The Senate passed the proposed state budget out of their chamber- on Wednesday night. It still has to go through the House.
Many Senate Republicans, like Senate President Pro-Tem Mike Shulz, applauded themselves for holding 16 state agencies flat, and only cutting the rest by about four percent—given the circumstances.
SHULZ: I just want to take this opportunity to thank this chamber.. Senator David, Senator Fields, all the sub-appropriations chairs, who have been diligently been working towards a solution for this budget for many, many months now..
But Senate Democrats—who uniformly voted against the budget—say lawmakers left a lot of money on the table, and could have created a better budget --with no cuts.
The budget proposal has changed slightly since lawmakers passed it out of an appropriations committee on Tuesday. Education funding—for example-- has increased by about 18 million dollars.
Some of the budget promises hinge on revenue-raising measures that have yet to pass.