The amended FY 2008 budget passed this morning, six legislators voted against it.

One interesting note, there was a rule change in the House that prevented amendments from being offered:

Rule 108.3 No amendment to any appropriations bill shall be in order if the amendment has the effect of both reducing one appropriation and either increasing another appropriation or adding a new appropriation. No amendment to any appropriations bill increasing any appropriation or adding a new appropriation shall be in order unless there has previously been adopted an amendment reducing some other appropriation so as to make funds available for such new or increased appropriation; and no amendment to any appropriations bill shall be in order which would cause the bill to violate the balanced budget requirements of the Constitution.

This is something that I’d expect out of Democrats, in fact I believe that Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) did try something like this on the federal level. He also wanted to wait until conference to insert earmarks into appropriations bills. A similar idea was floated by Georgia House Majority Leader Jerry Keen.

There already isn’t much transparency in the budget process here in Georgia. I guess debate is pointless too.

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