The tax credit Indiana taxpayers will receive next year as a
result of the state’s $2 billion surplus will be welcome relief for some, but
all taxpayers should consider where it came from. The need for some families
would be less if painful cuts in services hadn’t been made to create the
surplus.
In announcing the budget news this week, Gov. Mitch Daniels
couldn’t say how much of the money came from cuts in state agency spending
versus growing state revenues. While it’s true that Indiana is seeing economic
growth, it’s also a fact that agencies were directed to cut millions in
spending.
For example:
•Almost 40 percent of the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs
budget was cut, to revert $293,000 to the state’s general fund.
•Reductions in K-12 education spending totaled $325.5 million, or
4.7 percent of the Department of Education’s general fund appropriation.
•At the Department of Labor, $2.7 million was cut, or 52 percent
of the agency’s general fund appropriation.
•The Department of Child Services slashed nearly $104 million in
spending, for 16.5 percent of its budget.
•The State Fair Commission gave back more than $1 million last
year, or nearly 63 percent of the appropriation approved by the General
Assembly.
•Almost 8.5 percent of the appropriation for Family and Social
Services Administration was cut – a total of $63.5 million.
Among those cuts were some programs vital to low-income Hoosiers.
The $1 million general fund appropriation for the Housing and Community Development
Authority was eliminated. Those were dollars that would have helped families,
seniors, veterans and people with disabilities find affordable housing. Also
eliminated was a $300,000 allocation to buy Indiana-produced food for food
banks.
…
The state’s surplus also overlooks a $1.7 billion debt Indiana
owes to the federal government for unemployment insurance loans it began taking
out in December of 2008. Nor does it acknowledge a pending independent audit of
the state’s tax collection system, following disclosure of errors by the
Department of Revenue that cost local governments about $200 million.
In addition to triggering a tax credit, the legislation the
General Assembly put in place in the event of a surplus should trigger study
and debate over the long-term effects of the cuts that contributed to it.
