introduced Daniels with this issue.<br>

“We don’t agree 100 percent with his proposal, and I can tell you there are few who do,” Villwock opened, adding that Farm Bureau was, in fact, founded on the very issue of property taxes. He said the IFB is, however, appreciative of the plan and the governor’s willingness to do something about property taxes.<br>

“It all comes from the taxpayer,” Daniels said of “state money” versus “local money” for schools and other local priorities, of when he hears people wanting state money to help out.<br>

Raising one tax to lower another, he said, is a little like “picking your left pocket a little more so we can pick your right pocket a little less.”<br>

For that reason, he believes legislators need to take a look at limiting spending at the state level.<br>

A spending cap was part of his proposal, but was removed in the House version passed last week. He also suggested the state needs someone whose job it is “to look out for the taxpayer first” when bills threaten to exceed what the state can afford.<br>

He also disagreed with the House decision to remove public referendums from local capital building projects other than school recreation proposals, because he doesn’t believe people “will blindly vote ‘no’ to all projects.<br>

“I trust our citizens more than that,” he said; in fact, he added if people could vote on all projects, “some of the gold plating might come off.”<br>

Daniels also made general remarks praising Indiana farmers and reiterating his desire to boost ag business.
“What’s right for Indiana agriculture is right for all Hoosiers,” he said, explaining that more farm income encourages the growth of other businesses in their backyards and creates jobs even in cities like Indianapolis.<br>

To that end, one of his first acts as governor was to create the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.<br>

“I discovered in many states they might have a department of agriculture … but that it might be better off if they didn’t,” he said, since some of the ones he saw were more focused on limiting what farmers could do than on encouraging their ventures.<br>

He said his administration has particularly tried to encourage biofuel, pork production and hardwoods. Keeping with the theme of the conference, he said he hopes such measures will bring more young people into Indiana farming as they reach adulthood.<br>

“We’re a different and better state,” he said, since he and Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman took office in 2005, adding, “(but) we are so far from perfect.”