May
3
Written by:
Mark Lavergne
5/3/2011 8:10 PM
The refusal of Democratic Senators to allow the budget to come to the floor – and there be stripped of contingency funds – means Republicans may use a rare calendar maneuver to avoid needing two-thirds support to bring it up.
The rare calendar maneuver? Sticking with the regular order of business instead of voting to suspend it. Conveniently for the Republicans, the very first bill on the regular order of business tomorrow is none other than the Senate’s markup of the budget, House Bill 1.
That means no vote to suspend. All Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst would need to do is recognize Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) to bring the bill up and all that is needed is 16 votes. Ogden has all 19 Republicans.
Today Ogden brought the committee substitute to HB 1 to the Senate for a vote.
In order to secure all Republican votes, Ogden promised to bring a floor amendment to remove a rider guaranteeing $3 billion in Rainy Day Fund money. But in so doing he lost Democratic votes, including his vice-chairman, Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen). Ogden maintained that it was not necessary to use Rainy Day Fund money to fund this budget. All Democratic Senators disagreed.
Ogden’s motion to suspend failed to get the 21 votes necessary. The vote was 19-12 along party lines.
Democrat after Democrat thanked Ogden for his hard work to improve on the base bill sent over from the House. But none of them voted for it.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) said she could not in good conscious vote for a bill “that cuts so much, yet leaves billions in the Rainy Day Fund.” Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) called the bill a “fiscal time bomb” that will explode in less than two years.
After the vote, Dewhurst told reporters that he would prefer to maintain the Senate’s tradition of finding a way to “come together” with consensus, and maintained that negotiations would continue between now and when the Senate gavels in at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
While there is still time to reach an agreement, at the end of the day, he said, “I will pass a budget.”
Ogden told his colleagues and the press that the newest version of the budget would add almost $6 billion to education spending in HB 1 as passed by the House. He said that his version of the bill was restored funding to many of the Medicaid reimbursements that were cut in the House version, including funding for nursing homes. It also restored funding for Child Protective Services and foster care for abused and neglected children, he said.
The bill does put off paying some Medicaid obligations until the next biennium. But Ogden suggested that if the Texas economy continues to accelerate at its current pace, that won’t matter.
At any rate, everyone seems to expect another floor debate on the budget tomorrow, and, likely, a vote.