What's next with the foundation budget?

I've gotten some questions on where we're at with the Foundation Budget Review Commission recommendations. Good question! There are a few things happening at once right now:

• The House is still meeting in budget sessions BUT they are done with the education sections. That was in the first consolidated ("we considered everything all at once") amendments, which was voted Monday and did not include amendment 246, which was implementation.
• HOWEVER, the Senate does not have their budget yet, and that doesn't even get released until May. There is plenty of time to ask your senators to just plain include it in the Senate Ways and Means budget as released, thus avoiding the need to rush around amending!
• IF THAT HAPPENS, that becomes a piece on which the House and Senate do not agree, and we'd want to advocate for the conference committee (where some House and Senate member together hammer out the sections on which they don't agree) to put it into the final budget...
• AND THEN we'd need to watch to make sure the Governor didn't veto that section

AT THE SAME TIME:

• The Legislature is still in session! They still have a boatload of bills sitting in committees and AMONG THEM IS Senate bill 2325, which is the Foundation Budget Review Commission implementation bill! It's in Senate Ways and Means. 
• We need it to get out of there (so if you have a Senator on W&M, maybe ask them?) and then vote it through the Senate. From there it will go to House Ways and Means (so at some point, we'll need to line up those reps) and then to the full House.
• WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW: did your rep cosponsor amendment 246 in the House budget? Thank them! AND THEN let them know that it will be coming their way as S. 2325, and you expect that they'll be among those leading the charge to get this done! And if they didn't? Time to ask why not.
  

As always, if you have questions, send them along!