Budget agreement reached
Members have been signing off on the conference report for the budget this afternoon. Although I'm told there are still a few remaining straggling items, the compromise is largely brokered.
Rep. Paul Luebke, a chairman of the House Finance Committee, told reporters about the finance package. The state will eliminate the gift tax and raise the Earned Income Tax Credit to 5 percent starting in the 2010 tax year. Essentially, those two items were originally due to go into affect for the 2009 tax year, but the two sides put them off in order to ensure the budget doesn't go into deficit. Delaying the two tax cuts a year will create $30 million in budget availability.
Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate Leader Marc Basnight are due to brief reporters at 4:15 p.m.