Senate GOP Budget Proposal Adds K-12 Funds For Poverty, Less For School Choice
Unable to load the audio player.
playpausemuteunmute
Article origination IPBS-RJC
Sens. Eric Bassler (R-Washington), left, and Ryan Mishler (R-Bremen), right, present the Senate Republican two-year state budget proposal.
Brandon Smith/IPB News
Indiana Senate Republicans unveiled their $36 billion two-year state budget proposal Thursday – making a number of changes to the House’s K-12 funding plan and focusing heavily on one-time spending.
The Senate version of the proposed K-12 funding plan dials back school choice programs favored by the House and increases funding for students in poverty.
It’s part of the Senate’s overall effort to double the amount of new dollars for K-12 spending at $875 million compared to the House’s $438 million proposed increase. Total K-12 support for the two-year budget is set at $15.4 billion, or 50 percent of the state’s total general fund spending.
New Indiana budget draft scales back private school voucher expansion
chalkbeat.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chalkbeat.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Apr 5, 2021
A bill carried by a pair of southern Indiana Senators to provide a liability shield for organizations and businesses has been signed into law.
Senate Enrolled Act 1 was among the first 17 bills Governor Eric Holcomb signed late last week.
The COVID shield law was authored by State Senator Mark Messmer of Jasper and among its sponsors was Senator Eric Bassler of Washington.
“This bill provides protection for businesses, government offices, schools, churches, not-for-profits and just about anyone from being sued if someone contracts COVID during an event or operation at their facilities,” said Bassler. “It really provides some protection from class action law suits if a number of people come down with COVID and it is traced back to a single location.”
Boone County tax victory needs to go statewide Sunday, February 28, 2021 4:00 AM Boone County Courthouse, Lebanon From the Association of Indiana Counties
Concerned taxpayers and local units of government alike have been waiting for Meijer’s filing deadline earlier this month to pass, with hopes they would not appeal their “dark box” case against Boone County to the Indiana Supreme Court. Indeed, the deadline came and went this month, and they did not appeal. The Indiana Tax Court’s ruling stands, and the “dark box theory” is determined to be an unacceptable methodology for property appraisals.
“This is a big win for all taxpayers in helping to end an unfair property tax burden shift from large retailers to other business, home and landowners,” Boone County Commissioner Jeff Wolfe said.
Editorial
Indiana still stubbornly turning its back on advantages of work share arrangements
Indiana unemployment rolls swelled last spring, as a worsening coronavirus epidemic upended Hoosier businesses and led employers to lay off workers.
Claims for jobless benefits rose from an average of 3,000 per week to around 146,000 in late March. Worse, Indiana Department of Workforce Development officials told the Indianapolis Star in late June that private-sector employment was down more than 405,000, compared to the year before.
A Brookings Institution report issued this month said a state work share program could have saved between 13,000 and 34,000 Hoosier jobs, but state lawmakers aren t interested. The state missed out on at least $116 million – and as much as $200 million – in federal funding to put the program in place, the report says.
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.