Two long days of negotiations have led to a long night of action in the senate on the things on which the senate wants to spend money in the next fiscal year.
A core group of about nine Senators had some sharp differences with the budget bills coming from the senate appropriations committee. They were joined in a loose and changing coalition by other senators who had their own issues.
Debate didn’t start until 8:15 last night…and didn’t stop until 2:30 this morning.
A relatively small thing in the 24-billion dollar budget was 28-milion dollars put back in the plan for low-income blind Missourians.
Thee senate’s version of the state budget is just a little more than 24-billiion dollars. It calls for one-thousand fewer full-time employees. But it does not include any tax credit reforms that credit critics say rob the state of hundreds of millions of badly-needed dollars.
A special House and Senate committee has until May 11th to find compromises on those bills and get them back through the House and Senate by May 11th.