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By Lyle Hillyard
Senate Chair of Executive Appropriations

After a tremendous amount of work, we were able to release the budget by Friday afternoon so it could be approved and printed. We hope to have a copy on each legislator’s desk first thing on Monday morning, so we can begin working on all the fiscal note bills as soon as possible.

There is a lot of coordination to be done to make sure that everything is completed by Wednesday night at midnight when the clock strikes twelve and we all turn into pumpkins. Since we have moved up this process, it has avoided the last minute running between chambers to get final approval of the budget (at least not as much). I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the committee priorities we were able to fund and still hold on to the $220.0 M tax cut and the large infusion of money into public and higher ed.

I have heard lots of compliments and, while some will grumble no matter how much we do, I felt impressed to answer a reporter’s question as to whether UEA is happy by saying "I believe we are all pleased but no one is satisfied because the importance of providing an excellent education for our children cannot be over emphasized." With this much money, we were able to fund changes that should get us out of the old way of doing things because times have changed. I feel confident to predict that in 10 years, educators and the general public will remember this session's funding and changes in education and see 2007 as a historic year. Now let’s hope the local school boards and superintendents can catch the vision and follow through with improvements made this year.

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