At today’s Senate Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation, the Committee chose to alter the Governor's Budget Trailer Bill proposal addressing the Safe, Affordable Drinking Water Fund (SADWF) when it was determined that the Assembly leadership is reluctant, thus far, to include this item in the Budget, putting the Senate into the position of voting for a proposal that does not yet have support of the Assembly leadership.
With guidance from the Pro Tem's office, the Subcommittee chose to move the item forward by replacing the Governor's proposal with an increased General Fund augmentation to allow the item to continue to move forward and be more easily folded into a conference item at a later date. Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) confirmed with Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), Chair of Budget Subcommittee, as well as the Pro Tem's office, that the intent was not to replace the proposed trailer bill. This was clearly stated for the record by Senator Wieckowski in Committee: he noted that the change to the Governor's proposal was solely to direct spending items and was intended to be in addition to the SADWF trailer bill that will be discussed at a later date.
The vote to move the item forward was 3-1 with Senators Wieckowski, McGuire and Stern voting “aye,” and Senator Nielsen voting “no.” Ultimately, today's action ended up in a good place, but it further illustrates that a bit of work remains in the Assembly.