The Truth
What are the nuts and bolts of what's happening in Indianapolis?
A special session runs very much like a regular session in accelerated form and the budget bill will be passed like any piece of legislation -- eventually.
That's oversimplifying the process, so let's break it down:
A one-year budget introduced by Democrats passed the Democrat-controlled House last week. It went to the House Ways and Means Committee, then to the full House, where nine amendments were successfully added to the bill. It passed the full House Thursday on a party-line vote, 52-48.
Of Elkhart County's delegation, State Rep. Craig Fry, D-Mishawaka, voted in favor of the bill; Republicans Jackie Walorski and Tim Neese, both of Elkhart, Bill Friend of Macy, Wes Culver of Goshen and Dave Wolkins of Winona Lake all voted against it.
All financial-related bills have to originate in the House, the same as in Congress.
There were two other bills introduced by Democrats to start the special session, including one to assist the ailing Capital Improvement Board in Marion County. That failed to come out of committee. The second bill called for an audit of the state Family and Social Services Administration. It passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee, but the author decided to withdraw it and possibly attempt to include it in the budget.
In the Republican-controlled Senate, the Committee on Appropriations approved a two-year budget Friday. It contains elements of the proposals offered by Gov. Mitch Daniels a couple of weeks ago and varies sharply from the House version.
The Senate is expected to vote on its version of the budget this week.
The Senate can vote to strip the House language of the budget bill and insert its own. Since the Senate does not plan to adopt the House-passed version, the bill will end up in conference committee, which is where the bill ended the regular session without an agreement.
Conference committee is where a group of hand-picked legislators meet to negotiate a final bill. If an agreement is reached, the House and Senate have to vote on the new language. If the new version passes both chambers, it goes to the governor for his signature.
If it doesn't, or he vetoes the bill, there's no budget. Back to the drawing board.
So you can see, there's lots of places this process can go wrong.
The special session costs $12,420 per day, plus $13,300 in travel expenses, which are paid once per week. A week-long session would cost $75,400.
Meanwhile, the law limits the session to 30 days over a 40-day period. If an agreement isn't reached, then the governor will have to call a second special session. However, the budget must be passed by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Article 10, Section 3 of the Indiana Constitution says: "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in pursuance of appropriations made by law."
Interpretation of that part of the Constitution apparently is up for debate. What it should mean is that state government effectively would shut down July 1, because the General Assembly will not have appropriated money to pay the bills.
To make sure that doesn't happen, Senate Republicans crafted a proposal to continue funding state government at current levels if the Legislature can't agree on a new budget by June 30. That will also be voted on this week.
Some, including House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, have said the governor already has the authority to keep things running. We don't have the answer and we're not sure we want to take a chance. We'd rather see the Legislature come to an agreement on the budget and get out of Indianapolis.