State of Indiana Treasurer, Daniel Elliott, focuses on streamlining government
Aggressive is a word that’s been used to describe the office of Indiana State Treasurer, Daniel Elliott. It’s an accurate description, reflecting on Elliott’s intentional effort to do his job efficiently.
“In my downtown office, I have a Millennium Falcon on my desk,” he said, referring to the “Star Wars” spaceship. “I told my team on the first day, ‘welcome to the Rebel Alliance. Our job is to blow up Death Stars.’ By Death Stars, what I mean is red tape and bureaucracy. As a small business owner, these hurdles have been a constant source of frustration. What we really need to look at is how do we get the task accomplished. It doesn’t have to take forever. It doesn’t need 300 committees. If this is something that needs to be done and it’s in our purview, then let’s go get it done. We’ve worked really hard at trying to get things accomplished in a short period of time.”
FROM A LEADER IN TECHNOLOGY TO POLITICS
Elliott grew up in Southern Indiana, a rural town much likehis Green Township hometown of today. He was the first in his family to go to college, but first spent two years as a missionary in South America where he met his wife, Laura. While he attended Utah Valley University, he discovered that people would pay him money to build things on “this thing called the internet.” He got a job as a software engineer and started working for large corporations such as Liberty Mutual and ACS. While he enjoyed the work, he only got to see his kids in their beds at night. He and Laura finally decided it was for the good of their family to take the risk into small business ownership. He started a software business, Intelli-Leap, doing software consulting, cyber security application development and the occasional website. Laura and their daughter Jessica took the business over when Elliott took office as treasurer.
He still has a hand in his other business, The Source, a coworking space which he and Laura purchased a few years back. They are taking the historic building located at 75 W. Washington St., Martinsville, and repairing and renovating it to be a functional office and community space while maintaining as much of its history as possible. This venture is a work in progress. When it’s finished, they aim to also have artists do shows on the weekends and other events to bring people to downtown Martinsville and encourage them to stay, dine, and shop.
Over the years, Elliott began to get more involved in his community and was encouraged to get involved in local politics. He was on the Martinsville Common Council and served as president of the Redevelopment Commission and as Republican chairman for almost a decade. He sat on numerous boards including Rediscover Martinsville, Wellspring, and more. “Because of my involvement in our local government, I found that I had some skills in economic development and building infrastructure,” he said. “It isn’t something that makes the 5 o’clock news, but being able to build a road, being able to build a wastewater treatment plant, it has a huge impact.”
This experience led him on the path to run for state treasurer. He discovered the treasurer’s office has many responsibilities of which most people aren’t aware, such as running with the Indiana Bond Bank, a tool to help local governments finance projects, and running the statewide 9-1-1 board.
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