Around The Region

Despite raised veto, lawmakers received bigger checks in 2001\nINDIANAPOLIS -- The average amount paid to Indiana's 150 legislators increased about $5,000 last year, despite Gov. Frank O'Bannon's veto of pay raise legislation.\nIn May, the governor vetoed a bill that would have increased legislators' base pay by $7,400 to $19,000, but the two-year state budget that lawmakers approved last year boosted the amount they receive each day for out-of-session expenses.\nThe average lawmaker received about $37,800 in 2001, when the part-time legislature met for a 16-week session, The Indianapolis Star reported in a story published Sunday. \nLawmakers say the extra money is needed to cover ever-increasing living, travel and office costs and to attract high-quality people to public office.\nJulia Vaughn, who lobbies for Citizens Action Coalition and Common Cause/Indiana, said it was unfair that all lawmakers -- no matter where they live and what kind of expenses they rack up -- receive the same amount for daily expenses.\nOut-of-town legislators who have to commute and stay at hotels during the session do not receive any more money than central Indiana lawmakers, who can sleep at home and keep the extra money, although that is taxable income for those who live within 50 miles of the Statehouse.\nLawmakers also are paid $112 a day for living expenses for each day during a legislative session.\nThey also get that payment when they meet for summer and fall study committees and perform official duties the rest of the year. That daily stipend, which can go up or down each year, is determined by a federal formula that takes into account the average cost of meals and a hotel room.\nLegislators also receive a $44.80 per day payment for expenses whenever the General Assembly is not in session. That increase from $25 a day was made in the current state budget, which O'Bannon last year allowed to become law without his signature.\nLawmakers say that the increase in out-of-session payments is not a raise because it did not change their base salary.\nOut-of-pocket cost of college is down, state study shows\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A new study on college costs in Indiana shows students from the lowest-income families need to come up with nearly half of the total price tag each year after tapping state and federal aid and their parents.\nHowever, the average annual $4,600 gap students must come up with through working, borrowing or saving was nearly $600 less during the 1999-2000 school year than five years earlier, despite rising college costs.\nThe Indiana Commission for Higher Education attributes the decreasing gap to more low-income students attending cheaper schools and to increases in state and federal aid.\n"(The gap) is always troubling to me," said David Perlini, director of the State Student Assistance Commission. \nThe study shows how full-time undergraduate students in public universities paid for all college costs, including tuition, housing, books, supplies and transportation, in 1999-2000.\nIn Indiana, the study showed, nearly two-thirds of full-time undergraduates -- 69,038 students -- received grants, scholarships and/or loans.\nOf those students, two-thirds took out loans totaling $237 million.\nThe average annual loan amount rose with the income level, ranging from $3,500 for students whose parents earn less than $10,000 a year to $5,600 for students with family incomes of $100,000 or more.\nPerlini said Indiana is among only seven states that provide more than $100 million annually in state grants and scholarships, even though its population is not among the top seven states.\nIn 1999-2000, more than three-fourths of the full-time undergraduates received a total of $185 million in grants and scholarships -- with the largest source coming from universities, foundations and agencies.\nThat's the same proportion of students who got grants five years earlier, but the average grant of $696 in 1999-2000 is slightly higher.\nThe lowest cost of $6,090 was for a student commuting from home to Vincennes. The highest cost of $15,593 was for a student living off-campus at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.