The General Assembly has adjourned Sine Die (without day), and the 2007 session is officially over. The FY2008 Budget (HB95) was worked out in conference committee late Thursday night into early Friday morning and wasn’t approved till about mid-day. The budget was over 200 pages long and then spent the rest of the day getting printed. It didn’t hit legislator’s desks till 9:30pm, when it had to sit for 1 hour according to House rules. At 10:30 debate began which lasted about 45 minutes in the House and much less in the Senate. HB95 passed the House with only three dissenting votes, and the Senate with one dissenting vote. At this time I’m not aware of anyone (besides legislators) who has a copy of the final Conference Committee Report, but word is that the Governor’s GoFish program was fully funded, and $40M was set aside for “land conservation”.

We’ll post more details on the FY08 Budget as we get them.

As for the HB94, the FY2007 Supplemental budget, that was vetoed by the Governor late Thursday night. First thing Friday morning the House overrode the veto, however the Senate refused to address the matter on a technicality: the Governor never transmitted his veto to the House. Because of this, the Governor will most likely call a special session.

Stay tuned for more information…….

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