Statement issued Friday by the Indiana Senate Majority Caucus:

Nonpartisan, bipartisan groups say neither constitution nor laws provide for continued services; Indiana’s public schools, universities, state parks, license branches, highways could be impacted

INDIANAPOLIS (June 26, 2009) – Analysis by two independent organizations concludes the doors of Indiana state government will close next Wednesday if lawmakers and the governor are unable to reach a budget agreement.

The bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) both concluded Indiana’s Constitution, state law and related court decisions do not allow for the continuation of services without appropriations expressed in state law.

Indiana’s public K-12 schools, colleges and universities, state parks, license branches, highways and other key state-funded agencies and programs would be effected, according to the groups’ findings released by Senate President Pro Tem David C. Long (R-Fort Wayne).

Long said, "Current Indiana law already allows funding to continue for psychiatric hospitals, the School for the Deaf, the School for the Blind, the Veterans’ Home and Plainfield Juvenile Facility. Beyond that, the governor believes he has the authority to maintain public safety – prisons, state police, homeland security and Indiana National Guard."

NCSL, a bipartisan organization that serves legislators and staffs of all 50 states, categorizes Indiana as one of 20 shut-down states. Eleven states allow temporary appropriation bills. The remaining 19 have constitutional provisions or statutory procedures to ensure uninterrupted operation of state services during an appropriations lapse.

LSA, the nonpartisan legal arm of the Indiana General Assembly, agreed last week with NCSL’s findings. In a June 19, 2009, memorandum, LSA noted the governor may seek additional spending power through the courts, but such outcomes would be unprecedented and possibly untimely.

Time is running out for fiscal leaders from the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives and Republican-led Senate to negotiate a budget compromise. Indiana’s fiscal year ends at midnight on June 30.

Anticipating the findings of NCSL and LSA, the Senate president pro tem offered a "safety net" bill that would keep the current state budget in place until another budget could be passed.

"Only one scenario is worse than lawmakers not passing a new budget, and that is the state coming to a screeching halt and shutting down critical services to our citizens," Long said. "Senate Bill 1 would ensure that Indiana’s classrooms and lecture halls, state parks and license branches, highways and other important state-supported services receive necessary funding to maintain operations and continue serving Hoosiers."

Long’s plan quickly passed the Senate, but was balked at by Democrat leaders in the House, where it has not received a committee hearing.

With just four more calendar days remaining in the current state fiscal year, House and Senate fiscal leaders continue meeting in hopes of striking a compromise. No lawmaker voices confidence and the governor says his patience has "worn thin."

"My hope is we’re not witnessing a shift from showdown to shutdown," Long said. "Lawmakers have only so much time and taxpayers have only so much money."