Paper: Daniels is right on rainy day fund

That war over Indiana's rainy day fund gets louder as the legislature takes up the budget. Governor Mitch Daniels wants to save the $ for a truly torrential downpour, while Democrats are already running for shelter, screaming that a biblical flood will soon consume all of Indiana.

But there's some justification for Daniels' caution:

The evidence supports the governor's caution. State revenues in December are $33 million short of forecast. The economy, by almost every measure, is going to get worse before it gets better. And it is unlikely to get better anytime soon.

But [Democrat Speaker] Bauer contends in seeking release of those funds that it's raining pretty hard right now. He thinks more could and should be done with those funds to create jobs for Hoosiers.

More already is being done by preserving the rainy day buffer and keeping check on spending, on taxes that is, that would be levied against the very businesses that create or preserve jobs. Certainly more than what, if the record is any measure, the big spenders could do to create lasting jobs.