Governor Henry
blamed his own party for the delayed budget yesterday saying they deserved an "F" for tardiness. He didn't explicitly blame his party, but it was in effect what he was doing, since Senate President Pro Tem Mike Morgan and the Democrats in the Senate were stalling action on the bill, even at one point threatening to
"Stay as long as it takes." In the AP interview, Henry said he was
"extremely disappointed that it took so long to reach an agreement when the basic framework was in place weeks ago." From the AP:
Henry, a Democrat, floated a compromise budget plan on May 15th. Republican House Speaker Todd Hiett accepted the Henry compromise, but Senate Democrats rejected it.
What followed was a month of negotiations, mainly through surrogates for Hiett and Senate President Pro Tem Mike Morgan, as the adjournment deadline for the regular session expired on May 26th.
A firm budget agreement was not announced until exactly a month after Henry disclosed his compromise budget proposal. House and Senate members reconvened in the middle of last week in a special session and finished approving a record 7-point-1 (b) billion dollar spending plan on Friday.
Posted at 6/27/2006 07:27:00 AM
