The session hasn’t even started, but Sen. Victor Crist fired a warning shot Monday to the House illustrating the fraying nerves that are likely to intensify over the next two months.
Crist, who oversees the Senate’s criminal justice budget-writing, was displeased with how the House announced late Friday afternoon that it reached a deal to avoid court furloughs.
Crist’s appropriations committee amended the budget-cutting plan Monday to avoid the worst of the closures, but said the House should have notified the Senate it had agreed to the deal before firing off a press release to reporters.
“We went to them in good faith with a proposal …and was expecting for them to call back with either a yes or a no,” Crist, R-Tampa, said Monday at his Senate criminal and civil justice appropriations hearing.
“We were not expecting them to send a press release out to the media and take ownership of what we were offering. That was just poor sportsmanship," he said.
“Hopefully we see a little more collegiality in the upcoming session.”
The deal, reported here last week, allows courts to avoid furloughs over the next four months by shifting around trust fund dollars.
But the cuts could still prompt work stoppages at state attorney and public defender offices around the state, Crist’s committee was told. Crist said he hoped to avoid those furloughs, too.
Here’s another ominous sign: Crst told his members to expect lawmakers to be conferencing over the weekend on this first round of $542 million in cuts to the current-year budget. It’s not a good sign when lawmakers are scheduling budget conferences through the first weekend of session.
Click here to read more
No comments:
Post a Comment