The process began with the Governor’s introduced budget which is meant to be a starting point for negotiations through which changes are made, with a final budget arriving back on the Governor’s desk for either approval or rejection.
The budget process is designed to ensure all priorities are considered and more important that all decisions are made in an open and transparent manner.
Today, in a divisive spirit, House Democrats short-circuited the budget process by bringing the Human Services budget directly to the House floor with little notice and no committee deliberations, then defeated the bill with unanimous Democrat opposition. This action was not genuine, it was intended to send a message. Recognizing that, the House Republicans voted “Present.”
Immediately thereafter, House Democrats filed 15 additional amendments, cherry-picking various programs vulnerable in the budget and began running them one at a time, again in the hopes of deliberately sabotaging the budget working groups that have been meeting for months… and continue to meet. Again, House Republicans voted “Present.”
Here’s what some of our members had to say on the topic:
Rep. Barb Wheeler
Rep. Grant Wehrli