Today is day 19 of the special session. Progress was made during the past week with the passage of the operating budget. However, the capital budget, which has presented the most problems, still remains unresolved. Coastal Management also remains on the table.
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Read More →Finally, it feels like the logjam is beginning to break. Today the House and Senate reached concurrence on the Operating and Mental Health budgets. In excess of nine billion fat ones, the Operating Budget is a cornucopia stuffed with goodies enough for everybody. My view is that the size alone is scary, but I have to confess that the things important to me were pretty much included…
Read More →Save It For a Rainy Day? Perish the Thought
We are poised to pass an operating budget today. A mental health budget, too.
(I’ll pause here while you get the legislature-mental health jokes off your chest.)
The operating budget is the big casino, the money to pay for the day-to-day costs of state government. This year’s operating budget is just less than $9 billion – that’s $6.6 billion in state funds, $2.1 in federal funds. Next year’s operating budget, the one we’re working on now, is just more than $9 billion – that’s $6.9 billion in state funds, $2.1 billion in federal funds. That’s an increase of about 4 percent in state funds.
Read More →Today is day 16 of the special legislative session. Much to my disappointment, the Legislature remains in a stalemate over the capital budget, with Senate and House leadership and the Governor all digging in their heels. The main point of contention is language in the Senate’s version of the budget that ties together a large number of energy projects across the state by saying that if the Governor vetoes one or more of the projects, he effectively vetoes the entire package of energy projects.
Read More →The special session is heading in to its third week, and the House and Senate Finance Committees are still at an impasse over the capital budget. The main point of contention is language the Senate has proposed linking millions of dollars worth of energy projects together in order to prevent the governor from vetoing some of those projects.
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