Amendment Stalled By Budget Fears

The Senate has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have repealed outdated provisions on bonding and allowed bonding without a public vote to deal with expenses from disasters.

Supporters were unable to quell concern that the proposal undermined the state’s longstanding constitutional commitment to ending each budget year in the black. It fell two votes short of the 24-vote two-thirds majority required for passage.

“We’re going to move a little bit further away from a balanced budget,” Republican Stan Hawkins of Ucon told his colleagues. , DataTimes