Gov. Daniels called for a $150 million decrease, or 6 percent cut, in higher education funding in light of state revenue for November falling $144 million short of projections.
Money is running short and tough decisions have to be made, I suppose. But, if we’re digging into education, that seems to be an admission that – on the state level, anyway – there isn’t a lot of wasteful government spending or non-essential government activity. Otherwise, I would think, Gov. Daniels would be cutting that stuff before pursuing cuts in education.
Daniels also announced the state would suspend its $15 bi-weekly matching contribution to state employees deferred compensation retirement accounts for 2010. That move is expected to save the state $9 million.
The governor also directed the state’s Department of Administration to reduce the number of vehicles in the state fleet, but he did not identify a specific number to eliminate or a projected savings.
Well, I guess it’s better to cut funding to education rather than Todd Rokita’s seemingly endless self-promotion advertising budget.
Higher education sure isn’t acting like they’re short on money. Have you seen the buildings they keep creating?
How bout closing those corporate tax loopholes that cost use about 350 million per year.
Of course that would require someone in Little Mitch’s circle of friends to pay more and we all know the state exists to make their life easier rather than serve the people.
I’d say it’s also an admission that the budget is “balanced” on falsely inflated income figures.
I think tonight I will ask my accounting staff (my children) to estimate my income for next year so that I can go ahead and order my new suburban and rv.
Can I afford $200,000 in new vehicles? Sure because some dept., under my control, has told me I’m going to bring in a lot of money.
BTW, as my work progresses around the state I find more data on the budget balancing on the back’s of the counties. The state pays half of your auto excise bill, right? Since the state took over School general and welfare rates they also applied new factors to the half of the excise money that they send the counties (the half that you didn’t have to pay).
Many (maybe most) are now returning more excise tax to the state than they are receiving from the state’s half. Meaning the state is no longer paying half of your excise – your county is also paying.
So Mitch managed to take over two rates, appear to balance a budget, take money away from the county to cover that budget, and leave the county with no means to replace it.
There are very few people that understand what I’m talking about and I wish this info could get dispersed better. Local governments are hurting and there’s little to do about it and, more importantly, the local people don’t know.
Indiana has always been run by the High School Harry types, even when they managed to get a college degree or two like Mitch.
In Michigan they took away the take home cars of their Court of Appeals Judges.
Not sure why I’m even bothering to comment, but from what I can tell, Gov. Daniels and his crew don’t much believe in public education and don’t much believe in higher education–unless they are from IVY Tech.
As for new buildings, many times those are partially or fully paid for by donor gifts, not state funds. The presence of a new dorm or classroom facility isn’t automatically an indication of profligate spending of public monies. Also, I’m not quite sure why we like to brag about IU, Purdue, etc., having world-class facilities and programs comparable to private colleges and universities, yet we begrudge every expenditure they make.
Reuben: you are exactly right. When I tried to explain to school board members and superintendents what mitch was up to, they just could not grasp the concept that somehow he was shifting the costs to the locals while taking the money at the state level. But that is what they are doing and then, when the locals have to raise local taxes to cover the shortfall, mitch yells about local govt being the problem and cites the need to take over the local systems. They set up the schools when they shifted the cost of transportation to the local tax roles and general fund distribution after ending the transportation fund distributions from the state. Claimed this was increasing money to the locals. All it did was provide a small amount towards transportation, then the locals had to either charge fees or raise local taxes to cover the shortfalls. When they did, the gop and mitch cried foul.
mitch sure has a bad track record in budget analysis and predictions. How much did he say the war on terror would cost? Maybe if the blade had led those troops, you know, got his boots on the ground, it would have cost taxpayers far less than anyone would have predicted.
When Michigan went to sales taxes and away from property tax, they suffered the same budget shortfalls. Critics pointed this out, but the Star only covered the press releases and mitch and his “we” knew all the answers, even if they ignored the questions. Michigan is still trying to dig out of the hole the move to a sales tax/income tax only created.
Still not sure why I’m bothering to comment, but Reuben and canoefun are right on target. It would be nice if the Indianapolis Star would do its job and actually report on the consequences of the changes that Mitch Daniels and his accomplices have rammed through. All we get are the announcements with no follow up on what actually happened.
Other than IVY Tech, it is apparent that Mitch Daniels does not believe in public education at any level.
Commenting is fun and educational for the rest of us. Thanks Pila!
Thanks! :) Still, I wonder why I do it.
I always assume you do it because deep down, you want some anonymous windbag to explain to you how wrong you are. :)
Nice, Jason!
canoefun, if I didn’t know better I would have mistaken your post for something I would have written.
Concerning Purdue’s (or other’s) buildings. I imagine you all know this…but so few do.
They use the same method many public facilities do and, unfortunately, the general public doesn’t understand and the media won’t explain. Bonds backed by donations or revenue.
Sure they take out bonds for the construction. But the bonds are paid for, at least partially, by donations (or future income in the case a certain Indianapolis hospital).
Why can’t the media explain the process rather than just reprint press releases?
Anyhow, Mitch is killing local government and schools and the media can’t get enough of his BS.
I didn’t read the article (my dad told me about it), but it mentioned our most recent revenue shortfall ~ $150M for the month. Mitch has decided that all state employees must pay for their own business cards if they want them. Somewhere in the same paper there’s a mention of the state buying a new Toyota Sequoia for Mitch to cruise around in. Every bell and whistle – something like $53k. Maybe the business cards can offset his new Toyota.
Didn’t the Indy city council get raped over buying Toyotas for the police force?
I do want to call a little BS on the whole flashing building thing, though.
If the university said “Sorry, we don’t need a $50,000,000 building, but we could use a more modest $25,000,000 building and $25,000,000 for more staff”, do you really think that the donors would tell them to get lost?
From a more practical standpoint, Mr. Rich Donor pays for a huge building, with 20-foot high ceilings and glass everywhere. He does NOT pay for the heating, cooling, and repair for the next 20 years.
This is also a problem with local schools and hospitals, so I’m not picking on secondary education alone. I just can’t stand the amount of waste that goes on in this area while all of these places say they need more money.
If the university said “Sorry, we don’t need a $50,000,000 building, but we could use a more modest $25,000,000 building and $25,000,000 for more staff”, do you really think that the donors would tell them to get lost?
yes, yes they would.
big donors like that don’t want their names on some small, modest building… at least not for a huge donation like $50 million. and they certainly don’t get naming rights on salaries or heating bills.
There are named chairs and endowed scholarships/positions so you could get your name on a salary, but you’re right in no one wants their name on an electric bill.
Ok, then even accepting stAllio!’s point, when does a school say “Thanks, but we can afford your ‘gift'”?