The most-recent state revenue forecast was surprisingly strong and may give Gov. Mike Pence a better chance at getting the 10-percent cut to the income-tax rate he promised voters during last fall’s campaign.
Legislators, though, have mixed views: Should the money go back to taxpayers, as Pence would like, or should it used to fund schools and raods?
State Rep. Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes, said either way, the findings are positive.
“Honestly, the good news is at least it appears to be sustained,” he said. “The best news of all there, though, is that these sources are showing the economy is turning around, maybe much slower than we would all like, but it’s turning around.
Battles said not only is there money coming in to the state’s coffers, but it’s increasing.
“We’ve come off at least two budget cycles of making dramatic cuts, and now we’re able to see a turnaround,” he said. “And with that turnaround, consumer confidence is increasing and the economy is turning in a sustained form.”
The turn of events has given Pence, who has struggled to win support for his tax cut, renewed momentum, Battles added.
“It definitely makes a better case that the revenue is there,” he said. “I still suspect it won’t be the whole 10 percent he asked for, but honestly I would be lying if I didn’t say I wouldn’t be surprised if he was able to get some of the cut.”
Battles is hopeful, though, that the money goes toward refunding projects that have lost money in recent years.
“I don’t want to put a black cloud over this, this is good news, but we need to show some caution over this,” he said. “We should have done a study to know the effects of the cuts, I’m sure there are programs that haven’t missed a beat, and those are the areas we don’t need to be funding.
“But I know there are many programs whose services have been affected and those are the places we want to look at,” Battles said. “For example there is the Choice program. If you look at face value it looked like it was fully funded, but they’d diverted money to a Medicaid waver program.”
Several other programs, he added, could benefit from the surplus.
“Another area is the programs we have available for mentally disabled,” he said. “The services we have are being cut and the hours are being cut.
“We’re talking about incredibly vulnerable people who aren’t milking they system, but they truly need the help,” Battles added. “We don’t want to throw all of the money at them, but we can and should try to offer a better quality of life for those people.”
http://suncommercial.com/articles/2013/04/17/news/local_news/doc516f512a13827195364901.txt
