Indiana House passes two-year state budget bill

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Speaker of the House B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, walks to the podium in the House camber at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, Monday, June 29, 2009. Lawmakers were back at the Statehouse on Monday as legislative leaders sought agreement on a new state budget before the current one expires at the end of Tuesday. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Jun 30, 2009 at 3:59 PM EST

Story Updated: Jun 30, 2009 at 5:38 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana House voted Tuesday to pass a two-year state budget after impassioned debate that reflected deep divisions among lawmakers.

The Republican-controlled Senate also was expected to pass the bill and send it to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, who was expected to sign it. Lawmakers faced a midnight deadline to pass a new budget or stopgap funding measure to prevent most of state government from shutting down.

The Democrat-led House voted 62-37 for the $27.8 billion budget, with 14 Democrats joining all 48 Republicans in approving it. Thirty-seven Democrats voted against it, many of them saying that it would result unfairly in spending cuts to many rural and urban school districts with declining enrollments.

The bill would increase overall spending on public schools by 1.1 percent in the first year and 0.3 percent the second. It would keep operating spending for public colleges and universities essentially flat, but provide more than $600 million in bonding authority for higher education building projects.

House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said Democrats had done all they could to at least secure larger overall spending increases for schools than was included in a budget bill previously passed by Senate Republicans.

"I appreciate fighters, but sometimes you want to live to fight another day," Bauer said.

House Minority Leader Brian Bosma and other Republicans said a budget bill passed previously by House Democrats would spend too much, erode the state's surplus and force drastic cuts in services or a tax increase.

"I can tell you who the biggest winner is in Indiana, and that is the taxpayers because legislators were willing to swallow difficult medicine," said Bosma, R-Indianapolis. "We have to be frugal when times are tough."

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