The House reconsiders, reverses course and passes a supplemental bill vital to school districts struggling to make it through the current fiscal year.
Rep. Maynard Wallace (R-Thornfield) makes the motion to reconsider the vote which rejected a supplemental budget bill (SCS HCS HB 2014), while still taking a slap at the Senate which refused the House’ request to hold a conference on the bill.
“But the truth of the matter is, and this is one of my flaws, I don’t trust the Senate to do the right thing with anything,” Wallace tells colleagues in proposing to reconsider the vote. “So, I think we have to do the right thing to move forward.”
The House approved a formula by which to distribute $43 million in cuts, and then had a change of heart. The Senate, though, had approved the House version and its rules left no avenue to negotiate differences that weren’t there.
House Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet (R-Wildwood) says though members regretted their earlier vote, rejecting the supplemental bill would have forced deeper cuts on their school districts.
“For some of them it was a bad vote or a worse vote and I certainly understand that,” Icet tells reporters afterward. “That’s the way it happens sometimes in this building; a bad vote or a worse vote.”
The main aspect of the supplemental bill is the appropriation of $86 million in general revenue to make up for a shortage in gambling money. The bill now goes to the governor.
AUDIO: Brent Martin reports [:60 MP3]
