Special in the wrong sense

WE SAY This special session shows just how ‘special’ our Congressmen are.

“At this point, it’s a game of chicken. We’re going to see which side blinks first,” Indiana state Sen. Greg Taylor, D-33rd, said to the Indianapolis Star while speaking of the budget.

This attitude is precisely why Indiana still doesn’t have a state budget. The current budget expires midnight Tuesday. Because “Indiana’s Constitution bars the spending of money without legislative approval,” according to the Indianapolis Star, if a new spending plan has not been approved by the time the current budget expires, all state services not used to maintain public safety will be shut down.

Although IU’s summer classes will continue, public universities would have to wait to receive checks and therefore IU would have to use cash reserves to keep operating.  

The effects would be dire.

Neither the Republican Senate nor the Democratic House are willing to budge on their versions of a state budget. They failed in the regular session to reach a compromise and produce a budget, dillydallied when they first came back to a special session and now continue to act stubbornly.

Republicans in the Senate aren’t willing to change the school funding formula or limit charter schools, but everything coming out of the House to be voted on calls for them.

They’ve had plenty of time to reach a compromise. But they’ve wasted it. They were specifically called back into a special session earlier this month to finalize a budget, yet democrats spent the opening part of it pushing gambling provisions with the hope that Republicans would sign off on them just to move on.

But neither side is giving any ground. Although the state relies heavily on gambling to raise tax revenue and the gambling provisions could actually increase sales, trying to railroad these provisions through is irresponsible. Congressmen need to do what they are being paid overtime to do – draft a budget. Both sides deserve blame for their stubbornness.

House Speaker Patrick Bauer, D-6th, quipped, “There are serious consequences in passing June 30 without a budget. There are equally serious consequences in passing a Senate budget that will create lasting, devastating damage to our state.”  

But eventually, compromises will have to be made. Ideally, this should have happened a month ago, but it will have to happen either now or after the state has suffered without its needed services and has lost some of its needed revenue.

Why wait for the latter?