Democrats' budget would increase school spending

INDIANAPOLIS -- Public schools would get spending increases of about 4 percent in each of the next two years under a budget drafted by Democrats, who now control the Indiana House of Representatives. It would also provide money to begin a phase-in of statewide, full-day kindergarten, party leaders said Thursday.\nThe phase-in of full-day kindergarten is a top priority fof Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, but the Democratic budget would block another of his key initiatives by prohibiting the Hoosier Lottery from being outsourced to a private entity.\nDaniels wants lawmakers to give him the authority to do that, hoping someone would agree to take over operations of the lottery for an upfront payment of at least $1 billion and yearly payments of $200 million. Daniels wants to spend the $1 billion or more on college scholarships and professorships.\nRepublicans, who control the Senate, presented a different version of Daniels' plan on Thursday, but it would still allow the lottery to be leased for 30 years to a private company.\nMost Democrats have opposed Daniels' major privatization moves and proposals, saying key services and assets -- such as the Indiana Toll Road -- should not be turned over to for-profit companies. Republicans controlled the House two years ago, and House Democrats were unable to stop legislation that allowed Daniels to lease the toll road to a private consortium.\nBut Democrats have a 51-49 advantage now, and can block the lottery proposal and perhaps refuse to provide funding for some privatization deals that already have been struck. Their budget includes language that would give the General Assembly greater oversight of outsourcing.\nThe budget bill, to be formally presented in the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday, would increase spending for higher education by about 5 percent in each of the next two years, with some of the new money going for operations and some for capital projects.\nDemocratic Rep. William Crawford of Indianapolis, chairman of the Ways and Means panel, said he did not know precisely how much the two-year budget spent but said it was less than the $25.9 billion total in the budget proposed by the Daniels administration.\nCrawford and House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said the Democratic plan included no general tax increase and spent less in part because there would be no new money for the state prison system or Medicaid, the state and federal health care program for the poor, disabled and elderly.\nExpenses in Medicaid are expected to grow over the next two years, and Daniels had proposed spending about $220 million more to cover at least a portion of the projected increased costs. Daniels also wants to spend $72 million more on prisons, with some of the money used to increase pay for guards.\nDaniels had asked lawmakers to hold overall spending increases to less than 4 percent in each of the next two years, and Crawford said the House Democratic budget did that.