A messy state budget deal gained the endorsement of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on Friday soon after it won final passage from state legislators.
Republican legislative leaders scrambled for much of Thursday to add about $300 million in school funding after facing complaints that a costly expansion of eligibility for Indiana’s private school voucher program would leave traditional schools with small funding increases.
“It is a generational impact budget,” the Republican governor said. “Its policies and plans can be viewed, as we do, as a blueprint for growth, and we’re going to be busy building up and growing all over the state.” Holcomb said it was a start in an effort that he made one of his top budget priorities after a state commission found that Indiana’s local public health spending ranks 45th among the states.
Conservative lawmakers foisted several other issues onto Holcomb’s desk during the four-month legislative session that he didn’t seek - and drew crowds of protesters to the Statehouse. A leader of the state’s largest teachers union said lawmakers “missed the mark” on helping schools around the state or stemming the loss of teachers leaving the classroom.
The voucher expansion in the initial budget deal announced Wednesday by Republican leaders was set to consume more than $500 million of the nearly $1.2 billion increase planned for general K-12 funding over the next two years.
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