INDIANAPOLIS - Whether it's by his choice or state lawmakers' demands, Gov. Mitch Daniels is set take center stage when he calls members of the Indiana General Assembly into special session in a few weeks to complete the task of drafting a state budget.
After an apparent communications breakdown doomed negotiations and the lawmakers left the Capitol last week without passing a budget, Daniels drew the ire of Democrats and even some Republicans.
Legislators thought the budget they had crafted met Daniels' expectation that the state's $1.3 billion surplus be protected, and grew frustrated because they perceived the governor to be changing the budget's targeted bottom line late in negotiations.
When the governor chooses to call legislators back for overtime, though, lawmakers say Daniels must name his bottom line. He must tell them exactly how much money they can spend.
"I think he's just going to have to realize that he has to be part of the solution and not the problem," House Speaker Patrick Bauer said.
Publicly, Daniels has never specified how much he wants the budget to total. Bauer, D-South Bend, says Daniels is "the nowhere man."
Senate Majority Leader David Long, R-Fort Wayne, was less direct but echoed Bauer's sentiment that legislators never got a sense of how much Daniels was willing to spend.
"I'll be honest with you, I think it's subject to interpretation about how clear people were," Long said. "The actual number the governor could sign is in the eye of the beholder in my opinion."
That could be because as the recession sent state revenue plummeting, Daniels' bottom line went down, too.
A forecast issued two weeks ago predicted tax collections would total $830 million less through July 2011 than an already downgraded forecast had projected in December.
Daniels and lawmakers dismissed that forecast, saying it was too optimistic. And less than two weeks later, Daniels said his budget officials expect tax collections in April alone to fall $200 million short of the most recent forecast.
If trends continue, the two-year, $28 billion budget lawmakers were considering would have eaten through the surplus and then some.
"Perhaps I should have been more direct. Perhaps I should have been harsher. Perhaps I should have been more critical of their plans as they moved forward," Daniels said. "I tried for an approach that was more collaborative and cooperative. (It) didn't work."
More time, more data
Daniels and lawmakers on both sides say as they head into the special session, having revenue reports from April and possibly May as well will be helpful. That's why all sides agree they should wait a few weeks before starting.
Long suggested that Daniels offer a complete, line-by-line budget that includes an education spending formula and is based on the most recent revenue numbers, and then introduce that budget to the State Budget Committee.
That panel, which includes lawmakers from all four caucuses, would then hold public hearings and work on the governor's budget.
Daniels should only call the special session once all four sides have agreed to a final draft, Long said. That way, the House and Senate can meet quickly, just to pass the budget - a move that would save taxpayers the cost of an extended special session.
Indiana's constitution does not require the General Assembly to pass a budget. But practically, the responsibility of delivering a state spending plan rests on lawmakers' shoulders.
Their failure to do so before midnight June 30 - the end of the current fiscal year - would result in most of the state government shutting down.
Special sessions are unpopular because they come at an added cost - $75,400 a week - to taxpayers. They can engender anger in taxpayers who perceive lawmakers to have failed to accomplish their duties in time.
How lawmakers failed to pass a budget is a weeklong saga that begins with compliments and back-patting and ends in bitterness and finger-pointing.
House Democrats and Senate Republicans spent last weekend deliberating, and by the week's beginning, the two sides had worked out nearly all of their differences.
On Monday, lawmakers thought they had a budget. That, it appears, is when Daniels stepped in.
On Wednesday morning, legislative leaders - Long and Kenley for the Senate Republicans, Bauer and Ways and Means Chairman Bill Crawford of Indianapolis for the House Democrats - met with Daniels. But that meeting did little to clarify the governor's position.
False confidence?
House Democrats emerged confident Daniels supported the Senate Republican budget.
"He clearly implied that the agreed-upon budget would be acceptable to him if we gave him the additional $100 million," Crawford said.
Senate Republicans weren't so sure. Kenley said his understanding was that Daniels would veto the budget without the $100 million cut, and would consider signing a budget with that cut made.
House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, wasn't in the meeting, but said he called Daniels on Wednesday to ask whether the governor supported the Senate Republican budget.
According to Bosma, Daniels' response was: "Absolutely not, and I can't sign it."
Minutes before midnight Wednesday, at the same time Republicans were passing it in the Senate, Bauer brought the budget - $100 million cut included - to a vote.
It failed, 27-71. All 27 yes votes came from Democrats. The entire Republican caucus voted no.
Thursday morning, Democratics cast blame on Daniels, saying they agreed to protect the surplus but the governor moved the target.
Daniels said he was "baffled" that the budget even passed the Republican-led Senate.
"This budget was utterly unacceptable all along," Daniels said. "I never had any other point of view, and it's a good thing that it failed because we have plenty of time now to deal with reality."
In a statement that summed up the week, as Bosma decried poor "communication in this building," he offered a prescription for those working in the Statehouse:
"Three hours of a good communications class would do everyone a world of good here."