The legislative chambers are quiet this week and the capitol halls are empty. But the special legislative session is still going on although it looked for a while last week that the frustrated state senate was ready to just chuck the whole thing. Senators were upset that the House leaders and the Governor cooked up a deal on an economic development package without including the senate in negotiations. They were upset that the economic development bill the senate had passed was stalled in a House committee that wouldn’t even take a vote on it. They were upset that the House hadn’t done anything to advance its own economic development bill.
But senate leader Rob Mayer says majority Repubglicans in both houses just couldn’t pull the plug.
The House also could have ended the session last week and had the first chance to do so. When we talked to Mayer, he hadn’t talked to the House leadership about why the House decided to keep the session going. He says he’s read in the newspapers that the House is leaving the session open in hopes it can pass a bill.
There doesn’t seem to be a timetable for that. The session can go until November 6th.