UPDATE: Lawmakers expect ‘tough’ budget cuts to offset $2.4B drop in projected revenue

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40 thoughts on “UPDATE: Lawmakers expect ‘tough’ budget cuts to offset $2.4B drop in projected revenue

    1. Only in Indiana do we rush to pass tax cuts before we know how much revenue we need.

      It’s almost like they knew.

    1. For sure, what about the supposed 2 billion “rainy day” monies that existed not so long ago, or did it get blown without taxpayers notification? Scam the money away. And the article mentions income tax will apparently be much less in this next 2 year biennial spending fun. But, since property taxes (PT) will be lowered (Ha, this I got to see…….likely another line of BS from them there “lawmakers”), the door is now wide open for all the school corporations and the many other local units of government to be allowed to increase local income taxes to make up their losses from reduced PT. What a way to run a business……lower one tax and simply raise another.

  1. Not to beat a dead horse, but perhaps the upgrades to the Governor’s private residence and the $90,000 SUV’s should go. The Cabinet Secretaries who are making $275,000 each should also probably be ‘on the table.’

  2. “There will be some tough times ahead, but the America First economic policies we are pursuing here and in Washington will unleash an economic boom”

    Bwahahahahahahaha

    1. Amazing how that rhymes with “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”

  3. “There will be some tough times ahead, but the America First economic policies we are pursuing here and in Washington will unleash an economic boom,” he said.

    Lots of tough times that the rich don’t care about.

  4. Why don’t they just increase the cigarette tax to be equal to or above some of those surrounding states? Would have positive impact on Hoosier health and add valuable dollars to the state’s coffers.
    They are chicken not to consider this.

    1. Indiana already isn’t spending enough and now they’re not even going to be able to collect enough to fund the meager services left remaining since Trump tanked the economy in record time. A sad state of affairs.

      The solution is simple, roll back SOME of the tax cuts they’ve made over the past decade. Because if you or I found ourselves in this situation, we’d be looking for additional income to help get us through. And it’s not like we are a high tax state by any measure.

      That, though, would take a courage that Indiana legislators simply don’t have.

      Why not do something easy instead, like steal more money intended for the healthcare of the elderly or further defund medical care for those with special needs?

    1. The “cackling imbecile” left the “stable genius” a great economy that he promptly tanked in less than three months.

      It’s like he’s not the business genius the TV show made him look like.

      Yet again, Republicans mess up the economy, Democrats fix the mess they’re handed.

  5. They’ll cut critical services at the exact moment the country enters a deep recession due to the economic policies in the White House. This is by design.

  6. Do I have this right – decades of bragging about all the businesses coming to Indiana because it’s a low tax state combined with insistence by the same “elites” that lower taxation rates lead to higher revenues down the road is now met with “Doh…. We have a 2 billion dollar revenue shortfall, so need to cut services”? Just a theory – maybe a gerrymandered supermajority isn’t great for the residents?

  7. Here’s the naked truth. Libertarian-oriented Republicans don’t believe in government as a service. They do believe in individual responsibility, pulling oneself up by the bootstraps. Never mind that at least half of the state’s population don’t have the physical and/or mental ability to fend for themselves. And there are not enough charitable entities in the state to help them. But that’s not state government’s problem. This state government, it seems, exists to make life easier and more comfortable for those who are fully capable of making it on their own. This is what we get with one party having all the power (which was gained by gerrymandering and funded by lobbyists looking wanting less government looking over their shoulders and behind their closed doors. All things considered, unless things change, Indiana will always be viewed as an illiterate, backwards thinking state populated by people who lack ambition and the ability to understand the sad state of their affairs here.

    1. Nothing will be steeled for the next four years. This is what Republicans voted for and despite what right wing media is saying, this is the new reality.

    2. Nothing will be settled for the next four years. This is what Republicans voted for and despite what right wing media is saying, this is the new reality.

  8. Wow!! Since when have so many Dems become business and tax experts?? shocked you can even read the IBJ. Of course, you must hate Elon Musk bc he’s stopping the Dem funding gravy train of national tax dollars….we can do that here in Indiana! You think there’s no overspending in any state government department??? The proposed budget need not be draconian…but each department can be allocated 3 to 5 % less until the revenue picture brightens! Perhaps Medicaid can be exempted until systemic cost reductions can be made….maybe we delay some road projects 18 months…..Folks, if you’ve never reduced your insurance premiums, cut things like Netflix, downsized a car or a house, etc,,,maybe this seems foreign to you….it’s possible and really shouldn’t be difficult. But thank God the Dems have been out of power in this state for 20 years or we’d be looking at bankruptcy!

    1. John, how about you come back when they pass the cuts and tell us how what they cut is all unneeded.

      We’ve already underfunded infrastructure. Go look at the reports of the health of our bridges. Go leave this state on any highway and notice how the roads cease being garbage when you leave Indiana.

      We underfund caring for the old. We take the federal money intended for the care of people and spend it in buildings and CEO salaries.

      When times were good, we should have invested in the future. Now times are gonna be bad and they will be even worse because our leadership was irresponsible and decided tax cuts were a better idea than future investment.

    2. John – what make you think things will turnaround before the 2028 elections? We’re stuck with the poor trump economic disaster until then….

  9. This feels like a bait and switch scheme. A day after lawmakers pass a tax “relief” bill, then the news beaks that the state is expecting a $2 Billion dollar shortfall.

    This is just smarmy and underhanded!!!

  10. Gov Braun’s pet project, the Mid States Corridor, should be on the chopping block if they want to truly save money. It’s a project to put a four lane highway between his hometown of Jasper and I-69 to the north. I’m assuming it would help his distribution company save more than a few dollars on fuel and labor. It’s projected to cost $735 mil to $1billion and isn’t needed, per traffic and population studies by the state. I’ve driven the current route hundreds of times and have never been stuck in traffic. It’s outside of the Indy news area, so it doesn’t get much coverage up here.

  11. I believe the state should cut the budget to higher education establishments beginning with Indiana University.

    In FY23, the state gave IU $623,096,000.

    14 IU administrators will receive pay increases for fiscal year 2025. Each administrator will make at least $300,000 for FY 2025.

    The President got a $175,000 bonus in October.

    Latha Ramchand was appointed the inaugural chancellor of IU Indianapolis in 2024. She will make $609,760 during the 2025 fiscal year.

    Many more examples of what I believe to be insane compensation.

    I’m also not a college sports fan. I think that college sports should be completely funded through their own sponsorships and not one dollar of taxpayer money should go to support sport programs at universities.

    1. Ohio has out spent Indiana by $10 billion on education over the last decade. It’s a deep red state that seems to be doing pretty well. The last thing Indiana should do is cut education. If anything spending should increase,

      The one thing that might bring Indiana’s economy up is increased education levels. The opposite is a shrinking economy and a state that struggles to raise tax revenues because Trump Tariffs have whacked the economy built on nothing but lower paying factory jobs.

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