January 28, 2008

3:55 PM

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More Republican ideas to save taxpayers money: Democrats continue to dig a debt hole

If we’ve learned one thing from the final version of HB 1001, it’s that Republicans have emphasized fiscal responsibility while Democrats have been looking for ways to create more problems.

Take Rep. Dan Leonard’s idea to save money on school construction.

Last year, three new schools were built in the 50th District, and they were all very similar, but all had separate building plans. Rep. Leonard’s amendment, the Little Red Schoolhouse Amendment, would require the state to have school building plans already drawn up for counties to use. This would save Hoosier taxpayers millions of dollars in design fees.

“School construction is a large portion of local government costs,” said Rep. Leonard. “By moving to pre-designed school construction plans, we will reduce cost to counties, cutting property taxes. Many other states, such as Florida, have already successfully instituted statewide school building plans.”

Whitley County is currently building a new school and estimated costs are $62 million. This bill would help contain costs on construction plans, architect fees and engineering cost. School building costs in Indiana now average 149 percent of the national average for cost per square foot. This is an attempt to lower that and keep spending under control.
The Democrats, however, stopped a spending cap amendment designed to reign in state spending. In addition, they again eliminated a provision that would give Hoosiers input on local construction projects- a line item that’s now estimated to be responsible for as much as 50% of the total property tax burden on taxpayers.

So let’s summarize 2008 thus far…