Budget Update

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a budget!

That is the news...I cannot share with you whether it is good news or bad news as I have yet to have the opportunity to read and review the one budget bill that should address the FY08 shortfall. (Usually the budget is comprised of 10 or so seperate bills.)

It is 6:15 Thursday evening and I am sitting in my office at the Capitol waiting on a chance to read the budget bill that we are suppose to caucus and vote on later on tonight. Hurry up and wait is the name of the game. We were told to be here at 4:30, then at 4:20 we were told 5:30. At 5:30 pm we received an email from the House Chief of Staff that stated amendments to the budget bill were being drafted and instructed us to be available at 7:00pm.

I do not know the content of the amendments but I did hear from a Democrat that the amendments include some of the provisions agreed upon at the insistence of the Governor and apparently overlooked when the budget bill was drafted today. Word is that the Governor gave the dems their marching orders this morning and instructed them to support the budget bill. All I can say is that if the Governor and the Dems like it, it cannot be good.

All in all, I guess we'll probably have less than 30 minutes to read the proposal and ask questions. There will be no opportunity to make changes or offer suggestions...just the chance to vote "YES" or "NO". I despise this process...and this year it is even worse than usual since the Appropriations committee was left out of the equation.

BTW, a legislator down the hall is violently ill and has been vomiting for the last 45 minutes. When thinking about the injustice taking place here, I feel about as ill as he is.