Maybe I’m getting a little “high brow” throwing out Latin to you but that’s the term used for the end of each legislative session.
Among a flurry of actions today, the House unanimously passed the “Sine Die Resolution” which states our last day this sesion will be June 3rd. We have set aside 3 days after that (June 15-17) for any pressing matters (Governor Vetos, etc). After that, the 2nd regular session of the 118th General Assembly will be complete.
What was the flurry?
It started with more than one hour of confusion that ultimately led to the election of 3 new members of the newly created Department of Education & Workforce Appellate Panel. The votes were VERY CLOSE…and somehow we voted two times because it was believed that members had voted for more than 3 the first time around. We later learned that apparently no one did vote more than 3 times and so the 2nd set of votes were thrown out. The second set of votes had a different outcome and would have changed the makeup of the panel; but the first vote (which counted) is what stood and so four votes separated four people. 114 was the magic number to earn a spot.
Top three were elected: Tim Dangerfield 116, Steve Kelly Jr. 115, Evelyn Belicia Ayers 114, Kristina Jones Catoe (a member of our community) had 113.
Later in the day, we spent a fair amount of time removing the fees the Senate had placed in the budget. How’d we do that? More cuts.
As expected, it appears the votes may ultimately be there to pass a budget this year in the next few weeks. The issues I had shared with you earlier are being addressed and that will lead to a way to garner enough votes to pass a budget before we leave.
Keep an eye over the next few weeks…it’s gonna be an interesting time as bills will fly back/forth between the chamber with amendments that folks may read and may not even have time to read.