The second week of the special legislative session begins today at the State Capitol as a key Senate committee holds an important hearing. Senator Anita Yeckel of St. Louis is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which will be reviewing the budget bills passed by the House. She thinks the public schools and higher education budgets, which were given an infusion of $86-Million by the House, will be accepted. And, she doesn’t believe there will be a lot of support, in the Senate, for any tax increase proposals. Governor Bob Holden forced the special session by vetoing the budget bills for education, higher education, health and mental health, and social services. He wants the Legislature to approve sending a tax increase proposal to a vote of the people. A meeting of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which was called to look over a number of revenue enhancing packages, was postponed because of a weekend accident involving a member of Chairman Carl Vogel’s family. It has yet to be rescheduled.
