Senate Passes Omnibus Budget Bill and Sends it to the House

This week the Senate took a major step in completing this year’s budget by placing all the departmental budgets into an omnibus bill, Senate Bill 133, and passing it out of its chamber.

Within the budget there were a lot of placeholders inserted for various initiatives that need to be negotiated and worked out between both chambers. For example, there was a placeholder for a sexual assault prevention and education initiative; a statewide e-file system; blight removal in the city of Springfield; the Dort Highway Expansion; prisoner reentry legal services; and the first responder presumed coverage fund.

Rolling all the individual budgets into one omnibus is nothing new for the House, but in the Senate, this is a new concept. The Senate has a long time practice of voting on individual budget bills for most departments and major budget areas. Although there is one big budget, each individual conference committee will continue to meet to work out their differences and decide on the placeholders that have been inserted into the budget.

On the education front, the Senate also passed Senate Bill 134 the omnibus education budget that included roughly $15 billion in funding for higher education, community colleges, K-12 education and the Department of Education.

As the Legislature moves forward and the House and Senate meet for conference committees on these budgets, we can expect more changes as they try to complete the budget before members leave for summer break.

posted by PAA Online , Friday, May 8, 2015 11:27 AM
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