Published: June 25, 2009 01:35 pm      

Indiana budget talks start on slow note

INDIANAPOLIS — The first round of budget negotiations between Democratic and Republican lawmakers got a slow start Wednesday with less than a week to go before the state’s current spending plan expires.

Democrats who lead the House and Republicans who control the Senate touched on a few differences in their budget plans during a public conference committee meeting, but most of the hearing was spent taking public testimony from university presidents, social services advocates and others worried about seeing their funding cut.

That frustrated Republicans on the panel, who said there had been ample time devoted to public testimony throughout the year.

“Time grows very short and we need to get down to the nitty gritty of working out these details,” said Senate Tax Chairman Brandt Hershman, R-Wheatfield. “I’m just concerned about the path we’re headed on here and the amount of time that remains for us to have substantive discussions.”

The House and Senate failed to agree on a budget by the time the regular session ended April 29, forcing a special session that began June 11. If a new budget or a stopgap measure to continue funding at current levels is not approved by midnight Tuesday, much of state government could shut down.

House Democrats have approved a one-year, $14.5 billion budget bill, while Senate Republicans have passed a traditional two-year state budget plan that would spend about $28.5 billion. Both include hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus money.

Republicans, including Gov. Mitch Daniels, say the House Democrats’ plan spends too much in one year and, if carried over into a second year without reductions, would drain the state of almost all its reserves. They say that would lead to drastic cuts in services or force a tax increase.

House Democrats say their budget is responsible because it includes needed spending increases for public schools and universities, and covers only one year because the volatile economy makes revenue forecasts beyond that unreliable.

While the conference committee met Wednesday, Daniels visited Terre Haute and Evansville to tout the Republican budget bill the Senate passed earlier this week.

He told about 165 people at a Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce gathering that the budget bill approved by House Democrats would wreck Indiana’s finances.

“We will not be blackmailed into bankruptcy,” he said. “We will not be bullied into a tax increase on Hoosiers, and I hope you agree.”

Rep. William Crawford, D-Indianapolis, chairman of the budget-writing House Ways and Means Committee, defended his decision to take public testimony Wednesday.