Democrat: GOP must resolve budget differences to gain bipartisan support

INDIANAPOLIS -- Republicans who rule the House and Senate must resolve their own differences on a new two-year state budget plan before seeking support from Democrats, House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer said Tuesday.\n"First there has to be partisan support," the South Bend Democrat said, suggesting that current GOP budget plans would have difficulty winning any support from House Democrats.\nBauer also said that even though Republicans control the House 52-48, they might be unable to muster 51 votes on their own to pass a budget if it includes or relies on state tax increases.\nThe Senate version of the budget relies in part on a separate bill that would raise cigarettes by 19 cents per pack to prop up new spending, including new dollars for public schools. Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Meeks, R-LaGrange, acknowledged that any state tax increase could face trouble among some House Republicans.\n"When I created this piece of legislation out of the Senate, I tried to make sure I could get 26 votes (for Senate passage) and 51 votes (in the House), and if some of these House Republicans stay on their commitment of no tax increase, obviously it's going to be very difficult to do that," Meeks said.\nBut Meeks said if they reject that and other revenue-raising measures in the tax bill, there would be even less new money for schools and funding for Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled.\nRepublicans have a wide 33-17 majority in the Senate, and were able to pass the tax bill and their version of a budget plan without any Democratic support. But the slim party margin in the House could make it difficult to pass any final budget bill and send it to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.\nThe bills are now before House-Senate conference committees that include Democrat appointees, but if they refuse to sign off on compromises, Republican leaders can simply replace them with GOP members who would. But those proposals would still have to win approval in both chambers.\nDemocrats say both GOP budget plans would make drastic changes in the way schools are funded, and would lead to spending cuts for more than 100 of the state's 294 districts. They also would rely largely on local property tax increases to fund schools, and cap property tax relief payments the state makes to local governments.\nBauer also noted that the Senate GOP budget relies on cigarette tax increases and taking about $75 million a year from casino tax revenue that now flows to communities with riverboats. House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, said it was unlikely the riverboat redistribution could pass the House, but Meeks said Tuesday he still considered it an alternative.\nThere are other differences in the plans. The Senate version would cover more of the expected cost increases in Medicaid than the House plan. And unlike the House GOP proposal, it would cut back payments to schools, universities and local governments by nearly half.\nMeeks said it would be difficult to draft a budget that could win much, if any, Democratic support.\n"Because they want more money for schools, and I think schools just have to be like the rest of us," he said. "They are going to have to slow down and catch their breath like we have asked everybody else to do," Meeks said.\nBauer said if Republicans did want Democrat support, they had to present a unified plan first. And time is running out, since the regular session must end by April 29.\n"If they want our participation, they need to come together first and tell us where they are at," Bauer said.