Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman visited The Refinery Cafe in Goshen Thursday, telling those in attendance, “Yes, we have (economic) challenges ... We will continue to lose some jobs, and that’s why we have to be so aggressive to create two jobs for every one we lose.”

Skillman had been campaigning in northern Indiana with Gov. Mitch Daniels for the last week, and stopped in Goshen to endorse Republican state Senate district 12 candidate Carlin Yoder.

She also presented retiring 12th District state Sen. Marvin Riegsecker with the Sagamore of the Wabash award on behalf of Daniels. Riegsecker is retiring due to health reasons. He has served as 12th District state senator since 1988.

During her speech, Skillman praised Gov. Daniels’ administration for eliminating the state’s $600 million deficit and bringing more businesses and jobs to Indiana.

“This has been a banner period for job growth and investment in our state,” she said. “We think that will help us through this tough economic climate nationwide.”

In 2005 the state created the Economic Development Corp., “the public/private partnership that is responsible for job creation and job growth and expansion of businesses,” Skillman said.

In that three and a half year period, 560 businesses have committed to locating or expanding in Indiana, Skillman said, and 680,000 jobs have been created. There have been $17 billion in private capital investment.

“We have no intention of slowing down, as long as Hoosiers elect to keep us here,” Skillman said.

Legislators like Riegsecker made it possible for the state to thrive economically and cut its deficit, Skillman said.

“We did it the old-fashioned way, by holding our spending” to match the state’s income, she said. “You might recall deficit spending as early as 2002 that had left the state owing $760 million to local government, to schools and to universities in our state,” she said.

Daniels’ first order of business was to pay back debts to school corporations. The final payments to school corporations were made in 2007, Skillman said.

She also said Standard & Poor recently announced it had given Indiana a AAA — the highest — credit rating for the first time in the state’s history.

In all this work, “There could not have been a stronger partner than Marvin Riegsecker,” she said. “I suspect that we have voted alike maybe 100 percent of the time. We both share the same values and beliefs. I so enjoyed being a partner of his during this 12-year period.”

One audience member asked Skillman if legislators have considered granting tax breaks to high tech companies in order to diversify the economy.

“Some states around us give outright cash incentives to businesses to come,” Skillman said. “Our administration has never done that. It’s always been performance-based tax credits. In other words, if you don’t perform you don’t get the tax credits.”

She added that the state’s 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, created in 1999, provides economic boosts to “high-tech, high-growth companies.”

She acknowledged the importance of diversifying the economy while also trying to reinvigorate the manufacturing industry.

“I like to call it keeping our old friends while we make new friends,” she said. According to her, technology-based jobs constituted the highest percentage of new jobs in the state this year. Jobs in manufacturing, life sciences, agriculture and biofuels followed.

Of receiving the Sagamore of the Wabash award, Riegsecker said, “This means an awful lot to me. It’s probably one of the most coveted things that I could think of, in terms of an award. Since the governor’s come in, he has not randomly given them out, so it means even more.”

Despite many people’s disappointment at his retirement, Riegsecker said he believes Yoder to be a strong candidate for the state Senate.

Skillman agreed.

“Carlin Yoder is the person we need in the Indiana Senate,” she said, citing his leadership skills. “He certainly shares my values and beliefs.”

Asked about which of Yoder’s political stances she aligns herself with, Skillman said, “I haven’t given him a questionnaire yet. But please know that the governor asks me to be the quarterback to move our administration’s legislative agenda through the General Assembly, so Carlin and I will be spending a lot of time together once he’s elected.”