Want to know how Indiana lawmakers planned to spend $28 billion over the next two years?
If you have access to the Internet and the patience to plow through a nearly 300-page document filled with small print and lots of numbers, you’re in luck. You can go online and see House Bill 1001, better known as “the budget bill” that details the state’s spending plan for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.
It’s posted deep inside the website of the Indiana General Assembly. You can find it by going to www.in.gov/legislative. Once you get there, click on “Bills & Resolutions” under “Session Information.” Then click on “Overview” and type in 1001 in the box under “Go to Bill.” It’s some interesting reading if you have time. No matter what you think about how lawmakers have decided to spend our dough, the bill shows the kind of pain-staking (mind-numbing?) detail that government budget-makers must first immerse themselves in before they can come up with a grand plan.
An example: About a third of the way into the document is a lengthy description of the state’s reimbursement levels for state employees who travel. Given that we’re operating in a global economy, it’s probably not surprising to see that budget makers have had to come up with a minimum daily meal allowance for travelers to Japan ($90), France ($65) and a host of other destinations.
The budget bill is also where you’ll find the new school funding formula that overhauls how state dollars will be divvied up among school districts — leaving those who’ve gotten a lot in the past now howling in fiscal pain.
It’s also where you’ll find the “Mitch Daniels Early Graduation Scholarships,” named for our governor who came up with the idea to give $4,000 scholarships to students who graduate a year early from high school.
And it’s where you’ll find some things that don’t have to do with how dollars can be/will spent. It’s in the budget bill where Senate Republicans tucked in the provision to punish lawmakers who decide to bolt the Statehouse in protest. It would have allowed citizens to sue legislators who flee legislative chambers to bust a quorum.
It’s aimed at curbing any notions that disgruntled lawmakers may have in the future of repeating the five-week boycott staged by House Democrats in this session past. Softened since it was first slipped in, the provision now limits those who can slap lawsuits on runaway lawmakers to the legislative leaders.
There’s something for everybody to love or hate in the budget. High on the love/hate list for many is the millions of dollars in gambling revenues redirected to the horse-racing industry. The Senate’s top budget guy, Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley, loves it. His counterpart, House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Espich, thought it was manure.
By the time you read this column, the session will likely be over, with the a vote on the budget bill saved as the last piece of business before legislators turn out the lights.
But it’s not really over. Now lawmakers have to return home to justify their decisions to voters at scheduled town hall meetings and impromptu encounters at neighborhood grocery stores.
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