The Journal Gazette
Lawmakers will return to their districts with little to show for their time and taxpayer investment. In some areas, they will move the state backward, a fact voters should note in November.
On unemployment insurance, lawmakers inevitably will postpone or outright repeal a plan carefully crafted less than a year ago. An increase on employer-paid premiums was set to go into effect next month to help the state meet its obligations to laid-off workers. Indiana has borrowed more than $1.6 billion from the federal government over the last 18 months.
Legislators also reneged on promises to schools. Two years ago, they increased the sales-tax rate by nearly 17 percent to give local property tax relief, pledging to cover school general fund increases. But with the Great Recession, tax revenues plummeted, and the state can’t make ends meet with sales- and income-tax revenues. In what they are characterizing as a favor to school districts, legislators are likely to allow schools to take money from their property tax-funded accounts – some of which are crippled by tax caps approved by the General Assembly – and use it to cover the state shortfall. The effect is less money to maintain school buildings or to provide transportation.