The General Assembly passed a budget and concluded business by the deadline and adjourned sine die last night. Theodore Kim of the Indy Star describes the budget as a “$26 billion state budget that calls for $550 million in property tax rebates for homeowners, as well as millions more for education, health care, road projects and other initiatives.”
Interestingly, the same budget that passed the Republican dominated Senate 41 to 9, and which was signed by Governor Daniels, narrowly squeaked by the House with all 49 Republicans in that chamber voting against. One of the provisions in the budget calls for property relief to come in the form of rebate checks rather than simply reducing the property tax itself. House Republican Leader, Brian Bosma called the rebates “the worst property tax policy I have ever heard.” Really? The worst? I can see legitimate grounds for disagreement. But, the worst? I guess now I have some context for three or four years ago when Rep. Bosma called the gay marriage amendment the most important legislative item. The man simply doesn’t understand how use of the superlative works in the English language.
I’m reminded of the Princess Bride:
Vizzini: HE DIDN’T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
But, I don’t think Rep. Bosma is Sicilian (and certainly Rep. Bauer is no dread Pirate Roberts).
Where was I? Oh yeah, the budget.
There is $92 million for schools to launch full day kindergarten if they so choose. Property taxes are subsidized so that they are expected to increase 8% instead of the projected 24%. There are a variety of reasons for the increase, among which are the elimination of the inventory tax and reduction in the 2005 budget of the fund used to reduce property taxes. So, a big cause of the increase was the shift of the tax burden from state to county and from inventory tax payers to property tax payers. For the next two years the property taxes will be subsidized from funds received from horse track operators paying for licenses to put slots at the tracks.
Bryan Corbin, writing for the Evansville Courier Press has his write up here, and Niki Kelly, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has her write up here.
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette had this helpful bullet point list:
Budget highlights
•Significant new school funding, including average increases for schools of about 3.6 percent a year, and new money for textbooks, testing and remediation
•$92 million to the state’s full-day kindergarten grant
•No funding for two previously approved virtual charter schools but also no charter school moratorium
•A refund to Hoosier homeowners on their 2007 property tax bills. The $300 million lawmakers are putting to the credit is expected to bring average homeowner increases down from 24 percent statewide to 8 percent. But citizens will have to pay up first before receiving a rebate in late 2007 or early 2008.
•Payback of borrowed money from local governments and higher education
•Increased motorcycle registration fee for spinal cord and brain injury study
•State reimbursement on new trial costs when the Indiana Court of Appeals or Indiana Supreme Court calls for a new trial.
•$26.7 million for Ivy Tech-Fort Wayne Technology Center
•$1 million in architectural and engineering money for Ivy Tech-Warsaw
•$5 million for IPFW’s Innovation Center
•Limits on the governor’s ability to privatize state jobs
•Tuition targets for the state’s public colleges and universities
•Medicaid finances for 5 percent growth a year
•Money for 400 new child welfare caseworkers
•Minimum guarantee of at least a 1.5 percent raise for state employees in the first year and 2 percent in the year after
Wow, the legislators gave their “full time” employer Ivy Tech money in the budget? Inconceivable.
Plato, Socrates, Aristotle? MORONS compared to Rep. Bosma!
Nothing like a good Princess Bride reference to get the comedians going in the morning.
What a disappointment that Virtual Charter Schools didn’t even get a chance!! Full Day Kindergarter won big even though – It isn’t even required by Lawto Attend!! So many students are struggling in Indiana’s poor excuse of an education system; The awful teacher’s in the classrooms run the schools. Our student drop-out rates are increasing because students are being left behind to fend for themselves. The Teacher’s Union wins again and the Parents and children lose once again.
I have a hard time agreeing that our class room teachers are a) awful; or b) run the schools. There are great teachers, mediocre teachers, and awful teachers — much like any other field. I have not seen that they have significant influence over a school’s operation. I have, however, seen clueless school boards being advised by inept superintendents who didn’t pay much attention to teachers.
I have an impractical idea that would probably lead to a sharp improvement in our education system if implemented: allow any teacher to throw out up to 10% of the students in their class room — no appeals, no liability. Seems like there are usually 2 or 3 kids who are inordinate time sucks and disruptions for the rest of the class. Get rid of them and things improve for the rest of the class immediately. I don’t know what you do with those kids once they get bounced.
send them to work for a year in the fields by hand and see how many come back with a better attitude. I have often thought that 12-14 year olds (esp. males) need about 12 months of hard work to realize they’d rather get an education and live a better life.
Considering the budget we woke up to find this morning, it was all I could to to laugh…