As the legislature heads into the final weeks of the session, the Indiana House and Senate aren’t too far apart on spending priorities.
“We’re $80 million to $160 million apart,” saidRep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville. “When you’re talking about a $30 billion dollar budget over two years, that’s pretty good.”
This is the first year Brown has been chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, which creates the state spending plan.
House Republicans approved a budget that restored K-12 school funding to pre-recession levels and increased road and bridge funding by $250 million per year.
The House voted to speed up the phaseout of the state inheritance tax, but did not include Gov. Mike Pence’s 10 percent income tax cut request.
Senate Republicans added a 3 percent tax cut, consisting of a decrease in the financial institutions tax, the inheritance tax phaseout and a reduction in the corporate income tax approved last year.
“On the budget we’ve gotten along very well,” said Rep. Sheila Klinker, D-Lafayette. “There’s been a good give and take.”
“The fact that they didn’t put a tax cut in was a sign that we had to give back some of what we took away from public education,” Klinker added.
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