With very little discussion, the full Senate passed the budget bill today.
“The only thing that we’re here to do is to decide how do we impose 600 million dollars in cuts, because that’s all we can do,” Senate Finance chairman Eric LaFleur said.
He then walked the upper chamber through HB 1, advising from the start that amendments were not encouraged.
“To be fair to everyone, we took ‘em all out. We decided that we just wouldn’t offer any of ‘em,” LaFleur said, adding however, “These are programs that can be funded in the next two weeks, if they’re a high enough priority for you.”
It was quickly clear that Senate members were on the same page, and willing to work at raising more money during the special session that starts as soon as the current session ends. Senator Francis Thompson was the designated questioner, pointing out the current budget holes that will be eligible for filling.
“Just for the record, is that another one of our top priorities?” Thompson asked LaFleur.
“It’s a high priority for me. I know it’s a high priority for you, and I think it’s a high priority for this body,” LaFleur replied. “And we’ll find out what we do in a couple of weeks.”
There were questions about TOPS, and LaFleur explained that it remains one of those unfilled holes.
“In this current version of the bill, it’s funded at 48%. When it came from the House, it was purportedly funded at 75%, but we know that it was funded with what we don’t think was real money.”
That brought Senator Dan Claitor to the lectern for a question. “And could you spend a moment on the distinction between ‘real’ money and ‘House’ money?” Claitor asked.
“Yeah,” LaFleur said between chuckles. “Preamble language called for a mechanism -- or a ‘scheme’, as Senator Donahue likes to call it – a scheme by which they could raise money. These were self-generated dollars, cut from a number of agencies in order to fund TOPS.”
The Senate stripped that scheme out, and now sends the bill back to the House for concurrence – or more likely, conference committee.