Judging from the negative reaction from the governor's office and legislative leaders from both parties, this seems like a tough sell, thank goodness:
The Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan government research group, determined that the state could face a $1.3 billion deficit in the next budget year if the economy does not drastically improve or if deeper spending cuts are not made.
That budget hole is likely to reach that mark if revenue grows at its historical nine-year annual average of 2.9 percent and spending is essentially kept at current levels in the fiscal year that begins July 1, the report concluded. Gov. Mitch Daniels and lawmakers will write a new, two-year budget during the General Assembly session that begins in January.
“We may get that economic expansion and we may get additional federal dollars, but the reality is they're going to have to very seriously consider raising taxes in order to get through this,” said John Ketzenberger, the institute's president.
But taxes will be needed "to get through this" only if "this" is the state government as we've always known it. As the policy institute's director even says, there is an assumption that spending will be "essentially kept at current levels." But why assume that? Just because the state has found hundreds of millions to cut, that doesn't mean everything that's left is still needed or free of waste and bloat. If this keeps up, we might even get government back to more modest and appropriate levels of involvement in our lives. But there I go dreaming again.
