Democratic Walk-Out of Budget Hearings

Niki Kelly has a good article on the Democratic walk-out from the committee hearing yesterday. They did so to protest what they saw as staged public testimony and what they see as misleading representations by Gov. Daniels on education funding.

The only thing I would have added to Ms. Kelly’s reporting is perhaps the text of the solicitation for testimony sent by the Indiana Republicans. Jim Shella had this on his blog:

The Indiana Republican Party sent out an e-mail today looking for taxpayers to testify in favor of Governor Mitch Daniels’ budget at a legislative committee meeting tomorrow. (The committee is mid-identified in the e-mail as the Legislative Council.)

The e-mail includes these instructions: “Testimony need only be 2-3 minutes and should include details about your story (i.e. a concerned taxpayer, small business owner, 18-year-old who would inherit the debt, retiree, young family just out of school, etc). ””

Based on his comment, to Ms. Kelly, Senator Luke Kenley seems to be keeping a cool head and not burning bridges. He said of the Democratic walk-out:

“I’m concerned. This is a blow to our cooperation,” said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville. “The Democrats feel like they are being backed into a corner. There are fewer revenue dollars, which means fewer solutions. And they don’t like the solutions.”

Meanwhile, the concern about Gov. Daniels representations about education funding has to do with the fact that state funding for education will increase by only about 0.25%. (I presume that none of this is adjusted for inflation, meaning that in terms of real dollars, we’ll be spending less on education.) When Gov. Daniels claims a 2% increase, he’s counting federal stimulus dollars.

Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Wendy Robinson told the committee it misleads the public to include the federal stimulus money in the state-funding calculation.

“We know we’re going to have to take a hit, so let’s be clear about what that hit is,” she said.

For instance, under Daniels’ proposal, the base state funding for FWCS in 2009 is $196 million and would drop to $195 million in 2010 – a 0.5 percent cut. A similar cut would come in 2011.

In comparison, under previous budget proposals this year, FWCS would have seen a modest increase due to several factors in the school-funding formula that Daniels’ plan removed.

Also, it turns out, federal dollars can’t be spent in the same way as state money. For example, it is not appropriate to spend such money on ongoing expenses like electric bills or staff salaries.

And, speaking of Mitch Daniels, be sure to check out Doghouse Riley’s thoughts on the recent talk of him considering a Presidential run in 2012.