pamelabrkly

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Budget

The Senate passed a budget tonight. Having extra revenue this year has made the whole process less contentious since there's enough money to cover everything that's important to the members. I left when the Senate finished, so I'm not sure if the Assembly came up with anything. If they did, this could be the first time in six years that the legislature has passed a budget before the end of the fiscal year.

One of my co-workers was really surprised that most of the legislators aren't more involved in the budget process, or that the budget bills don't generate more debate. She's worked for the Washington state legislature, where participating in passing a budget is one of the most important things a member works on each session. I bet this is because the Washington legislature controls their entire state budget. It's too bad the California legislature doesn't have the same discretion. I think not having the power to control the entire state budget is one of the most serious challenges facing the legislature.

One of the bills I'm staffing was defeated in committee today. I know the bill was facing a lot of challenges and I've been prepared to see it get defeated, but I didn't think this particular committee would be the place so I was really pretty startled when so many Dem members just abstained. We took amendments to satisfy everyone's concerns so I was really surprised when the chair lifted the call on the bill and every one of the members who hadn't voted before just sat there and abstained. Ahhh.

So this a pretty long day with a lot of suspense, a lot of hurry up and wait, and just pretty anti-climatic.

2 Comments:

  • At 1:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It must be tough after all the research, preparation, drafting, rewrites, adjustments, meeting with people, discussion, admendments, and so forth to end up having your bill defeated. Sometimes I just think certain people like to make others rush around to their bidding and then when decision time is upon them, they sit back on their haunches and do nothing. Ugh!
    A dear friend

     
  • At 1:13 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It must be tough after all the research, preparation, drafting, rewrites, adjustments, meeting with people, discussion, admendments, and so forth to end up having your bill defeated. Sometimes I just think certain people like to make others rush around to their bidding and then when decision time is upon them, they sit back on their haunches and do nothing. Ugh!
    A dear friend

     

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