I’ve blogged from the House Floor before…. and, by now, you already know about live updates from “the Twitter Caucus” on SCTWEETS.COM .
As I type tonight this post it is 2:05 a.m. Wednesday morning and we are still on the House floor debating our budget. I hope we’ll be finished within the hour.
As someone who would rather not have spent this $350 million from the federal government, here are some amendments that passed yesterday and today that several of us feel will put some safeguards in place for our taxpayers. If we’re gonna spend the money, at least we’ve tried to protect the taxpayers.
* All stimulus money spent by the State Department of Education must be put on their website homepage to show the programs that were funded.
* No stimulus money may be spent on administrative purposes for the State Department of Education (must go to our schools).
* We have protections in place so that schools using stimulus money cannot restrict religious activities.
* Removed a $500,000 earmark in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.
* Approved a Consolidation of State Agencies Study Committee
* All stimulus money spent by state agencies must be put online.
* Removed the Competitive Grants language
* All state agencies must list the total of their fees and fines on their agency website.
I appreciate all the feedback and advice shared with me leading up to this difficult week. I plan to write more later and, of course, share the final vote.