INDIANAPOLIS | Gov. Mitch Daniels preached a mix of caution and expediency Thursday as state lawmakers staked out positions on the estimated $5 billion Indiana would reap from the U.S. House-passed stimulus package.
Daniels said the current version of the federal package would send schools a two-year funding boost ranging from 2 percent for affluent districts to a high of 40 percent for Gary Community School Corp.
"Our goal is to be out of the gate as fast as any state to obligate the funds and get projects started," Daniels told reporters. "It is one-time money, and it must be used for one-time purposes. There is an enormous danger of building a cliff if we allow this to come into the ongoing base of state government."
The Republican governor said the risk of using the federal money to inflate operating budgets to unsustainable levels also should be heeded by Indiana schools, which stand to directly receive more than $1 billion.
One region lawmaker said word of more money for Gary schools was welcome news.
"You have to look at the years in which there's been deprivation," said state Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary. "Certainly we've been forced to operate within the (Gary) school system while needing more modern buildings and (greater) funding for special education."
While subject to changes by the U.S. Senate, the $819 billion federal package currently promises more than $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects in Indiana, including roughly $750 million for roads and bridges and $100 million for mass transit.
The package also promises about $250 million for renovations for kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools and $130 million for university construction, which might reverse Daniels' decision to halt a list of projects that includes $30 million for a parking garage at Purdue University North Central and $2.4 million in initial work toward a new Gyte Building at Purdue Calumet.
The governor demurred when asked if the federal windfall could be used to soften a potential operating deficit of more than $30 million in Gary, but he insisted on "making sure these dollars go straight to jobs, not someone's political pet project."
The Indiana Department of Transportation plans to solicit bids next week for road projects the state would initiate as soon the federal stimulus package becomes law.
But Indiana House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, stressed Thursday that the federal money should bankroll job-creation projects that otherwise wouldn't move forward, not supplant state dollars earmarked for existing plans.
