INDIANAPOLIS | The Senate approved a $26 billion budget Wednesday that could significantly reduce state support of Gary schools and leave East Chicago schools nearly stagnant.
Concerned with the fate of local schools, state Sens. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, and Sam Smith, D-East Chicago, voted against the two-year spending plan.
The budget that cleared the Senate 36-13 promises average annual funding boosts of 3.5 percent for the state's 292 school districts.
But Gary schools would lose $11.2 million and the School City of East Chicago would receive a meager 1 percent funding increases the next two years.
The budget isn't a finished product.
It will face revisions from a joint House-Senate conference committee charged with finding a compromise ahead of the General Assembly's April 29 adjournment.
State Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, said Gary Community School Corp. still gets a per-pupil boost under his funding plan. But the district's rapidly declining enrollment -- a 13 percent drop since 2005 -- forces a shift of overall state dollars to growing schools.
"The city of Gary does have very special needs and I think that's represented in our school corporation," Rogers said. "I know there's a way to address the problem that Gary faces."
State Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Odgen Dunes, voted for the budget despite a philosophical objection.
The legislation, House Bill 1001, would fund life science initiatives, but a recent Republican amendment prohibits the grants from going to embryonic stem cell research.
"This is the exact opposite of where most states are going (on stem cell research)," Tallian said. "I just believe that kind of ideology does not belong in the budget."
Full-day kindergarten remains a major point of contention. The Senate budget provides $92 million for partial grants, while Democrats and Gov. Mitch Daniels want at least $144 million.
The proposed budget also gives homeowners a 5 percent break on fall property taxes, but only if the House and Senate reconcile differences on separate legislation to allow thousands of slot machines at downstate horse racing tracks.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, heralded what he calls a balanced budget that boosts schools, grows state reserves and avoids "huge tax increases" on the table in neighboring states.
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