From the New Castle Courier-Times:
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In the Republican-dominated legislature, the budget process has been mostly free of controversy. The main sticking point has been a nice problem to have: how much of a cut to offer taxpayers.
The Senate budget doesn't offer the 10 percent that Gov. Mike Pence wanted. But Eckerty emphasizes it's not bad.
"This has been the smoothest budget process we've been through in 20 years," Eckerty said. "We've got a nice balanced budget, one that plans ahead for infrastructure projects. There's a good tax cut package in there. It's not finished yet. The revenue forecast comes in next Tuesday and we'll make final adjustments based on that."
Big decisions still loom, though, for health care.
State officials are hoping permission will be granted to expand the current Healthy Indiana Plan.
"We're still going to try and get the feds to give us a block grant to continue the Healthy Indiana Plan," Eckerty said. "We can cover more people and do it for less money."
Meanwhile, Eckerty is trying to give taxpayers and parents every break possible when it comes to property tax appeals and school vouchers.
Senate Bill 152, authored by Eckerty, "changes the dynamic of a property tax appeal."
"When you win a property tax appeal, then they make you come back and reprove it all over again the next year," Eckerty said. "With this legislation, we put the burden of proof on the assessors, not the taxpayer."
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http://www.thecouriertimes.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=280582&SectionID=23&SubSectionID=45&S=1
