Ashton Marra Published

Republican Leaders Looking to Get Rid of Extended Budget Session

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Every year state lawmakers take an additional week after their normal legislative session to finalize the budget for the following fiscal year, but Republican lawmakers are looking to change that.

Typically, lawmakers work their way through all of the proposed pieces of legislation in 60 days and come back for an extended budget session the following week to finalize the numbers, but Republican leaders in both the House and Senate want to move away from that tradition.

“Our intention is to try not to do that,” Senate Finance Chair Mike Hall said Wednesday.

“If you’ll notice bills are coming out very early, our leadership is already running legislation very early in. So, if all the general law that affects the budget is done early, we can then do the budget early and be done in 60 days,” he said.

A special or extended session can cost taxpayers as much as $30,000 per day.