Indiana’s Democrat-controlled House last week passed a one-year budget bill that breaks with the state’s decades-long tradition of two-year budget cycles.
Democratic leaders said a one-year spending plan makes more sense in light of current economic uncertainties and dwindling revenues. The budget bill includes $14.5 billion in spending for 2010. The House passed the measure along straight party lines, with 52 Democrats voting in favor of the measure and 44 Republicans opposing it.
“We are just not prepared to do a second year because we don’t know what numbers we will have,” House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, was quoted as saying in local media reports last week. “It’s like reading in the dark.”
The measure is expected to receive heavy opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate. Lawmakers must reach a compromise by April 29 or head into special session.
The last time Indiana tried to move to a one-year budget was in 1975. The move lasted one year.
Gov. Mitch Daniels had proposed a two-year, $28.3 billion budget. State budget director Chris Ruhl said the two-year budget cycle keeps government spending down and provides more certainty to state programs and agencies.
