Dispatch from Jones St: The Budget Still Under Negotiations

Leaders from the House and Senate continued to work into the evening last night on the Health and Human Services budget.  Many of the line items in the Medicaid budget were still under discussion by the time they broke at 10:45pm.

At the same time, the conferees for the Finance/Revenue package are still debating what the final numbers will be. If you have been following along at home, and we know you have been, the Senate never presented a finance package when they presented their budget.  Don't let that fool you, there was a package.

The House did present their package and it raised $784 million in new taxes. This restored some of the cuts but did not restore all the needed services for people being served by the division of MH/DD/SAS.

The Governor did request that lawmakers look to raise a total revenue package of $1.5 billion.

This is a very fluid process and we will keep you updated as changes develop. The HHS conferees will begin again today at 9:30am in room 415 of the Legislative Office Building.