The Indianapolis Star reports Work on state budget nearing completion.
House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, said he hopes to have a printed version of the $24 billion budget conference committee report on House Bill 1001 available by Wednesday morning.
Given my background, what that means to me is that the small but remarkably efficient machinery of the Legislative Services Agency is whirring into gear. (Though in-house printing capacity had been increasing steadily prior to my departure.) Possibly the Director of the Office of Code Revision is commandeering copy machines all around the state house to produce hundreds of copies of a 400 page document overnight. The bill drafters for the House Ways and Means and the Senate Finance Committees can expect a long night as new amendments drift down from majority counsel’s office. A row of proofreaders review the text as best they can in the time allotted. The typists stand by to make the corrections. If the necessary deals haven’t yet been finalized, Code Revision eventually has to let it be known that the legislators can either keep negotiating or they can have their bill printed by the desired time, but not both. The printers probably won’t sleep at all.
At least that’s how I remember it. Maybe it’s all changed.
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