By Patrick Guinane, Times of Northwest Indiana
patrick.guinane@nwi.com
INDIANAPOLIS | The conservative punditocracy of late has been fawning over the former federal budget director once dubbed "The Blade."
But Northwest Indiana interests more likely will be fuming when Gov. Mitch Daniels -- or his chosen emissary -- goes before state lawmakers Tuesday to deliver a blueprint for the next two-year state budget.
Daniels, wielding a samurai sword in a caricature of himself gracing the June cover of the conservative magazine, "National Review," is at war with majority Indiana House Democrats over state spending. And there could be plenty of casualties.
After all, the budget proposal the Republican governor offered in January would have more than cut in half funding for English-as-a-second-language programs that provide more than $500,000 a year to schools in Hammond, East Chicago and Portage.
Per-pupil state funding for local schools would have been frozen at current levels. State universities faced 4-percent cuts. And the panel responsible for building Little Calumet River flood-protection levees was in line for only $2 million of the $13.5 million needed to complete the two-decade-old project.
To some, it seemed the only item not facing the blade was the $1.3 billion the state holds in reserve funds. Heading into a budget-writing special session of the General Assembly, the surplus remains a target for Democrats and a source of pride and security for Daniels.
"We're one of the few (states) that has not raised taxes and that still has a healthy reserve fund to protect taxpayers against any increase," Daniels said Friday. "The budget we'll present next week will preserve Indiana's special position as a place of fiscal prudence and security."
However, school officials argue that flatlining education, as the governor previously proposed, amounts to a cut for school corporations juggling inflationary increases in insurance, utilities and labor costs.
"Flat line is a real cut. It's a loss of funding," said Merrillville schools Superintendent Tony Lux. "I don't know what you're saving the surplus for. Everybody knows it's the next two years that are the problem."
After school funding, debt-financed construction projects labeled "job creation" are a top priority for Democrats.
The legislative budget plan that failed in late April included $33 million to replace Tamarack Hall, the Indiana University Northwest theater building ruined by fall flooding. But Daniels previously proposed a near-moratorium on new projects.
"We have placed Tamarack Hall at the top of our priority list," said IU spokesman Larry McIntyre. "The building is a disaster, and we've got to do something with it. It's our hope that somehow we'll find an acceptable way to replace that building in the state's (next) budget cycle. It's just a huge crying need."
Indiana's public broadcasting stations, including Lakeshore Public Television (Channel 56), also hope the governor reverses his push to cancel their $3.5 million annual state subsidy. The failed legislative budget would have provided $3.2 million, an 8 percent reduction on par with state agency cuts.
"Both sides of the aisle, both chambers of the General Assembly are very supportive of public broadcasting here in Indiana," Lakeshore CEO Thomas Carroll said. "It's my hope that the governor will see that and essentially do the right thing."
In January, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed an austere, $28.3 billion, two-year state budget that provided no increase in school funding and suggested a litany of cuts elsewhere. That was before state tax collection really began to tank -- they're down about 7.5 percent from last year -- and before Indiana knew it would have about $2 billion in federal stimulus money to inject into the state budget.
With a budget accord having failed last month on the final night of the four-month legislative session, Daniels will go before lawmakers Tuesday to present a spending blueprint to shape the budget-writing special session of the General Assembly expected to start June 15.