Dispute divides Ways and Means meeting
INDIANAPOLIS – Tempers flared at a legislative committee meeting as Gov. Mitch Daniels’ proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year divided lawmakers in a series of disputes over state spending.
Concerns about how the state will cope with declining revenues in the wake of an unstable economy posed a new round of questions for Daniels’ administration as two of his top budget-writing deputies spoke in front of the Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee – the first battleground of the heated financial debate that looms this session.
Ryan Kitchell, Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Chris Ruhl, State Budget Director, introduced the budget proposal Tuesday.
The hearing gave Indiana lawmakers their first opportunity to debate the proposed budget for fiscal years 2010 and 2011. That budget includes an 8 percent slash in state agencies’ budgets, a 4 percent cut in higher education spending and cuts or completely eliminates several programs.
It protects current spending levels for K-12 education and includes slightly more money for public safety, but would halt capital construction for two years, with the exception of two prison expansions.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bill Crawford, D-Indianapolis, and his top deputy, Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, lambasted the governor’s proposal. In doing so, they offered early glimpses of the battle lines that will define this year’s budget debate.
Democrats criticized Daniels for refusing to tap the state’s $1.3 billion reserve bank account. They also blasted the governor and his deputies for cutting higher education funding, saying doing so would lengthen any economic downturn because it would make more shallow the pool of qualified workers. And they criticized the moratorium on capital spending projects, saying those projects are necessary to create jobs.
Included in the debate is the governor’s decision to encourage the expansion of two state prisons. These developments are the only major improvement projects discussed in the proposed budget and have some lawmakers concerned about where funding will impact the state.
Crawford said flat-lining education and cutting the budget for higher education would do more harm than good in the state’s economic future. He also encouraged the use of community correction facilities rather than spending more in the state’s prisons.
State Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, argued correctional facilities might not be a guaranteed fix for some offenders. He said instead to focus spending on improving the state’s prisons by adding more room.
Overall, the governor’s deputies offered an upbeat assessment of the state’s fiscal prospects.
Ruhl, who assisted the governor in creating the new budget, said, “We’re performing about equal what other states are … other states [were affected by the recession] it a little bit sooner, a little bit worse. We’re kind of holding our own."
