State lawmakers reconvened this week to begin the 2015 legislative session. Legislators have started to outline what they think should go into the state budget and what other measures they plan to prioritize.

Governor Mike Pence has called this year’s session an “education session,” which has been backed up by his proposal to increase K-12 funding by $200 million over the next two years.

“There’s a lot of big education things going on in this session, so it really is no exaggeration when we say it will be an education session in terms of dollars,” Claire McInerny, StateImpact Indiana education reporter, says. “It’s more than just funding schools. There are a lot of smaller little silos that need to be looked at as well.”

Charter Schools

One topic in the education-dominated 2015 legislative session stems from Pence’s recommendation for charter schools to receive more funding than in the past.

Pence proposes $40 million to go toward charter schools, which would increase funding by $1,500 per pupil.

State Senator Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says charter schools add competition, but he is concerned about giving them additional money.

“When charter schools were first passed in the legislature, one of the primary selling points was, ‘we could do this for less,’” Kenley says. “Now we’re coming back to a different discussion and a different decision.”

He thinks every dollar that goes to charter schools or through the voucher programs would be stretched from public school funds.

John Ketzenberger, president of the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute, says it’s difficult to predict the outcome of the charter school situation.

“You will see some interesting alliances, not just within the party, but across party lines on this,” Ketzenberger says. “I think the other thing to take into account here is you will see an alliance, likely, between urban schools and rural schools because they are in somewhat the same situation when it comes to funding.”

Both rural and urban schools have declining enrollment.

Higher Education

Part of Pence’s budget proposal increases funding of career and technical education.

“We shouldn’t be saying to every single student in the state that you absolutely have to graduate from high school and go and get a four-year degree, because that’s gotten us into a lot of trouble,” Brandon Smith, Statehouse Bureau Chief for Indiana Public Broadcasting, says. “What we need to do is get back to that idea that we want students to be prepared for any life track that they want to pursue, whether that is a four-year degree in college, or a two-year degree, or a certification or maybe even right into the workforce.”

Ketzenberger says it’s time to adjust the conversation to take into account for what’s happened in the last 30 years.

“We have to do a better job as a state of ensuring one, that they have opportunities to pursue those paths in technical education and two, having an economy that produces jobs that allow them to move into those kinds of positions,” Ketzenberger says.

Minimum Wage

Democrats in Indiana’s Senate proposed raising minimum wage to $10.10 earlier this week, but neither Kenley nor Ketzenberger think the legislation will pass.

“The philosophical tone of the legislature is in that mode from very conservative to moderately conservative, but they tend to look at the free-market for being the place to go and I think that if the federal government changes the federal minimum wage, Indiana will be going along with that but I don’t think there’s any impetus for us to be the leader on this issue,” Kenley says.

Ketzenberger says the Republican majority doesn’t consider this an issue for lawmakers to sort out.

“The General Assembly’s view on this is that the market will take care of itself and if the market demands additional wages, then they’ll come,” Ketzenberger says. “The perception is that it hasn’t.”

29 other states have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum.  Democrats say increasing  it would help working class Hoosiers and that anyone who works a 40-hour-week shouldn’t live below the federal poverty line.

Gas Tax

Lower gasoline prices have led to fewer sales taxes collected from gasoline sales.

“You’ve got a conundrum in Indiana because we need more money for transportation,” Ketzenberger says. “The sources that we rely upon for that money aren’t generating much in additional funding and so maintenance is difficult at best and expansion becomes very difficult.”

He says over the next several budget sessions, the general assembly will identify what needs to be done in terms of transportation and either raise revenue through existing sources or find new sources of revenue to meet those needs.

“Nobody believes Indiana should forfeit its natural position as a logistics center because it has poor transportation systems and I think that that’s going to be a priority beginning over the last couple of years and into the next five or so,” Ketzenberger says.

Kenley says the state will have to look at what needs to determine the price of projects such as I-65, I-70 and I-69.

He says the gas tax has gotten “out of whack” as more Hoosiers drive cars with better gas mileage or electric cars that don’t depend on gasoline.

“The day of reckoning is going to come where not only will we have to decide what we want to do and how we want to maintain and build our infrastructure, but how we’re going to pay for it,” Kenley says.

Smith says a lot of the answers will come at the end of the summer from a study that a private contractor of INDOT’s is putting together for the state which will determine transportation needs and how to pay for them by the next budget session in 2017.