Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the State Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Legislative negotiators say they reached a budget agreement and will post updated figures to public portal
Summary
Leaders at a legislative meeting said negotiating teams reached agreement on budget numbers and committed to updating a public portal by the end of the day; staff will draft the General Appropriations and related bills and coordinate joint committee scheduling.
Legislative negotiators announced they had reached agreement on budget figures and said staff would publish the same numbers to a public portal by the end of the day, participants said.
The agreement was presented as final by negotiators, who confirmed an allocation described in the meeting for OIDs. “We have that number now. And we've agreed to it,” an unnamed participant said. Another participant said the portal "will reflect the same numbers as spreadsheets that we're working off of," and that the portal update was intended to increase transparency.
Why it matters: Negotiators described the result as a publicly visible budget framework that staff from both chambers will use to draft the General Appropriations (GA) bill and numerous follow-up bills to implement and tie the budget together. Speakers emphasized the role of staff in producing bill text and asked the public to expect heavy behind‑the‑scenes work in the coming days.
Details from the meeting: Participants said the senate will draft the GA bill this year and that many limit and follow‑up bills will be needed to implement the agreement. One speaker urged that dates for joint committee meetings (referred to in discussion as JCAB/JFAP) be posted publicly, and participants agreed to coordinate calendars between chambers while avoiding work on Memorial Day.
Attributions and sourcing: The meeting transcript records an amount described verbally as "a hundred and $38,412" for allocations to OIDs; the phrasing in the record is unclear and the parties present described only that they had a number and were in agreement. The transcript also records multiple expressions of thanks to staff and to leaders on both sides of the aisle for their work on the transparency process.
What happens next: Staff from the House and Senate will proceed to prepare the GA bill and related implementing legislation. Negotiators said the portal would be updated to match the working spreadsheets by the end of the day, and committee scheduling for joint appropriations sessions will be coordinated and announced.
The meeting closed with participants reiterating that they had reached a deal and expressing satisfaction with the transparency improvements and the negotiation process.
