Amy Morrin Bello

After weeks of holding public hearings, the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee and Appropriations Committee approved their budget proposals (Appropriations handles the spending side and Finance handles the revenue side). 

The next step…negotiations and compromise: Legislators will work with the Governor and his staff to craft the final budget agreement. The budget bill then goes before the House and Senate, where each chamber must pass the same version of the budget for the bill to move to the Governor's desk. The legislature’s final budget must be signed into law by the Governor before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. I will continue to work with legislative leadership to ensure critical areas of the budget like education and nonprofits have the resources they need and that we are providing as much relief as possible for our working families and retirees.

The budget is a negotiation between the two chambers, political parties, and the executive branch. It has many moving parts and rarely makes everyone happy, but usually has components that are important to many legislators.