Republicans defeat bill
amendment
By Heather Mangold
City
Editor
Senate Democrats offered an amendment to the Senate
budget bill that would have altered several parts of the Republican
bill on Tuesday. However, the amendment was defeated.
Sen. Ron Alting, R-22nd, said that the proposal
presented by Senate Democrats was unrealistic. He described the Democrat's
proposal as a way of using the credit card effect, where Indiana's legislators
would put all expenses on paper, holding them for two years, costing
Hoosiers roughly $170 million.
"If this was voted in, you'd have to raise taxes,"
said Alting.
Terry Strueh, vice president for State Relations
at Purdue, said that it is common for the minority party to offer a
different version of the budget. He said that commonly, these versions
are voted out in party line votes, meaning that the party which holds
the majority will vote in accordance with their party association, killing
the proposed budget of the opposing party.
"This is a mechanism used to indicate priorities
and it does serve to help lay the issues out on the table," said Strueh.
Higher education is one of those issues.
"I would have liked to have seen Purdue get higher
funding," said Alting. "Education is a high priority."
Rep. Sue Scholer, R-26th, said that neither budget,
released by Senate Republicans or Democrats, funded higher education
in the level she would like to see.
When new fiscal projections are released in April,
lawmakers expect current budget proposals to be inadequate, denying
Indiana any more funds for higher education.
"If the revenue goes down, some parts of the budget
would have to be cut," said Strueh.
Alting said that if revenue projections are wrong,
Senate leaders have promised him that excess funds will go toward it.
Strueh said that while there is a possibility that
revenue forecasts will increase, a decline could be the result as well.
The next step for the budget is a third reading
where Senate members will simply vote yes or no, determining their support
for the budget. Strueh said that he expects the third reading to take
place within the next week. Following this reading, the budget will
go before a conference committee made up of members of the House and
Senate. Those members will then have close to 30 days to deliberate
the budget and come to a decision.
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