Colorado lawmakers take up 2 transportation funding bills

With HB 2018 not implementing tax increases, the tax increases included in Justice’s original proposed budget would not be enforced.

On Thursday night, the Senate formally voted 15-5 in favor of a spending plan that cuts $276 million from the state’s operating budget.

Justice and lawmakers have clashed over differing budget plans, and Justice has pushed for the the West Virginia Legislature, which adjourned Sunday, to approve a budget before the end of its regular session. “This bill is a compromise that protects future investments by the oil industry in Alaska without devastating our budget and leaving the state on the hook to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies without being able to cover those costs”. They so far have shown little interest in taxes.

The House and Senate worked together into the early hours of the morning to come up with a budget bill to put on Governor Jim Justice’s desk.

Patrick, who oversees the Senate, had tried publicly to force the House’s hand on vouchers, fearing the Senate bill might not otherwise make it to a floor vote. They find common ground on other thorny policy issues like abortion restrictions, sanctioning strict voter ID rules and cracking down on immigration.

When House budget writers crafted their version, they estimated state revenues over the next two years to be almost $60 million lower than what the Governor projected in his spending plan.

A bill legalizing industrial hemp production unanimously passed the Alaska State Senate on Mon., April 10.

If House Bill 982 is passed, additional training for those who are already licensed to carry will not be required.

Sponsors for the bill include Senators Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver.

The House made another key change to the Senate’s version of the bill. Under the amendment, changes to the Permanent Fund will only go into effect if the Legislature also passes both an income tax and changes to oil and gas taxes.

Those cuts include 8 percent to Marshall and West Virginia universities, a 2 percent cut to West Virginia State University and Blue Ridge Community Technical College, and 4 percent cuts to all other state higher education institutions.

The Senate Finance Committee will then begin hearing presentations of all state agencies, a process that is scheduled to continue through May 1.

To strike that balance, budget-writers, among other things, drastically cut transportation funding in hopes that lawmakers can deliver a short or long-term solution this session. It would also create a revolving fund that would pay for those projects.

“We’ll just have to wait until the right time to close it out”.

“Health care is one of the only services where consumers have nearly no idea how much it will cost”, Spohnholz said in a prepared statement.