State House Speaker Billy McCoy issued the following statement in response to the compromise state
spending plan House and Senate budget negotiators agreed to Wednesday
night. McCoy expects lawmakers to approve the budget when they return in
session on Monday, April 4, 2011.
“I congratulate the hard work of House and Senate budget negotiators, in
specific House Appropriations Chairman Johnny Stringer, House Education
Chairman Cecil Brown, Senate Appropriations Chairman Doug Davis and
Senate Education Chairman Videt Carmichael,” McCoy said. “Their
dedication and desire to craft a budget for the next fiscal year — and
their determination to make sure we protect the well-being of our
children and those in need of health care — resulted in a workable
spending plan that will help us continue to move our state forward.
“This is a compromise budget. Whenever you compromise, you have a lot of
give-and-take on both sides. That’s what happened here. And while the
final budget document may not have everything that the state House
wanted, I, Chairman Stringer and Chairman Brown are convinced this does
what we in the state House have wanted to do the entire session:
adequately fund our state agencies, including those that were threatened
by severe funding cuts — public schools, mental health, public
libraries, homestead exemption, vital agriculture and forestry programs
and other areas.
“We did all of this during some incredibly difficult financial times.
And we did it while also leaving a substantial amount of money in our
reserve funds to hold over for the following year.”
