Greetings,

Legislative Update #4, January 29, 2009

Democrats "One-Up" Republican Leadership

Senate Chamber tackles budget Wednesday with lengthy debate.  The across the board cut plan by Republican leadership was overshadowed though by a plan by Democratic Senator Laura Kelley.  In a 25-15 vote in which conservative republicans aligned with democrats, a budget to finish the current fiscal year got initial approval.  A Final Action vote is to take place today on the bill.  As many Senators expressed, it gets them further down the road.  It was a blow to moderate republican leadership who developed the $300 million plan with 3.4% across the board cuts including education.  Most everyone is anticipating a deeper deficit when projections come out in the coming months, and this plan uses some one time accounting maneuvers to get us to next year.  Republican leadership could only suggest harder choices and taxes could be the result when next fiscal year's budget debate ensues this session. 

It appears the bill spares education with a significantly lesser cut, but still more than the governors cut with about $11 above the Governor's cut in state aid per-pupil.  The Kelley amendment to SB 23 changes the overall cut to $335 million, hence the conservative support for the bill.  The result is a 4.5% cut for most state agencies, sparing education.