State finances

Mary Beth Schneider, writing for the Indianapolis Star, has an article entitled “Daniels gives lawmakers limits on spending.” He wants the legislature to limit growth of the state budget to 4% while still making room for the Governor’s full-day kindergarten plan, increases for K-12 education, and “a little wiggle room for legislative priorities.” It’s nice of the governor to allow the legislature room for its own priorities when the legislature appropriates money.

House Speaker Bauer says he is concerned about how to fund education and how to keep property taxes at a reasonable level. In the wake of the 2005 budget and the repeal of the inventory tax, he estimates that property taxes will increase 15 to 19% if the legislature doesn’t act. In addition to education funding, property tax relief, and health insurance, Bauer says that the legislature will also examine Daniels privatization fetish. Daniels is proposing to follow up on his Toll Road privatization with the creation of two new toll roads and privatizing the Hoosier Lottery.

In his meeting with The Star, though, Bauer argued that the lottery
privatization plan links education to an expansion of gambling. He
noted that he was one of the authors of the state’s lottery law in the
1990s, and that legislators had deliberately not used gambling to fund
education, as was being done in other states, because of concerns that
gambling revenue is not a stable enough source of revenue.

Now,
he said, Daniels’ plan has turned higher education and university
officials into virtual gambling lobbyists, pushing legislators to let a
private company take over the lottery. That company, he said, could
only make money by allowing for more types of gambling to be allowed in
more areas.