Joint Budget Targets to be Set
4/27/2007
Updated May 15, 2007
May 15, 2007 - This week @ the Capitol - The E-12 Education Conference Committee hasn't met in about three weeks, as Co-Chair Rep. Mindy Greiling wants to have a budget target first. Last week, the Governor met with legislative leaders to discuss the budget and his recent vetoes, but there’s still no word about a “global agreement” on the overall budget, Ready 4 K.
# # #
House and the Senate leadership have yet to set budget targets for the conference committees. What's more, the
E-12 Education Committee may be one of the last committees to get a budget target!
The budget targets will determine how much each conference committee is allowed to spend in their area of jurisdiction. Although the conference committees are already meeting to discuss differences between the House and Senate versions of the bills, they will not be able to complete their work on key fiscal issues until the targets have been announced.
Once common ground has been reached, each conference committee will send their bills back to the House and Senate floors. Bills cannot be amended at this point, so the only options are to pass the bills (almost always the case) or vote the bills down.
Once the bills have passed both the House and the Senate, they will be sent to the Governor. Assuming that this does not happen within the last few days of the session, the Governor has three days (not including Sunday) to sign or veto the bill. If he takes no action, the bill automatically becomes law.
Many of the Omnibus Bills are widely expected to be vetoed. If the Governor vetoes the bill, a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate is required to override the veto. The Governor may also line-item veto individual appropriations within a bill, which also requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override.
Now is the time to contact members of a conference committee to urge them to include the issues that are important to you in the final bill. The committees will be acting quickly to finish their work once the targets are announced, so don’t wait to make your voice heard.
Related Links
 | 