Huston, We Have a Budget....Maybe

For pretty much the entire session, the money committees (Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means) have been hearing budgets and bills with fiscal impacts. Now they must get together and come up with a budget that both houses, and the Governor, can agree on. This has been quite a bone of contention lately. Last week, during the joint meeting to resolve budget differences, tempers rose and though the committees did somewhat advance, there were still many budgets, some of them platforms for the upcoming Governor's race, left unresolved.

For the past two nights, the Senate Finance committee and leadership from Assembly Ways and Means have been meeting in closed door sessions to attempt to find a compromise. This group has met late into the night, but the rumor around the building is we have an agreement. A solution by today will give staff enough time for the budget documents to be prepared so that they can be approved by the Legislature as a whole. The two houses must pass a budget by June 6th or a special session would be needed. (Nobody around this building wants a special session.)

So what is the budget? Well, we don't know; nothing has been released yet and committee members have been sworn to secrecy. In other words, we are all waiting with bated breath for a joint committee meeting to finalize the closing of the remaining budgets.

In the meantime, the show must go on.