A bargaining chip.
That's how state lawmakers on Saturday characterized a bill that some say will divert money away from the construction of Interstate 69.
Speaking at a Meet Your Legislators event at the Evansville Vanderburgh Central Library, the legislators repeatedly said any discussions concerning the state's budget for the next two fiscal years are merely a "starting point." All of the proposals now being considered, they stressed, likely will be modified before being passed.
One - House Bill 1656 - would take $1.5 billion now appropriated to the state's Major Moves plan for road construction and use it for other projects. Critics have said the bill could halt the construction of I-69 between Evansville and Indianapolis, which began six months ago.
Rep. Gail Riecken, D-Evansville, wondered if the causes for concern have been exaggerated.
"There is a question if I-69 is really affected by this bill," she said.
Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville, said the legislation likely was meant to give lawmakers something to use in bargaining. She deplored the games that sometimes are played in passing laws.
Some Democrats have said the bill would help stimulate the economy by appropriating money toward roads and other projects not included in the Major Moves plan. Sen. Bob Deig, D-Mount Vernon, said the proposal has at least one redeeming quality: It insists that all the jobs it generates be filled by Hoosiers.
Several members of the audience expressed objections to cuts that Gov. Mitch Daniels has proposed to help the state deal with a projected shortfall in revenue.
Daniels has said he wants to hold the state's two-year budget to $28.3 billion. To do that, he has proposed cutting most agencies' spending by about 8 percent.
Other expenditures would undergo even greater cuts. Marilee Fowler, the executive director of the Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the governor's plan would cut the state's promotion of tourism by nearly half.
She called the idea counterproductive. Cutting the promotions will cause less money to come into the state and only exacerbate the budget troubles, she said.
A shortfall already has led to the firing of three staff members at the Black River Welcome Center in Griffin, Ind, Fowler said.
Jack Schriber, a former supervisor of fine arts for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp., complained of similar cuts planned for the state's support of the arts. Schriber wondered how the governor could claim wanting to make Indiana progressive while proposing so drastic a reduction.
"That seems to contradict his goal," he said.
Rep. Dennis Avery, D-Evansville, also noted the budget, as proposed, would end all of the state's support of public radio and television.
"I don't know how they will stay afloat if the governor's recommendations prevail," he said. "But we will work to restore that, also."
Crouch promised that "We will do everything we can to ensure that what we started with isn't what we are going to end with on April 29."
Property taxes
In other matters, Mary Bennett of Evansville asked the legislators if there was any truth to rumors that property taxes were likely to rise again in 2009. Last year, a series of reforms caused the taxes to fall by about 33 percent on average.
"I keep telling people they shouldn't count on that," Bennett said. "I think it's going to go back up next year."
Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, said she believes property taxes may rise by an average of 27 percent this year.
In 2008, the lawmakers explained, the state had taken $620 million raised by increasing the sales tax by 1 cent and put it toward lowering homeowners' taxes.
The state cannot afford to be so generous in 2009. Still, even after rising this year, property taxes will not be as high as they were in 2007, Crouch said.
Smoking ban
Ed Butch of Warrick County asked if the legislators support a ban on smoking in public places throughout the state. Those on the panel said they do, though they cautioned that many of the recently proposed bans contained too many exemptions to win their approval.
Fred Cook of Evansville asked the legislators if they could do anything to help residents struggling to pay for high gas and electricity bills.
He would like to see members of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission elected rather than appointed, a change he contended would make them more accountable to citizens.
Avery said he always has resisted such proposals in the past, but his opinion is no longer as strongly rooted.
"It gets more frustrating every year," he said.