The Senate health committee cast a milestone vote today to approve legislation expanding insurance coverage to nearly all Americans, becoming the first congressional panel to act on President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority. The 13-10 party line vote advanced a $600 billion measure that would require individuals to get health insurance and employers to contribute […]
Indiana welfare officials considering canceling the state’s privately run welfare system have no backup plan in place, and critics say it will be hard to undo the privatization of 1,500 state case workers more than two years ago. Anne Murphy, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, confirmed recently that the system led by […]
A 20-percent budget reduction for the Indiana Arts Commission will affect as many as 400 grant-dependent organizations
across the state. The agency’s overall budget will shrink from $4 million in 2009 to $3.2 million for the
next two fiscal years.
Health care reform is making for odd bedfellows. The pharmaceutical industry – which for two decades has given twice as much in campaign donations to Republicans as Democrats – organized a panel composed mostly of Democrats on Tuesday in Indianapolis to argue its position on health care reform. Former Democratic House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt […]
Indiana’s privately run welfare project has so many problems that the state could start taking steps to cancel its $1.16 billion contract with IBM as early as this fall, a state official said today. Secretary Anne Murphy of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said she asked lead vendor IBM Corp. to submit a […]
President Barack Obama is nominating former Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez for a senior position in the U.S. Department of Commerce. The White House announced yesterday that Fernandez has been picked to become assistant secretary of commerce for economic development and Economic Development Administration administrator. Fernandez was Bloomington’s mayor from 1996 to 2003 and was the […]
Democratic legislative leaders want Indiana to reconsider the way it divvies up school funding, claiming the formula in the new state budget will devastate public education. Under the budget signed into law Tuesday, schools can lose money if they lose students, while fast-growing suburban schools will receive large funding increases. Republicans say that’s the way […]
As both House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, and House Republican Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, see it, this is definitely a "Republican-flavored" budget. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels laid the framework, and legislators from both sides of the aisle largely abided by his bottom lines of spending, state agency cuts and surplus.
If we are lucky, by the time you read these words the Indiana General Assembly will have passed a new budget. Democrats use
tarot cards and Republicans chicken innards to determine how much to spend. There are alternatives.
If we are lucky, by the time you read these words the Indiana General Assembly will have passed a new budget. Democrats use tarot cards and Republicans chicken innards to determine how much to spend. There are alternatives. In some states, changes in the level of the budget are driven by the percent change in […]
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer don’t agree on much, but both said yesterday they were tired of trying to find ways to help the cash-strapped agency that runs Indianapolis’ sports stadiums and convention center. Daniels said he doesn’t want to see any more legislation to help the Capital Improvement Board […]
Technology interests got half of what they wanted in a state budget passed yesterday by the Indiana General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mitch Daniels. The 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, the state’s showcase program for investing in fledgling high-tech firms, said it would receive $35 million in the two-year budget, short […]
Now that another General Assembly is mercifully behind us, itâ??s a good time to raise a festering question
about the lopsided nature of ideas bantered about the Statehouse in recent years.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has driven a wide-ranging agenda characterized by…
A look at some features of a budget bill passed by the Indiana General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Mitch Daniels tonight: – Spends about $27.8 billion over the two-year budget cycle. – Public schools will see an average state funding increase of about 1 percent in the first year and 0.3 percent […]
The Indiana General Assembly passed a two-year state budget today, narrowly averting a large-scale state government shutdown that would have begun just after midnight. The Democrat-led House voted 62-37 for the $28.7 billion budget late this afternoon, and the Republican-ruled Senate passed it 34-16 about two hours later. The bill was quickly signed into law […]
Leaders of the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-ruled Senate said last night that they were very close to agreeing on a new two-year state budget, and votes on the plan were expected today. Lawmakers must pass a new budget or a stopgap funding measure by midnight, when the current spending plan expires, or Republican Gov. Mitch […]
Indiana is running so short on prison space that it has just 26 beds available for its worst offenders. Inmates are already sleeping in beds stacked three high in one prison, and officials are considering renovating common areas like gymnasiums into cells. Department of Correction leaders thought their prison crowding problem would be alleviated – […]
Indiana legislative leaders are back at the Statehouse today as they seek a budget agreement before the current budget expires at the end of tomorrow. House Speaker Patrick Bauer says he and fellow Democrats may be willing to accept a two-year budget instead of the one-year spending plan they previously proposed. But Bauer said today […]
The sniping over the state budget follows the time-honored script of partisan politics. Fear not: A timely climax and resolution
are all but guaranteed.
Gov. Mitch Daniels heads south today to take the state budget battle to the people. He’ll visit Lawrenceburg, Madison and New Albany to talk about the negotiations between lawmakers in the Indiana House and Senate. Daniels is urging Democrats to support the bill proposed by the Republican-controlled Senate. A meeting between the two sides Wednesday […]
