Robson Gives Conference Committee Low Grade Thus Far
Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson would grade the progress of the conference committee a "4" thus far on a scale of 1 to 10.
"Now what we're doing is basically going back to pre-Joint Finance and looking at every agency all over again. And if anyone knew that that was the process, we would have just eliminated Joint Finance and gone right to conference committee," Robson said.
Robson is hopeful negotiations will move forward now with the committee breaking off into working groups. Robson and Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch met Thursday to set up parameters for those working groups, and will meet again Monday.
Robson said she'd like to see a finished product by Labor Day.
Fellow Dem Russ Decker, a member of the conference committee, says in an interview that Republicans are obstructing progress on the budget.
Decker, D-Weston, says there are signs of progress from the state budget conference committee, but those signs are coming from just one side of the discussion.
"I think (the conference committee work) shows that we're willing to move in certain areas and the Republicans in the Assembly have not made any moves hardly at all," said Decker, the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee. "In a number of packages we've put forward we've accepted some of their positions, so I clearly think that's going to make it tougher if they're not willing to bend in any areas. Because you can't negotiate a compromise for the state budget if one side is not willing to compromise."
Listen to the Robson interview here.
Listen to the Decker interview here.
