A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

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The Bill That Must Be Passed

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Just thought I’d flag the first iteration I saw of the biennial propagation of the myth that there is some legal requirement that the budget bill be passed by the General Assembly. From Rep. Dennis Tyler via Muncie Free Press:

A state budget is the one bill that must be passed in a long session of the Indiana General Assembly.

Frequently enough, but not in Rep. Tyler’s particular case, there is the assertion that the General Assembly is Constitutionally required to pass the budget. As a practical matter, the state needs a budget and the General Assembly would be delinquent in its responsibilities if it failed to pass one, but as a legal matter, it is not mandatory for them to pass a budget bill.

Punish Less or Educate Less?

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Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article for the Louisville Courier Press on the House Democrats’ education funding proposal.

Base funding for schools would increase 2 percent in 2010 and the state would pay for full-day kindergarten for every student under an education budget unveiled yesterday by House Democrats.

The majority Democrats’ proposal, which the House Ways and Means Committee plans to amend into a bill as soon as today, relies on $100 million that would be transferred from a state reserve account.

The proposal is being introduced separately from the budget bill and funds the education proposal for only one year instead of two, which is unusual, out of recognition that the economic times are more uncertain and we really do not know where we will be a year from now in terms of need or in terms of ability to pay.

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels’ proposed budget would flat-line base funding for schools, as well as dollars for full-day kindergarten programs that the state has been phasing in. Daniels has resisted calls to use money from reserves for fear the economy will worsen and the state will have a greater need for those dollars later.

In fact, Gov. Daniels proposed budget would flat-line pretty much everything except prison spending. (This despite Indiana’s supposed economic ‘hot streak’. “Indiana is on an economic hot streak, thanks to Governor Daniels’ strong leadership and the pro-active business-minded skills he brought to state government[.]”)

I wonder if I am reading too much into this. Obviously prisons and schools are both things we need. But, times of crisis highlight priorities. When you have to give things up, even things you need, what do you hang onto until last? Which is our greater need? The need to punish or the need to educate? Lacking sufficient resources, will we choose to punish less or to educate less?

Now, obviously it is not as simple as all that. There are a lot of variables involved. But it should be interesting to see if there is tension between the need to fund prisons and the need to fund schools and, if so, which way our lawmakers tend to pull and, by extension, what that says about our culture.

The upcoming sesson

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Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, writing for the Louisville Journal Courier, has a lengthy article on the upcoming session. For the House Democrats, the state budget appears to be the primary focus. Revenues are expected to be essentially flat, following two years of declining revenues according to the article. The General Assembly will be forced to deal with an insolvent unemployment system that has recently been limping along only on the strength of federal loans.

Meanwhile, Republicans want to tackle local government restructuring and limiting the state’s future tax flexibility by enshrining property tax caps in the Constitution.

The already grim budget projections are based on the assumption that the economy doesn’t tank much further and that something catastrophic, like the collapse of one or more of the Big 3 auto makers doesn’t occur. Gov. Daniels does not want the General Assembly to consider tapping into the “rainy day” funds. (A while back, Rep. Bauer quipped something to the effect of “guess what, it’s raining.”)

Republicans want to push for second passage of a proposed Constitutional amendment that would cap property taxes at 1% for residential property; 2% for rentals; and 3% for all other property. Because this would affect local government budgets more than state government budgets, it is local government officials urging state officials to slow down. Rep. Bauer appears to be siding with local government officials in this. Second passage of the Constitutional amendment does not have to take place until 2010. As a matter of law, the caps are already in place, just not in the Constitution. The Republicans appear ready to plow ahead with the Constitutional provision, presumably before any problems with the tax caps fully materialize and public opinion shifts.

Finally:

Daniels has proposed a nearly complete overhaul of county government, asking lawmakers to consolidate the board of commissioners and several elected county offices into a single, elected executive position, similar to a city mayor. The governor also wants to eliminate township government and force small school districts to consolidate.

But while Republicans in the Senate appear to have embraced the proposed changes, House Democrats are wary and many local officials are irate.

Following the jump, I’m just going to repost my summary of the Kernan Shepard report (pdf) upon which the Daniels’ restructuring proposals are based.

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