Tippecanoe County Democrats —

Today the Indiana House of Representatives passed a $28.7 billion, two-year state budget by a vote of 62-37; 14 Democrats voted for the bill. In the Senate the vote was 34-16, with four Democrats joining 30 Republicans in support. The governor signed the budget bill at 8:05 p.m., less than four hours before the midnight deadline. The bill preserved a billion dollar state reserve fund, which the governor had insisted upon, but $30 million from the current reserve are used. Public schools get a 1.1 percent average increase in 2010 and a .3 percent increase in 2011. These represented an improvement over the governor's flatlining and the Republicans most recent .5 percent increases for education. You can read more about the budget bill here and here.

In a very clear op-ed piece in Sunday's Journal and Courier, Rep. Sheila Klinker laid out the differences between the Republicans and Democrats on the budget bill. In the Republican bill, school districts are funded based on the number of students they have; thus, systems that have shrunlk will receive less money, so nearly half the school districts would experience a cut this year. There are also significant difference in how the two bills fund higher ed; the Republican bill cuts it by 4 percent, while the Deomcratic one raises it by 2 percent. Other cuts include public health centers, professional development for teachers, and public tv. Klinker remains hopeful:

"We are hoping that Democrats and Republicans go to the negotiating table in good faith. We must work together to achieve success.

If we commit ourselves to set aside partisan agendas and pledge to work together, we will be successful. We want to be fair to all Hoosiers.

We all must have faith, work hard, persevere and believe in teamwork."

You can read her entire op-ed piece here.

At a Democratic fundraiser in Indianapolis on Saturday, former President Bill Clinton told Indiana Democrats that President Barack Obama had done the right things in his stimulus program and his bailout of the auto companies. "I know we need to worry about this debt. First we've got to build a bridge over troubled waters and give the president's economic reforms in the finance system time to take hold," Clinton told the crowd of about 1,500. You can read more about President Clinton's presentation here. Thanks to Jeff Fites, you can read the entire text of President Clinton's wonderful speech here by clicking on "read more" below.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted along straight party lines to send the Democratic budget to the full House for what promises to be a very partisan vote. The Democratic proposal is for a one-year budget instead of the customary two. It also increases funding to schools and to higher education. Chairman Bill Crawford said the differences between the two sides were "immense," but that they would work with the Governor to meet the June 30 deadline. You can read more about the Democratic budget here.

Today the US Supreme court opted not to hear a court action to block the Chrysler deal with Fiat from three Indiana-based pension funds. The effort was orchestrated by Indiana's state Treasurer, Richard Mourdock, who argued that the deal was an inappropriate use of TARP funds. The loss would have represented less than one percent of the pension funds' assets. Had the case successfully blocked the merger, Indiana would have lost thousands of additional jobs. What some viewed as a "quixotic" effort by Mourdoch, others viewed as political positioning. Says Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker, "His job is to get the best deal for Indiana. The best deal for Indiana was to save jobs and get as much money as possible on a risky investment. He's just playing to his party's base in trying to blow this deal up, which would have cost us thousands of jobs." You can read more about the decision here.

Indiana House Democrats will propose a budget for the upcoming special session that will look quite different from the one proposed by Gov. Daniels. First, to accommodate the state's fiscal uncertainties, it will be a one-year budget rather than the traditional two-year. Then, there are the spending priorities:

No funding cuts for any school district. Daniels' proposed increase in per student spending would leave some districts with less.

An average funding increase of 2 percent for K-12 schools, not including federal stimulus money. 1.75 percent of Daniels' proposed increase came from federal funds.

An average two percent increase in funding for universities, as opposed to Daniels' four percent cut.

An 18 percent increase in the college financial aid program, where Daniels recommends three percent.

Democrats say they would achieve those goals preserving $1 billion in state reserves in 2011, as the Governor insists upon.

You can read more about the Democrats' budget proposal here.