Published: June 30, 2009 01:51 pm      

CLERE: Budget or not, have a great Fourth

The special session of the Indiana General Assembly may be over by the time you read this.

Then again, it might drag on.

If it does, state government will shut down. That is, unless the House of Representatives passes legislation that would keep the government running after the clock runs out tonight. The Senate already has.

Regardless of what happens, we should be thankful we live in the United States of America.

The regular session ended April 29 without a budget. The special session started June 11. The next day, Iran held a presidential election. Almost three weeks have passed. In Indiana, we’re arguing over spending. In Iran, they’re struggling for freedom.

We have the freedom. What we don’t have is a budget.

It wasn’t a lack of time that kept us from developing a budget during the regular session. It was a lack of political will.

Before the special session started, Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed a budget. House Democrats rejected it and wrote their own budget, which passed the House along party lines. The Senate tossed that budget and started over, producing a compromise budget.

The governor and House Republicans are willing to compromise. The roadblock is Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend.

Speaking Friday, the governor reiterated his requirements for a budget. “I won’t sign a budget that bankrupts Indiana and forces a big tax increase,” he said, referring to the House Democrat budget. “I won’t agree, as they suggested, to raiding teacher pension funds or highway trust funds. They know exactly where the lines are.”

Daniels’ requirements are simple. The budget must maintain minimal reserves, not force a tax increase, offset new spending with reductions elsewhere, use federal stimulus money for one-time purposes and be free of gimmicks.

“Almost anything within those lines I’m willing to sign,” the governor said Friday.

Instead of offering constructive ideas, House Democrats ended last week with false rhetoric.

Speaking for the House Democrats, Rep. Scott Pelath, D-Michigan City, said Friday the compromise budget that passed the Senate would “decimate public education.”

In fact, the budget favors K-12 public education above everything else and would actually increase education spending at a time when most other states are slashing it. The compromise budget also includes an idea from the governor that would put education at the front of the line as the economy recovers.

An “education trigger” would devote to public education half of every dollar by which actual revenue exceeds forecast over the two-year budget period. The other half would replenish reserves. The fact that the budget uses reserves to fund the budget was another nod to House Democrats.

But no matter how much budget negotiators nodded in their direction, House Democrats seemed determined last week to force a shutdown of state government.

The state’s new fiscal year starts tomorrow, and without a budget, almost all spending must stop.

That means state parks would close, just in time for the Fourth of July weekend. So would casinos, which must have state employees on site.

Road construction would stop. Bureau of Motor Vehicles branches would close. Except for state police, prison guards and certain other public-safety workers, all state employees would be furloughed. There would be no money for schools and no financial aid to college students.

Avoiding a shutdown would be easy.

We have a budget, and if Bauer would allow us to vote on it, we could go home and Hoosiers could go on with their lives.

Instead, Bauer ended the week by reminding everyone that by law, a special session may continue for up to 40 days after the day it starts. That means it could last until July 21.

A 40-day special session might remind folks of The Flood — 40 days and 40 nights of rain. This time, though, it might be Hoosiers getting soaked.

I hope we are able to celebrate our independence this weekend in state parks that are open as usual. But even if the parks are closed because of a needless government shutdown, we will still be free to celebrate. Even if government in Indiana is experiencing some especially strong discord, we still have a great system of government.

I try to make these columns timely, but I sincerely hope this one is out of date by the time you read it. Maybe the General Assembly will have reached an agreement.

If so, have a great Fourth of July. If not, have a great Fourth of July.

Either way, we still have much to celebrate.