Short Day on Budget; Senate to Revive CIB

I don’t know who wouldn’t want these work hours.  The House of Representatives is done for the day – at noon. 

Heard today were amendments to the budget bill. Among them were pet projects and technical tweaks – many of which involve additional funding requests. House Republicans did register their complaints, saying this session is about establishing the state budget and not a time to keep spending on other things.

The budget measure (SS 1001) was moved to third reading; the House could vote on it as soon as tomorrow, when it is set to reconvene in the morning.

One added bit of drama came courtesy of Rep. Jeff Espich of Uniondale and Rep. Bill Crawford of Indianapolis, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, who exchanged barbs on the House floor. 

The topic was the way the Capital Improvement Board (CIB) bill was handled/manhandled – you can choose your own term – in committee yesterday. 

Espich wanted it known that the Republicans didn’t want the measure withdrawn as Crawford had done (due to lack of bipartisan support).  In his rebuttal, Crawford stated emphatically that “the CIB business now must be addressed in the Senate … it was my call to kill it and my call is it’s dead.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, marked the end of today’s proceedings.

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