The year ahead…
By: State Sen. Rob Sampson
I hope your 2020 is off to a positive start. It will be an energetic year in politics. The debate on tolls rages on, and of course it is an election year for every member of the state house and senate, not to mention the Presidency. Be prepared to be barraged by political ads and cable news jawboning for 10 months. There are going to be speeches and debates enough to make us all weary of politics. As you know, members of the state legislature are elected every two years. In odd numbered (non-election) years, the legislature meets from January to June to generate a biennial (two year) budget. In even numbered (election) years, the legislature convenes for the short session – from February to May. In the short session, individual legislators are instructed to limit their bill requests to budgetary questions alone. The idea is to make necessary changes to keep the previous year’s budget in check. All other bill proposals must be submitted as “committee” bills. In practice, this means that legislators must send letters to
committee chairs for help instead of proposing bills on their own. Since those chairpersons always have the final say anyway, there is little difference on the type of business discussed. In fact, the legislature often proposes and passes even more non-budget related legislation in election years, often with specifically political purposes. Assuming nothing significant changes between my writing this column and its publication, the Democrats efforts to install highway tolls will remain stalled. The governor and the Democrats have totally misplayed their hand on this issue, and as a result, I remain hopeful that it won’t come up for a vote before the fall election. Make no mistake, the state is taking in more than enough money to fix our roads and bridges. State government spending has increased nearly 50% just in the last ten years alone. The problem is a matter of priorities.
Sadly, many people in politics focus their energy on writing laws to discredit their
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