Published: June 11, 2009 10:16 pm         

Indiana special session opens with discord

Spending, gambling major issues on opening day

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana General Assembly began a special, budget-writing session Thursday amid discord over spending between House Democrats and Gov. Mitch Daniels and his fellow GOP lawmakers.

Gambling also became a major issue from the start, with House Republicans accusing Democrats who control the chamber of trying to expedite a bill that Republicans said they feared would be loaded up with pro-casino provisions.

House Democrats said the bill in question — as introduced — only included a plan by Daniels to help the cash-strapped agency that operates professional sports venues and the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

But Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, said he would offer an amendment to the bill in committee that would relocate one of two riverboat casinos on Lake Michigan in Gary to a site in the city near Interstate 65, with hopes that it would generate more revenue. The extra money would be used in part to help fund a new teaching hospital.

House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said it also was his understanding that Democrats would consider provisions to give tax breaks or otherwise boost revenue for casinos at the state’s two pari-mutuel horse racing tracks and a casino in French Lick in southern Indiana.

“It sounds like a set-up to me for a target on gaming expansion,” Bosma said. He said House Republicans were willing to waive rules to expedite consideration of a budget bill to help reduce costs of the special session.

But House Republicans, outnumbered 52-48, opposed putting the Indianapolis sports agency bill on a fast track, as well as a bill that would require an independent performance audit of efforts by the Daniels administration to modernize some welfare services.

House Democrats voted to expedite consideration of all three bills, and House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, did not rule out the possibility that gambling provisions would be considered. He only said they would not be part of a budget bill, which lawmakers did not pass by a regular session deadline of April 29, forcing the special session.

Lawmakers also did not pass legislation during the regular session to fix Indianapolis’ stadium agency, the Capital Improvement Board. Daniels and Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard have since proposed a plan that would merge the CIB with another agency and raise some local taxes to cover its $47 million budget gap.

Bauer noted that during the regular session, gambling proposals were floated as part of plans to fix the CIB.

“Now all of a sudden it’s a surprise that it [gambling] might be speculated on now?” Bauer said. “Come on.”

Bauer said House Democrats were willing to consider CIB legislation to benefit Indianapolis, but that other parts of the state had problems as well.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, has said that any gambling issues would go nowhere in the Senate, in a budget bill or other legislation. He said they would be distractions to enacting a new budget before the current one expires at the end of the fiscal year on June 30. Daniels said he agreed with Long’s stand.

House Democrats filed their version of a budget bill on Thursday that would cover only one year, instead of a traditional two-year plan that Republicans insist on.

Democrats say their plan would increase overall state spending on schools by a statewide average of 2 percent, with a guarantee that all districts get as much money or more next year as they did this year.

Daniels has proposed a two-year budget that also would increase overall spending on schools by an average of 2 percent, largely by relying on federal stimulus dollars. Some growing suburban districts would get spending increases, while many rural and urban districts that are losing students would see cuts.

Bosma and other Republicans say the House Democrat plan spends far too much in one year and that it would be impossible to sustain those spending levels in a second year unless there was a huge upswing in revenue or taxes were raised. Both parties say they are opposed to any tax increases.

The House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the Democrat budget plan today, with a possible committee vote Monday.

The Senate met briefly Thursday, but adjourned with plans for all members to come back after the House passes a budget bill and sends it to the Senate.