Pal-Item on Daniels’ Campaign Promise re: state jobs.

I really can’t agree with this editorial in the Richmond Palladium-Item. Governor Daniels apparently made a campaign promise that he wouldn’t cut state employee jobs in favor of private contractors. Now, Governor Daniels said that he promised too much and that he will cut state employee jobs in favor of private contractors. The state employee union, AFSCME criticizes Gov. Daniels for renegging on his promise. So, who gets the Pal-Item’s praise and who gets its criticism?

Why, clearly the union is the bad guy here:

Rather than attack Daniels’ credibility and competence, as a representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has bitterly done, it might be more instructive to review another of this governor’s far more important campaign pledges — balancing the budget, as required by Indiana’s constitution.

. . .

In fact, it is part of Daniels’ welcome candor that he now admits his promise was overly broad.

Let me be clear, I think balanced budgets are important. In fact, it’s probably my #1 priority when I’m evaluating a politician. It’s why I started voting for Democratic Presidential candidates — Bill Clinton balanced the budget, something no Republican has done in over 3 decades. It’s a perfectly valid policy argument to say that a balanced budget is more important than state employee jobs. But, Daniels should have made that argument if that’s what he thought, and let the voters decide. It’s horribly bad form to say one thing, then do a 180 degree turn once you’re elected. So, I’m mildly disappointed in Gov. Daniels for that.

But, even worse, it makes eye-popping reading for the Palladium-Item to refer to Daniels broken campaign promise as “welcome candor” in addition to chastizing the union for criticizing the Governor for his broken campaign promise.

Finally, not really the point of this entry, but it bears mentioning that the Palladium-Item’s implicit assumption that privatizing state employee functions will save tax dollars is flawed. For example, the General Assembly cut its printing appropriations by 2/3 when it stopped using an outside vendor and let state employees do the job.