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House Passes State Surplus Spending Bill, Sends It To The Senate

Lauren Chapman
/
IPB News

The Indiana House approved a surplus spending bill Monday. It now goes to the Senate.

The state collected nearly $300 million more last year than expected. Republicans plan to use it to pay cash for higher education building projects that were approved in the last budget.

Democrats’ proposals included dollars to expand pre-K education, boost teacher pay, lower prescription drug costs and fund more school safety programs. But House GOP fiscal leader Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) says the state already decided how to prioritize its dollars in the 2019 budget.

“And this is reorganizing all these different priorities into all these programs and different amounts of money,” Brown says.

But Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) says new money should mean new plans.

“Is there a family in this state that if they found that they suddenly had additional money would try to avoid figuring out what to do with it?" DeLaney says. "And that’s what we’re doing. We’re very busy avoiding the problem of success.”

This story has been updated.

Contact Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.