Is it raining yet? Speaker Pat Bauer thinks it is.
The Indiana General Assembly kicked things off today at the Capitol. And boy, you can tell this session is going to get fun to watch.
To start things off, Gov. Mitch Daniels is proposing cuts and doesn’t want to tap into the state’s savings account. We’ve got a decent amount of money pout away to use in case of an emergency.
And (future Speaker of the House) House Minority Leader Brian Bosma outlined priorities for the GOP caucus, including taxpayer protection, job creation and education reform. Bosma wants the legislature to take the next step in enacting the property tax caps to give Hoosiers the chance to make the limits constitutional with a vote in 2010.
Speaker of the House Pat Bauer has a different opinion.
(Read more after the leap)
“The speaker, Chairman Crawford, others are already speaking of raiding the state’s minimal reserves to put more funding out on the street. Every prognostication that I’ve seen of our state’s economy is that we’re in a recession now and it’s likely to be deeper and worse in the year to come now is not the time to spend our reserves. We need to balance the budget and maintain the reserves that we have today for times that may be tougher,” Bosma said.
Dude, session just started like, hours ago…?
Daniels has said that we need to cut funding for most state agencies and higher education. K-12 schools would be held at a flat level. Indiana has a surplus of more than $1 billion (yes, that much) and Daniels also wants to hold onto it in case the economy gets even worse. Sounds like a smart plan.
Bauer says it is not a surplus. But it is a “rainy day fund”. And in his opinion, it’s raining.
Democrats say the governor’s proposal wouldn’t do anything to create sorely needed jobs, and some say flat funding for K-12 education amounts to a cut because of rising costs for schools. The proposals offered by House Republicans reflects budget constraints. They suggested things like $5,000 bonuses for teachers who pass competency tests, but would only fund such a program after 2011.
Demmies don’t care. That money is sitting there, burning a hole in their pocket. No long term planning, just spend it now. This is all going to come down to who think’s it’s worse…
Bauer or Daniels.
