Personally, I would like to echo Lesley Weidenbener's analysis about Indiana Governor Pence's state legislative agenda. I was hoping to get more details in the Governor's State of the State address given on 1/22/2013. If you missed his State of the State address, you can read his prepared remarks and/or watch a video here http://www.in.gov/gov/2013stateofstate.htm. I was watching and I don't think I missed it.  There was nary a mention of energy and/or utility issues.

There was one sentence in Pence's remarks that did address one of his Executive Orders as follows:

"That's why on day one of our administration, I signed a moratorium on any new regulations to ensure that Indiana is not burdening Hoosier employers with unnecessary red tape."

You can read the entire text of this Executive Order here

Executive Order 13-03
Promotion Job Creation, economic development, and freedom by ordering a moratorium on regulations

Reading this Executive Order you might think that Governor Pence took the reins of Indiana state government from some liberal free-wheeling politician who had thwarted the private sector and therefore, a complete do over of all pending or draft regulations was needed. Surely, Pence wasn't talking about the administration of his predecessor former Governor Mitch Daniels. If ever there was a duplication of efforts and increased "red tape", this moratorium is a total duplication of effort and in my humble opinion a slap in the face of the Daniels Administration.

Let me move on to an issue more on point for the interests of IndianaDG readers--creation of a new energy office. Another Executive Order is as follows:

Executive Order 13-06
Creation of the Indiana Office of Energy Development

You might ask yourself "Don't we already have an Office of Energy Development (OED)?" The answer to your question would be "Yes, there is currently an Office of Energy Development housed by state law under the Lt. Governor." So why is Governor Pence proposing to move this office and what does he want to do differently?

To implement this particular Executive Order, Sen. Ed Charbonneau introduced SB 529 and has scheduled a Senate Environmental Affairs Committee hearing 2/4/2013. See http://wp.me/p37Lx8-136

More details as information unfolds.

Laura Ann Arnold

By Lesley Weidenbener
TheStatehouseFile.com

Lesley Weidenbener, managing editor, The Statehouse File, February 2, 2013

INDIANAPOLIS – Scott Pelath was mostly having fun. I’m convinced of it.

The House minority leader – a Democrat from Michigan City – gathered reporters in his office on Friday to criticize Republican leaders for failing to do enough to create jobs now.

But he was smiling even as he did it. After all, he had to acknowledge that he’s working with House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, on legislation that is meant to align the state’s education and training efforts more closely to the types of skills that Indiana businesses are seeking.

And even the bills that Pelath said Republicans should be pushing would do little to actually create jobs immediately.

Still, as he talked about the GOP’s leadership failures, Pelath hit on a question that has started swirling around the Statehouse: What is Gov. Mike Pence doing?

I don’t mean that literally. According to his public schedule – a far more complete report of Pence’s activities than former Gov. Mitch Daniels ever released – the Republican has been talking with lawmakers, meeting with Democrat Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz and traveling through Southern Indiana.

What Pelath and others at the Statehouse really mean is this: What is Pence seeking to do as governor?

The obvious answer is that he’s trying to cut the state’s income tax by 10 percent. That appears to be his boldest legislative agenda item, even though leaders of the House and Senate have been pretty skeptical about the idea.

But no one really knows for sure – or those who do know just aren’t saying – whether there’s much more on the agenda. The Pence administration has yet to identify which specific bills he’s backing.

It’s clear Pence supports many of the provisions in an education bill that would expand private school vouchers and create a tax break for donations to a preschool scholarship program. And Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, is his carrying the governor’s proposal to bolster the state’s vocational education programs.

There’s a tort reform bill that Pence apparently was backing – until he wasn’t – although neither he nor his office ever verified it.

And there’s… Well. I’m not sure what else.

I asked Pence’s team on Friday for a list of the bills he’s supporting or that make up his agenda and never heard back.

That’s not unheard of. I don’t recall that Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels – who left office last month – ever released lists of his legislation. I remember that former Gov. Frank O’Bannon did in some years and not others. And I recall that then-Gov. Evan Bayh used to release a more complete agenda with his State of the State address than did the governors who came after him.

But in most years, I had a pretty good idea what Daniels and O’Bannon wanted to accomplish. Daniels in particularly reveled in telling anyone who would listen about what he hoped to achieve in each legislative session.

So it’s interesting to try to adjust to a new governor that – at least so far – hasn’t expressed a lot of public interest in getting much of anything from the General Assembly. Maybe that’s because he doesn’t feel he needs much from lawmakers. Maybe he’s being secretive.  I don’t know.

According to Pelath, many lawmakers don’t know either. And that could be a problem for the new governor – and whatever he’s trying to accomplish.

Lesley Weidenbener is managing editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.