Pender: The special session certainly was special
The Legislature turned a couple hours’ work into two days of partisan Sturm und Drang.
House Democrats said they’ve been given the mushroom treatment by the GOP majority on budget issues, so they used a procedural vote to block passage of the bill on the first day. They said they wanted to wait until after an afternoon meeting they had scheduled with state bean counters to get more info on the budget. This kept the House in another day. The Senate went home.
A spokeswoman for Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn’s office said they checked and the Democratic caucus didn’t have a meeting with the Department of Finance and Administration as advertised.
Each side accused the other of wasting tax dollars. Democrats said Republicans should have recessed the House and come back after their nonexistent meeting. Republicans countered that after Democrats blocked the vote, by House rules they couldn’t take the measure up again until the next day … and that there was no meeting.
Wednesday dawned clear and bright, and each side came prepared for hours of fighting and debate over a bill everyone knew was going to pass, no matter the hours of debate.
Geoff Pender
Clarion Ledger
7/5/16
Magnolia Tribune
