WINONA LAKE – Indiana is poised to lead the nation in economic growth and Kosciusko County is already leading the state, newly sworn Governor Mike Pence told area business leaders Wednesday. Pence spoke at the 101st Warsaw-Kosciusko Chamber dinner and awards ceremony at Grace College, where he outlined his agenda at the outset of his term and expressed his hopes for economic and educational development. This is Indiana’s moment, he told the audience, made possible by the energy and commitment of men and women like them. “We can take Indiana from good to great, to take its rightful place where it could be the fastest growing economy in the U.S.,” he said. “I know I’ve come to a county that’s already putting these things in practice, that knows how to create world-class companies in the heart of the heartland.” And as Kosciusko County begins its next century of prosperity, he remarked, it “will serve to inspire the nation and give people hope that it still works, and can work again.” Pence highlighted the assets the state possesses going into 2013, such as a record budget surplus of $2.155 billion announced in July, and also the challenges – a quarter of a million residence out of work, many schools lagging behind, and one in five children living in poverty. To address these challenges and help Indiana fulfill the promise he sees, he outlined priorities he plans to put before the General Assembly including fiscal responsibility and investments in schools, roads and research. Pence also presented his plan to cut income taxes for every resident by 10 percent in his proposed budget, a drop from 3.4 percent to 3.06 percent that he detailed in his state of the state address Tuesday. He said the cut would help cushion the blow of increased federal taxes on individuals, businesses and medical device makers, and would unleash half a billion dollars in the private sector, leaving more money to hire, invest and keep Indiana competitive. It would also make Indiana the state with the lowest income tax rate, he said, adding, "You might just have to put that on the welcome sign." Returning to his vision for education, he said Indiana should be proud that it provides more school funding than other states but that he wants to tie school funding more closely to performance metrics, in order, he said, to empower choice in education. “There’s nothing that ails education in our state that can’t be fixed by giving choice to parents,” he said. “Let’s cut the red tape in the classroom and let our teachers teach to high standards.” The time has come for career technical training in schools, he continued, which he said is another area where Kosciusko leads. He spoke about business owners he met who either need workers with vocational degrees or who became entrepreneurs with such degrees themselves. So whether a student starts a pathway to a four-year or two-year degree, he said both can be pathways to success. “There are pathways in Kosciusko County that lead to careers in Kosciusko County,” he said. “There are people in this room with the same kinds of stories, and if you give them the opportunity to start, the sky’s the limit.”
