Budget Prioritization

The executive appropriations committee just met. We approved base budgets, with a few fireworks. The biggest fireworks were on transportation funding and state parks.

After some wrestling between the House and Senate, 70 million dollars was approved for transportation funding. Of course, a majority of each house needs to approve this action. For the Senate, this is likely the end of the conversation. For the House, it is the beginning (see my previous posts on budgeting, for the reasons why the House wants to fund transportation with cash instead of credit). But, it gets that much of the budget off the table and makes it more likely we will be able to pass most of the budget early in the session.

The natural resources committee determined that funding law enforcement for the division of wildlife resources was not as important as some other items. The State Parks Board responded by saying it would have to close parks, if that recommendation was approved. Our people likely don't want us to close any state parks. We'll dig further into that budget and see if parks would have to be closed. If that is the case, we'll need to adjust priorities or overall funding for the committee (one of the three committees to take an overall cut during the past 5 years). If it is not the case and the Board was needlessly ramping up the dialogue, we'll need to make adjustments to the Board.

Stay tuned. If we can get the base budget out of the way, our discussions on the remaining money should be pretty focused and crisp.