(INDIANAPOLIS) — The Senate has passed its version of a new state budget, setting up
negotiations on a final version.
Legislators receive an updated forecast Thursday of how much money the state will take in. But
while negotiators will adjust spending levels to reflect the new projection, the bulk of the remaining
work involves reconciling differences between the House and Senate spending plans.
Both budgets increase school funding about 1.2% in the first year of the two-year budget, but the Senate version gives schools a little more money in the second year. The House budget goes further than the Senate in expanding eligibility for Indiana’s school voucher program, while the Senate version goes further in paying down state debt ahead of schedule. Both bills impose a first-ever tax on e-liquids, but the Senate version sets up a separate taxing approach for self-contained vaping cartridges.
And the Senate had the advantage of beginning its work after President Biden signed a new
pandemic relief bill in March, sending $3 billion in federal money to Indiana. The Senate
bill earmarks $850 million of that money for specific projects, but Appropriations Chairman
Ryan Mishler (R-Bremen) says he expects to add more as he has more opportunity to study
Treasury Department rules for how it can be spent. And the House hasn’t yet had its chance to
weigh in.
Mishler and House Ways and Means Chairman Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) began budget
discussions even before the Senate unveiled its version of the budget, in hopes of speeding up
final negotiations and meet legislative leaders’ goal of adjourning by next Wednesday. The legal
deadline to adjourn is April 29. Legislators plan to amend that deadline to November to allow work
on redistricting, but that change is part of the budget bill itself.
The Senate approved Mishler’s version of the budget 39-10, with South Bend Democrat David
Niezgodski joining Republicans in voting yes. Gary’s Eddie Melton and other Democrats praised
Mishler for working to accommodate some of their concerns. But Melton says while the budget
improves on the House version, it still puts too much money toward vouchers and not enough
toward public schools or teacher pay.
And Indianapolis Democrat Fady Qaddoura says Indiana should act more aggressively in putting
money toward economic development, pointing to a half-billion-dollar development effort enacted in
Ohio. Both the House and Senate bills include $150 million for Governor Holcomb’s reboot of
predecessor Mike Pence’s regional development grants, and Mishler suggests he’s open to
pushing that figure higher.