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June 11, 2009

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Thu Jun 11, 2009, 04:24 PM EDT

The first thing Indiana lawmakers need to do when they gather today is to pass a measure extending the current budget for as long as it takes them to hammer out an agreement on a new spending plan.

It’s bad enough that the Legislature finds itself having to convene for a special session. It will be even worse if the session drags on at a cost to taxpayers of $12,000 a day. But it will be a travesty if partisan wrangling keeps lawmakers from adopting a budget in time to avoid a shutdown of state government at the beginning of July.

We had hope last week when Gov. Mitch Daniels unveiled a two-year spending plan and lawmakers convened a bipartisan effort aimed at reaching agreement in time for the start of the special session.

That hope quickly faded, though, when House Democrats walked out of the committee meeting and pledged to formulate their own spending plan. They unveiled that plan on Tuesday, and the differences are significant.

The governor’s plan would give schools an overall average increase of 2 percent over the next two years, but Democrats complain that it would give much more to growing suburban districts while cutting funding to many poor urban and rural districts with declining enrollments.

Democrats are calling for a one-year budget they say would give schools a statewide average spending increase of 2 percent and guarantee that all districts get as much or more money in the next year as they got this year.

The Democratic plan leaves $1 billion in the bank at the end of the first year. The governor’s plan leaves that at the end of two years.

It seems likely that House Democrats will pass their one-year spending plan and that the Senate will amend that plan to look more like the two-year budget put forward by the governor.

The two sides then will be forced to work out their differences before they can pass a budget to be signed by the governor.

Our hope is that won’t take as long as we fear, but just in case, lawmakers should approve a continuing resolution to keep at least essential state services operating beyond the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.

No one will benefit from a prolonged political fight. Allowing state government to shut down in the midst of it would simply add insult to injury.

– Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, and Kokomo Tribune

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