T-Minus 24 Hours to Budget Deadline

Represenative Steve Vaillancourt offers a running commentary in the comments section at Red Hampshire on the ongoing budget negotiations at the State House (presented without edits):

I sat through the hour plus debate, and it was fascinating. Lou seemed like he was filibustering then Gallus and Hassan joined in pleading that the House accept the plan. I thought they won the argument, but the House simply said no. Chairman Smith went out of her way to be sweeet and gracious to Lou, and she bent over backwards to say she was not against gambling on moralistic grounds. She said it simply isn’t a relibable funding source and it would be unwise to rely on such a “narrow” source for such a big pot of money. It wasn’t a very persuavie argument, but we’re not scoring a debate here. It’s a question of one House vetoing another. Dan Eaton said he wasn’t against gambling but simply, as a Dem House leader coming up with votes, couldn’t get to 201. Neil Kurk made the plea that so much money in one source could lead to undue influence (he didn’t use the word corruption) like the railroads had in the 30s and Rock had in the 70s.

Biggest headline, as the 10 o’clock hour is here, after his gambling plan was shot down, Lou became petulant and said he would not vote for any new taxes during a depression. Looks like if he continues this hard line, he’ll have to be removed from the coference committee. President Larsen is here to do just that if need be. After a lovey dovey two hours, are the gloves about ready to come off in this after dark session.

This is all in the comments section, so just keep scrolling down. Looks like the adjourned at 11pm, with the big Senate (gambling and higher taxes) versus House (new taxes and higher taxes) question still to be resolved. The Committee of Confernece has to send the budget back to the full House and Senate by Thursday night. Should be fun.

PS- Don't you love that a State Rep is providing up to the minute updates on budget negotiations through the comments section of a website? He's making me feel lazy for not being there tonight. I might have to do a marathon live blog.