INDIANAPOLIS | With a state shutdown looming, negotiators reached a tentative agreement Monday night on a two-year, $28.5 billion state budget that splinters both the Northwest Indiana delegation and the Democratic majority in the House.
The plan, set for House and Senate votes today, includes language to create a local income tax-backed bus and rail authority for Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and St. Joseph counties. But Reps. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, and Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, were working feverishly to remove a proposed November referendum allowing voters in each of the four counties to decide whether to join the transit district.
"It's a deal breaker for the (Democratic House) speaker," Sen. Luke Kenley, a top GOP budget negotiator," said of the referendum. "He wants it in there."
Meanwhile, a successful House vote to pass the budget -- and avoid a shutdown Wednesday of everything from state parks to casinos and Bureau of Motor Vehicles branches -- hinges on a rare 11th-hour show of bipartisanship in the closely divided House.
"I am definitely a no," said Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary. And Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, promised to vote "an emphatic no."
House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said numerous House GOP votes will be needed to pass what he called "a very Republican flavored" budget. House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said that shouldn't be a problem.
Negotiators made $54 million in cuts elsewhere to boost funding for declining-enrollment schools districts. But Brown said Gary Community School Corp. still stands to lose as much as $20 million over the biennium, down from $25 million in Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' budget plan.
Smith said he is upset the budget agreement still includes $2.5 million a year in tax credits to support private school scholarships -- half of what Republicans had proposed. And it would initiate a pilot program for a Web-based "virtual" charter school to accommodate up to 500 students.
The budget would not limit traditional charter schools, a Democratic proposal that Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said would have jeopardized federal grant funding. Overall, Republicans hope they have a plan that can clear both chambers before tonight's midnight deadline.
"People are going to try to keep negotiating until the last hat drops," said Kenley, R-Noblesville. "We think we've gone as far as we could go to meet (Democrats)."
Lawmakers said the budget, not yet available for public viewing Monday night, includes $33 million in debt financing to replace Tamarack Hall, the Indiana University Northwest theater building ruined by fall flooding. Negotiators added $196 million in university projects for a $333 million total that includes $20 million for the Ivy Tech Community College campus in Gary.
The budget agreement also includes $3 million to begin planning a proposed $400 million teaching and trauma hospital in Gary. Region legislators abandoned plans for a land-based casino to finance the hospital after Republican declared gambling off-limits.
The current special legislative session, which began June 11, was required because lawmakers failed to pass a budget in the four-month regular session that ended April 29. With state revenues down 8 percent since last year, reaching a bipartisan agreement on school funding proved daunting.
The new budget agreement offers schools a 1 percent average increase next year and 0.3 percent in 2011, though the second-year figure could grow if state revenues improve. An earlier Republican budget offered a 0.5 percent increase each year.
