Indiana lawmakers were grappling Wednesday over where to make cuts in the new state budget with little more than a week remaining in the legislative session while also debating what steps should be taken to help struggling casinos.
Legislative fiscal leaders launched final budget negotiations Friday with a somber tone, a reflection of this week’s downward revision in the state’s revenue projections.
State lawmakers will have about $213 million less to spend during the next two years than they thought they would when they started working on the next two-year budget.
The Indiana Senate endorsed a proposal for a new two-year state spending plan on Wednesday, just after its chief budget writer warned that cuts might soon have to be made.
The Indiana House and Senate have each proposed putting at least $80 million more toward county prison diversion programs over the next two years as part of the state's major overhaul of its criminal sentencing guidelines.
Indiana lawmakers have designated $1 million for Launch Indiana, a year-old state initiative that aims to support entrepreneurs building “disruptive” companies—as opposed to those starting tried-and-true businesses.
Indiana’s new tax collections report shows state revenue was short of projections for the seventh time in the past nine months.
Indiana Senate Republicans revealed a two-year, $31.5 billion budget Thursday that boosts funding for schools, universities and highways and leaves the state with nearly $1.9 billion in the bank.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's request for a proposed balanced budget constitutional amendment has cleared a legislative committee after first hitting a bump.
Because Four Winds Casino would be on land-in-trust controlled by a Native American tribe, it would not be subject to the same tax and regulatory system as other casinos in Indiana.
Indiana lawmakers are expected to again face contentious debates in the next few weeks over repealing the state law on public construction project wages and allowing the replacement of Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz as leader of the state Board of Education.
The additional staff should bring the Department of Child Services in line with caseload guidelines in state law, according to a new report that Deloitte Consulting released Wednesday.
Dozens of proposals have been sidelined, including one that would create a $2 million program to treat those with traumatic brain injuries.
For the first eight months of fiscal year 2015, Indiana tax revenue is down 1 percent, or about $91 million. Tax receipts have missed expectations in six out of those eight months.
Indiana Senate budget chief Luke Kenley said he might be a bit more restrained with spending in his version of the next two-year budget because the state has not been meeting its revenue projections for the current fiscal year.
The Regional Cities initiative, an economic development proposal focused on Indiana’s struggling metropolitan areas, will come before the Senate with less than a quarter of the funding proposed by Gov. Mike Pence.
Gov. Mike Pence has been firm that he doesn’t want an expansion of gambling operations in the state. But he has not been clear about what he means by “expansion.”
Two bills already have passed the Senate that push the state in the direction of a national test.
The changes, combined with declining enrollments in a number of schools, mean that 91 of the state’s 289 traditional districts would receive less overall funding in 2016 than this year.
IPS would see a 6-percent reduction in state tuition aid by 2017 despite being one of the state’s poorest districts, with more than 75 percent of children coming from families that are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
