UPDATE 05/30/05
The House has adjourned Sine Die (with no tomorrow). Some Senators are saying that means for about two weeks. House members are saying the first of August. The governor said he will not call a Special session but would let the courts settle it. Today realizing there would be no agreement on much of anything he said he would call a Special Session if the House and Senate leader reach an agreement. With four Special Sessions already and more coming this session that is what he has done best.
The final count for the top 10 Bills that passed is three. #1 a $139 billion Budget, # 7 A revamping of the Workman's Comp Program and #10 a catchall Bill to make up for the shortfall from last session. What happened to the Balanced Budget our leaders were so proud of last year. It appears it came up about $ 3,000,000,000 short before the biennium ended.
Along with all the other money being spent by this Bill It will just about wipe out what is known as the Rainy Day Fund. House members were warned if they didn't pass this Bill they would not be able to pay for the Agencies that came up short and would lose millions of dollars in Federal matching funds.
Since there was no School Finance Reform or tax Bill passed HB 10 also sets aside $3,000,000,000 for education. Unable to agree how the money should be spent the Bill gives the money to Rep Kent Gruesendorf and his committee to spend the money as they see fit. That means than nine state Reps will decide how to spend the $ 3,000,000,000. Sounds like a real problem since Rep Gruesendorf is the one who authored HB 2 that the House & Senate could not agree on.
There were a few good Bills, a few ridiculous Bills that do no harm, some bad Bills and over 2500 Resolutions. We have to wait and see how the governor responds to them before we can say we really accomplished anything but we shall get the word out as soon as he acts. The only thing certain is that the lack of leadership evidenced this session will be fodder for the upcoming campaigns. And with most Bills being killed we didn't get hurt as bad as we could have.
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Sputnik
State Chair TMRA 2
