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Definitions of Political Terms
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Wyoming Constitution; Article 1, Section
30...Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free state,
and shall not be allowed. Corporations being creatures of the state, endowed
for the public good with a portion of its sovereign powers, must be subject to
its control.
Happy Day After President's Day!!
Isn't it funny that we no longer honor our
great presidents Washington and Lincoln individually? Doesn't that feed into
the general ignorance concerning the history of our country?
And in the Capitol today, the budget process
motors on towards the end. The 'supplemental' budget, in mirror budget
process, has passed both the Senate and the House, and since they are
different due to amendments, awaits the ministrations of the budget
conference committee.
Remember the legislative process......
1...the Joint Appropriations Committee ( 5 from
the Senate and 7 from the House ), listens to various state agency budget
requests before the Session starts, and collectively decides what the budget
proposal will look like.
2...that budget becomes identical budget
bills...mirror bills... which are started in both the House and the Senate.
3...both chambers offer amendments to the mirror
bill, which results in it getting out of mirror image.
4...the Senate and the House appoint 5 members
each...the conference committee... to meet and do some horse trading on the
differences.
5...each chamber will vote individually on
whether or not to accept the total compromise.
6...at some point both chambers will vote to
accept the conference committees proposal, they always do!
7...the Governor will have a chance to line-item
veto parts of the budget
8...the legislature will have a chance to take a
vote on overriding the vetoes of the Governor
And that will be that!
The two budget proposals have some big
differences; two of the biggest are that the House wants to put a lot more
money into the untouchable Permanent Mineral Trust Fund (206 million versus
93 million), and they also have about 30 million for school district
employee raises in their budget while the Senate has none.
Of course the Senate is till working on a
separate bill to provide the extra school district money, so that could
still come out equal. It's a bit confusing, isn't it?
Guess that is about it for now. My weekly
guest column was in the Cheyenne paper yesterday, the title of it was
..'Fiscal Conservatives? Says Who?'
If you would like to read it, go
to..........
Keith
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