INDIANAPOLIS — Property tax reform will be his top priority in the coming year and education will be a focus of his second term if he is re-elected, Gov. Mitch Daniels said in a newspaper interview.

In an interview published Sunday in The Indianapolis Star, Daniels, who already has proposed a tax reform plan to lawmakers, said he deserves a share of the blame if skyrocketing property taxes aren't addressed in the coming legislative session.

"I do think if somehow we fail to act on the problem, then there will be blame that I should share in," Daniels said. "We have a responsibility to help solve it, and we'd better deliver, and we're very determined to do that."

Rising property taxes have sparked protests across the state. Taxes on homeowners in Indianapolis increased by an average of 34 percent, but in some cases more than doubled.

Daniels' plan would cap homestead bills at 1 percent of a home's assessed value, with a 2 percent cap for residential property and 3 percent limit on business property. The plan also would increase the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent to help replace some of the property tax revenue that would be cut and would eliminate township assessors — an idea that has met some resistance in the Legislature.

Daniels said he expected his proposal to be criticized.

"You take on this many special interests, recommend this many changes, what else would we expect?" he said.

"So of course, there are going to be objections, and there will be suggested changes and improvements," he added. "We'll try to meet the criticisms as they come and obviously work both wholesale — that is to say, with the public — and retail, with the individual legislators, very hard for this."

And he emphasized that property taxes were his priority.

"I'm going to work on this if it means that very little else occupies my time," Daniels said.

Asked about plans for a possible second term, Daniels told the Star that many of his proposals would deal with education.

"One of them will deal with something I've talked about before: getting more of our dollars into the classroom," he said. "Having smaller classrooms, smaller schools, better-paid teachers through less overhead. It's a huge opportunity."

He also said he might revive a plan to lease the Hoosier Lottery and use the proceeds for education.

Daniels said he saw the 2008 election year as a "referendum on change. He said next year's election will be the last time he runs for public office.

"It's going to be a referendum on activist government that tries a lot of things and tries some new things and has a bias for action. And that's very fair, by the way," he said. "So I think it will be at least in part a referendum on that style of government as opposed to stand still, caution and frankly sort of leaving things as they are."