KVNUFTP

Senate Site Blogger Presser, May 20th Special Session

The Senate Site is hosting another online press conference for the special session wrapping up this afternoon.  Live blog below.  A bit of general legislative session flash-back: Ric Cantrell (the man behind the people behind these blogger pressers) standing at the back of the room typing rapidly on a blackberry.  Has he even left the chamber since the session ended, or is this room where they keep him?

5:06 – “Advise and Consent” challenge from the Senate.  Senators all over the country seeking input, no time yet to get hearings put together, but “we will encourage public input.”

5:01 – Question: Will we see a cigarette tax to fix Medicaid?  Knudson: We’ll have to see what the economy does.  Off screen: Unwise to start predicting what will be our greatest area of need.  In terms of potential gap, we’re talking under 10%.  If you’re down $450 million, cigarette tax is not a reliable budget solution.

4:58 – Economy is picking up in a lot of sectors, the problem is that people aren’t making money THIS year.  We’ll be another year out.  $2.2 billion in bonding has not hit yet.  Outlook is positive.  We’re seeing some stabilization before the assistance we appropriated has even hit.  We’re seeing a lot of orange construction cones.

4:55 – Question, will there be more special sessions?  Hillyard: “We hope not.”  Follow up comment (couldn’t see which mouth was moving): “You can never say never.

4:53 – Sen. Hillyard: “We need to make sure stimulus money is being spent on stimulus.”

4:47 – Sen. Hillyard: “If higher education had received stimulus funds, they would have lost state appropriations.”  Some monies were appropriated during the general session, but not actually certified until today.  We don’t want to start new programs with one time money.

4:45 – The special session was primarily to address technical changes