And they're off...
Now that the budget is virtually assured of clearing the legislature (the Senate has to vote again today and then it goes to the governor) the honorables can turn their attention to more important things, like naming the state's official Christmas Tree. (It's the Fraser Fir by the way, and yes I'm wondering about the government endorsement of religion thing myself.)
At any rate, the Christmas Tree bill is one of at least 50 (okay, I stopped counting at 50) on the Senate's agenda for Thursday. If you think it sounds like they're hurrying up so they can get out of town, you'd be right.
Sen. Leader Marc Basnight said that Saturday will be the last day of business for the Senate.
But House Speaker Jim Black says there's no way the General Assembly can adjourn that quickly because there's too much work left to do.
So, we have the possibility that the House will be running without the Senate. Okay, to be fair, the Senate will operate a skeleton session every four days, but no work will get done.
The big cliff-hanger question is whether the Senate will pass the lottery bill. Without that, all the lottery language in the budget goes by the wayside - along with tens of millions of dollars slated for school construction.
Stay tuned.