EDITORIAL: Budget deal - 'Fantasy land' to harsh reality

The Journal Gazette

If April's dismal revenue figures did nothing to ease the budget task Indiana lawmakers left undone last month, Gov. Mitch Daniels' harsh criticism did nothing to ease tension between his office and legislative leaders. Before animosity grows, the governor should stake out his own spending plan and step back to let the lawmakers finish their job.

It is the legislature's responsibility to write and adopt a budget. It failed, in part, because some lawmakers were more interested in supporting special interests than in helping guide the state through recession. The governor didn't derail the budget process, but he complicated it by giving those legislators a reason to push their deadline into a special session. Some have even suggested that he wanted the special session himself, to reach a deal to bail out Indianapolis' Capital Improvement Board.