Speaker McCall Says House Has Closed 70 Percent of Budget Hole

STATEMENT: Speaker McCall Says House Has Closed 70 Percent of Budget Hole, Needs Help From Senate

“House Republicans have said on many occasions that we would not allow three health agencies to absorb the entire $215 million budget hole, and in the last week the House of Representatives has closed more than 70 percent of the budget shortfall and we have identified up to $30 million in revolving funds that could help us close it even further.

“This week, the House appropriated $106 million in existing cash to those three agencies, yet $83 million of those funds are sitting in the Senate and have not been acted upon. That is cash we have on hand that can be sent to those agencies as soon as the Senate passes it. On top of the existing cash, we raised an additional $50 million in revenue for this year’s budget by increasing the GPT on legacy wells. That bill is also waiting on the Senate to hear it.

“The House calls upon the Senate to take up those bills immediately and pass them for our most vulnerable citizens and the Governor needs to sign them into law.

“If anyone wants to revisit votes on revenue bills that have already failed, we will be glad to have that discussion when they bring us a list of 76 House members that will vote for them on the House floor.

House Republicans are not standing in the way of any ideas that the Governor and Senate want to discuss, but we are leading the way on passing actual measures that close the budget hole.

“The House welcomes new measures put forth by the Senate during this special session provided those measures free up revenue for this year’s budget. Any bill that only requires 51 votes to pass can be originated in either the House or the Senate.

“The House has acted this week in a bipartisan way to fund those health agencies, and the Senate needs to partner with us to help vulnerable citizens by passing those bills.”