Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press statehouse bureau
bradnere@courierpress.com
INDIANAPOLIS - Ending months of arguments and deliberation, Indiana lawmakers approved a new two-year budget Tuesday just hours before a deadline that would have forced a state government shutdown.
Gov. Mitch Daniels quickly signed the measure into law, easing worries that state parks, license branches, casinos and more would have to close today and that most of the state's 31,000 employees would be forced into unpaid vacations.
"Like any compromise, this budget has its defects, but it meets the fundamental condition I laid down in January and every day since: To limit total spending enough to preserve our surplus and thereby protect taxpayers against the tax increases happening in virtually every other state," Daniels said in a statement.
The spending plan passed the House on a 62-37 vote, winning the support of all 48 of the chamber's Republicans, plus 14 of the 52 Democrats. It later cleared the Republican-led Senate on a 34-16 vote.
House Minority Leader Brian Bosma said there are winners and losers in the two-year, $27.8 billion budget.
"The big winner today is the taxpayer," said Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "It's tough medicine, but it's the responsible medicine to take."
During a two-hour debate on the House floor, Democrats lined up to say that under the money-follows-the-child GOP education funding philosophy, low-income urban and rural school districts are the losers.
Softens blow
The addition of $54 million that Democrats demanded during budget negotiations softens the blow in districts where enrollment is declining, but the education funding formula still will favor rapidly-expanding suburban schools.
"We are moving money to our suburbs," said Rep. Trent Van Haaften, D-Mount Vernon, during a 10-minute speech that fellow Democrats twice interrupted for applause.
He said it isn't fair that Posey County's three school districts stand to lose about $1 million over the biennium, yet the budget will strip away $8 million per year in state sales tax to bolster the struggling Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board, which runs the city's professional sports stadiums.
"People in my community will not understand that, but I'm going to make sure they know that we were held hostage," Van Haaften said.
Sen. Luke Kenley, the Noblesville Republican who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said there was "virtual warfare" over the funding formula.
The normally mild-mannered Kenley issued a blistering criticism of those who opposed the budget. He noted that if no budget passed, school districts would lose authority to use certain funds to pay for operating costs - a change that would mean the potential loss of $175 million.
"Whatever you thought you were accomplishing by voting 'no' is going to be 10 times worse," he said.
He said when analyzing funding on a per-pupil basis, "the urban schools gain the most in this budget."
"Remember that the crisis we're in is creating your anger, and that we were elected to be leaders for all of this state, and not just people in your area," he said.
Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. Superintendent Vincent Bertram said he was pleased to see a $950,000 bump next year, but he was concerned over a cut of nearly $600,000 the next year.
"However, our staff has been effective in reducing costs and will continue to do so in light of these circumstances," he said. "Specifically, our cooperative purchasing efforts with city-county government, charter schools, Catholic schools and private schools and a substantial reduction in medical insurance premiums have been recognized at the state level in being a leader in efficiencies for school corporations in Indiana."
Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, said she couldn't support the budget because "it just doesn't have the right priorities." Like Van Haaften, she cited the inclusion of the stadium bailout.
Stadiums vs. kids
"It was possible to get $24 million together for stadiums, but it wasn't possible to support the kids in the state," she said.
One of the only Senate Republicans to oppose the spending plan, Vaneta Becker of Evansville said she voted no for the same reason.
Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville, was one of two Southwestern Indiana lawmakers to vote in favor of the budget.
"It was what Hoosier taxpayers could afford," she said. "We all got a little something, and there was a lot that we didn't get. But in light of where we are in this economy, I think it was a good budget."
The other area legislator who voted yes was Sen. Lindel Hume, D-Princeton.
Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville, said the biggest disparity came in the funding formula for higher education.
He said the University of Southern Indiana receives $4,982 per student, far from the $9,749 per student Indiana State University receives and further still from the $10,987 Purdue University gets. "That's a huge inequity," he said.
Becker said she was glad to see $15 million in bonding authority for a new teacher theater at the University of Southern Indiana, but that she shared Avery's concerns.
"We're still the new kid on the block, and while we do well in many areas, per-pupil funding is still not what it should be," Becker said.
Budgets were distributed in the House just minutes before the floor debate began. After the vote, more than half of the chamber's members still had not picked up their copies.
Avery said the vote should have taken place later in the day.
"If you're really that concerned about getting home, then you shouldn't have run in the first place because our job is to get the job done right," he said.