News-Record.com

Marc Basnight, the Senate President Pro Tempore, says he wants to get a budget done . . . fast. And to put the peddle to the metal, on Wednesday he cancelled all future committee meetings that don't have anything to do with the budget.

His stated reason is that the clear schedule will give the folks working on the finance and spending package time to concentrate on their work. He said other committees could start back up once an agreement on the budget was brokered.

It also puts a lot of different bills that have come over from the House in jeopardy. Committees are where the heavy lifting gets done as far as rewriting and vetting legislation. If a bill has opposition, you'd rather work it out in committee than have a shoot-out on the Senate floors.

Some commentators speculated this morning that this was a ploy by Basnight to put pressure on the House, a way to prod them to hurry up and maybe move closer to the Senate position on some items. Basnight probably fueled that school of thought yesterday when he told reporters that after the budget is done, only "very important" bills would get heard before the session ends.

But immediately after he made the decision yesterday, Basnight told reporters "this has nothing to do with the House." The skeptic in me says it has a little something to do with the House, but we'll take the man at his word for now.

Of course, it was a little unclear yesterday how optimistic the Senate's top dog was about getting a budget done by July 20, the General Assembly’s self-imposed deadline for brokering a deal.

Basnight called such speculation "a fools guess." He also said:

"My best guess is that we'll get it before the summer is over, maybe the early fall."

Um . . . that doesn't sound too confident, does it?

He then followed up by saying he was "hopeful" that a deal could get done next week.

So will this move by the Senate actually speed things to a conclusion? Stay tuned.