Late last night (early this morning actually), the State Senate passed a bi-partisan budget bill by a 33-3 vote While we have been monitoring the budget proposals for months, this final proposal was a closely guarded secret prior to passage. The full budget (SB 1502) and the fiscal note are both now available.
The Budget Bill passed the State House today on a vote of 126-23 and will head to the Governor for approval or veto.
This bill removed most of the anti-union/anti-state employee language that had been proposed throughout the legislative session and further removed some of the harsh pieces of the budget which were vetoed by the Governor earlier this month. However, there remain a few pieces of legislation that passed with this budget which impact the collective bargaining process. In particular, future SEBAC agreements on pension/healthcare will be limited to 4 years and future union contract agreements will require an affirmative vote from the legislature in order to be implemented.
10/26/17