Desk remained open until 7:00pm, all appropriations filed

The deadline for filing appropriations has now passed. 657 bills were filed yesterday: 378 in the House and 279 in the Senate. The good thing about reading appropriations is that you're basically looking for 4 items on each bill: (1) the source of the funds [almost exclusively GIF from yesterday's filings], (2) the purpose of the appropriation, (3) where the funds are going, and (4) how much is being requested. Virtually all appropriations have an effective date of 7/1/07, which is the 1st day of the state's fiscal year. I think most legislators will be keeping an eye on bills that could be interpreted as "special and local" in light of Wilson v. Weiss.

A large number of these filings are not included in anyone's proposed balanced budget and won't be funded (even if authorized). Since the amount of funds that will be available is uncertain, there are normally more allocations designated by the General Improvement Distribution Law to be financed by the fund than money to pay for them (the 2005-2007 biennium is an exception). The difference between those allocations (the amount authorized to be funded) and the total of all the appropriations enacted from the fund is even wider.

The deadline for filing all bills is the 55th day of the session (falls on Saturday so is extended until next Monday, March 5), so we'll have one more wave of filing next Monday similar to yesterday. Many people don't realize that bills can be filed after these deadlines, but they must be approved for itnroduction by a two-thirds vote of the full membership of each House.