Pence set to sign $31 billion Indiana budget plan

LEBANON, Ind. (AP) – Gov. Mike Pence plans on signing the new state budget plan during a ceremony at a central Indiana elementary school.

The new two-year state spending plan was approved by the General Assembly last week. Slightly more than half of the $31 billion budget goes toward K-12 education, with funding going up 2.3 percent each year.

Pence is scheduled to sign the budget bill Thursday afternoon at Perry-Worth Elementary School in Lebanon.

A key push by Republicans in the spending plan was to shift money from many shrinking urban and rural school districts to those in growing suburban communities.

Democrats calculate about a third of Indiana’s nearly 300 school districts will see funding cuts under the changes and predict hundreds of teacher layoffs around the state.