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Lawmakers Work to End Session by Friday

Flickr / texasbackroads

State lawmakers are staying on schedule to finish work three weeks ahead of schedule.

House Appropriations and Budget Chairman Kevin Wallace says the priority was to get the $7.6 billion budget to the Governor.

Wallace says getting it completed didn’t happen overnight as he’s been working on this budget for nearly a year.

“Once the revenue package was passed it became real clear this is the amount of revenue and dollars that we have to work with, let’s build the budget, and we did that. So, there’s not a hurry to get out of the building other than the fact we’ve completed our job and it does cost money every day that the legislature is in session.”

Lawmakers are constitutionally required to end the legislative session by 5:00pm on the last Friday in May, but there’s nothing stopping them from finishing early.

Wallace says leadership is telling its members if they have a bill in conference committee to get it to the House Floor or let it die.

“We are on schedule to be out May Fourth, so if there’s a hang up and the bill’s not in a form that would pass right now, then, yeah, it probably needs some more work and we’ll have to work on it again next year.”

Wallace calls the $7.6 billion dollar budget sent to the governor last week great and admits, while there's no such thing as a perfect budget, it’s the best one he’s seen since he’s been at the Capitol.

While lawmakers could be finished by Thursday, the Wellston Republicans anticipates some final business needed to be completed on Friday.

Michael Cross is the host of KOSU's Morning Edition.
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