HB 1001 – State Budget
Authored by Rep. Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville)
The budget bill appropriates money for the operation of the state, K-12 and higher education, the delivery of Medicaid and other services, and various other distributions and purposes.
Chamber position: Support in Part
The latest: The Senate Appropriations Committee finished reworking the House budget bill yesterday. Basically, it spends the same amount of money as the House and, to a substantial degree, spends like amounts on the same things. But when you’re talking about $36 billion, “little” changes still mean a lot – at least if you are the one receiving it. Always the biggest ticket item, taking up more than 50% of the money, K-12 spending is a focal point. Both the House and Senate add about $400 million to the current K-12 funding level over the biennium. There are differences in the funding formula and how and where the education money goes that reflect different priorities, i.e. vouchers, charters, virtual schools. These differences will be sorted out when the Senate fiscal leaders sit down with the House fiscal leaders. And they will have other things to talk about as well. One example is $400 million in the Senate budget to buy down the state’s unfunded pension liability. The Governor’s budget included a one-time expenditure for this purpose, before the House elected to spend one-time monies on other economic development priorities. The infusion of federal money has added an element to the debates of where to best apply those funds for one-time expenditures. Both bodies have in mind to use these monies to pay off debt and fund capital projects, but exactly how much and for which debt, projects and programs is what they will be discussing. See the full Senate budget proposal presentation.
Indiana Chamber action/commentary: The Chamber is not happy with the Senate’s removal of the cigarette tax increase, and likewise with the weak attempt at taxing e-cigarettes (see related article). And we will be continuing our push for meaningful action on these fronts. But we also will be engaged on several other important matters, including how the budget bill updates our tax code in light of the numerous tax changes in the first, second and third stimulus packages provided by Congress. The fiscal decision-makers face several critical choices regarding the extent to which the federal changes will be adopted and incorporated into our state tax code. We are strongly maintaining that the state should not be taxing the very relief that the federal government provided to struggling businesses. Finally, we will be weighing in on the methods to be applied to enhance broadband and promote regional development. Our focus will be on the most effective use of available federal monies and where the state can obtain the most long-term benefit from these one-time funds.
Resource: Bill Waltz at (317) 264-6887 or email: bwaltz@indianachamber.com
