"Was that just pandering and fabricated evidence? Probably, politicians are all the same."
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Ding Ding!! We have a winner!
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Of course they lie. People that move into politics want to GOVERN you. This means that they wish to control you.
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MAXIM: Always suspect the motives of anyone who wishes to enter into politics.

What happened to all the money Mitch was telling everyone that we had in the bank during the gubernatorial debates? Was that just pandering and fabricated evidence? Probably, politicians are all the same.

Ron Paul's economist, Peter Schiff called this recession with astonishing accuracy. He was shouted down by Art Laffer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfascZSTU4o&...

Libertarians were snickered at for talking about sound money, fiscal policy, deficit spending, bloated spending budgets, etc. Snickered at by both Rs and Ds.

3%? That's not a bad start.
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As JFK said, the time to fix the roof is before the rain. Alas, Daniels acts after the rain. How much better it would have been for Indiana had there been a 3% across-the-board budget cut 3 years ago, as the Libertarians were calling for.

GIVE US A BREAK

Only in politics is a pay increase described as a pay decrease!!!!

Indianapolis Star:

Daniels' pay as governor was supposed to increase to about $108,000 in 2009, up from the current $95,000. He's declining to take that pay hike.

Other statewide officeholders and judges -- whose pay would have gone up next year by the average increase in state employees' pay -- also will not get raises. And state lawmakers, whose pay now goes up every time judges' pay rises, will not get that additional bump. But they still will see their base pay rise to about $22,600 from $11,600, an increase they approved in 2007.

The 12 legislative leaders of the House and Senate, however, said they'd each cut their pay by the same amount as the governor, about 13 percent.

Please note that the politicians "pay cut" is being defered, not eliminated.

Does this mean that the "grandfather exemption" allowing the current county sheriffs to maintain salaries in excess of the county prosecutors will be eliminated? (the legislative fix from the last pay scandal only applies to new sheriffs)

It just doesn't seem fair that Sheriff Anderson and the other county sheriffs are getting pay increases with their cut of the skyrocketing fees from more bankruptcies and foreclosures filings.

Maybe the judges and prosecutors can follow the governors example and decrease their pay and budgets also.

Thundermutt - I agree that there's no budget conspiracy here.
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But when it comes to "prominant economists", it was the not-so-prominent economists who were traditionally ignored by media and the "prominat" economists who've been warning for years that the bottom would drop out. Are we still poo-pooing the guys who got it right all along because the media hasn't made them "prominant"?
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But if that's the course you want to stick to, I could point you to hundreds of more "prominant" economists who've been issuing dire warnings for a few years now. In 2007 the chief economist for Bear Stearns warned of "economic armegeddon" over the next few years. That was published in the Boston Globe and went international over AP wires.
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That's one example, but it's been across the board. Obviously the Fed, the White House, and the media pundits and "advisors" have been silent, but that's what they're paid to do. There were a few exceptions - Cramer's been ranting for two years about taking shelter, and I've seen MSNBC cut off more than one reporter form the NASDAQ floors reporting that the plunge protection team is at work, because everyone is standing around shaking their heads at stock activity that makes no sense.
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Additionally, I've been hearing for years from inside the PBGC that they're on the verge of folding. When the markets began to contract, a lot of those folks hit the high road ahead of the flood. You can take that fact to the bank.
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Here's reality (not black helicopters!): People have been told by leading experts for a long time that the bottom is gonna drop out of the market. The question isn't whether or not we were warned. The question is whether anyone wanted to listen.

thanks thundermutt. finally someone who has a clue.

Did any of you actually study economics? When economic activity decreases, the state government's tax revenues generally go down. Then when the economy recovers, they go back up. It's really pretty simple.
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I'm not aware of any prominent economist who forecast the suddenness and severity of this recession back when this budget was enacted. There's no conspiracy...this budget was within the government's means when it was passed. Now it's not, and the governor is taking prudent steps to control spending until revenue recovers.
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But keep an eye out for those black helicopters, just in case.

Look for more government dominance in forms of eminent domain abuses by developers who take over land, residents and businesses with government approval. Why? To expand the tax base and bring in increased revenue. Previous knee-jerk reactions of 'just get another casino' is tapped out. Look for property tax caps to be delayed, at least for farms and businesses. And look for legislators to pass bonuses for themselves, claiming their salaries are frozen. Look for the food bank to start issuing prozac.

Nah, Statler, it ain't fallin. But it's mighty dark outside.

Wheres that 3 billion Mitch got for the toll roads? Why not use a billion of that,its makin a million a day interest aint it?

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Shorebreak speaker of pensions I can only speak of what I know. When the republicans came out with the idea of putting a whole four percent into your own account out of social security, it was a bad idea. The democrats said that this money would be lost, including the teamster President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. He even wrote that this would break our social security retirement as we know it. Now I just got my report on the teamster’s retirement fund. They have lost one point five trillion dollars in that fund. Why? Because they had it invested in the same place that they said Bush’s idea was bad , would lose your money and break the social security fund. It seems that some people love to say one thing will not work then turn around and do the same thing with their own money, depending what party one belongs too. Soon I look for the Hoffa and the teamsters to look to Obama for a bailout of our fund.

Shore, that's an excellent post. Pensions all over the country, especially those adminstered by governmentla units, are next to collapse.

The problem? We're living longer.

Remember the movie "Solient Green" ?

Did state and local government think that their "gravy train" spending habits would last forever.? Time to put out their camel, get off their ass,pick up their shovel and get to work.!!!

Where has the state invested pension money? I'm looking at figures that estimate a 50% increase in business closures in 2009 over 2008. My estimation is that 150% is very low. With a weak estimate that already reflects a 3/4 billion dollar shortfall, has the increased loss of business revenue combined with increased unemployment percentages been figured into the final number?
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Which brings us back to pensions. In my world, budget estimates follow a detailed risk assessment that includes a well defined mitigation strategy. We all know what's happening in our markets and that none of the recent lipstick from the Fed has done anything to improve the appearance of the pig. We read about more bankruptcies and layoffs every day.
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So... Where is the state's pension money, what level of risk has been assigned to it, is there a mitigation strategy to reduce any risk, and has that startegy been factored into the budget? That would be in addition to a risk based approach that includes the likelihood of increasingly decreased revenue and increasing unemployment.And if pensions fall apart, things are gonna get messy in a hurry.
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I know that these are simple questions but I honestly don't know if the budget includes them. I would certainly hope so, but nothing surprises me. If these factors aren't part of the estimate and if the risk isn't addressed, we might be the 11th state (that I'm aware of) who's facing bankruptcy.

The history of the state budget office's projections is woeful...this shortage will likely be even worse.

Don't forget, this comes on the heels of the state taking over funding for a large chunk of the schools' daily operations.

This oughta be interesting. Just like Reagan. Increase obligations (Reagan did it at the Pentagon) while income declines. GHWBush called it voodoo economics, and he was right.

Wonder what it's called now? Nonetheless, perhaps MMM can figure it out. We'll see.

He can always cut higher ed spending. It's favorite target of the far right. Indiana's per-student college costs have already surpassed inflation in leaps and bounds. Why not make it even less affordable?

Another issue to ponder: think MMM will go the route of Bayh and Orr? They raised all kinds of fees, including auto excise, to avoid raising income tax.

It's amazing how figure lie and...well, you know the rest.

Wow. I'm glad this didn't happen before the election. Jill Long Thompsan would actually have had something to argue about (ostensibly) and maybe had a minor and slight chance of winning the election.