Although we’re done with this year’s legislative session, there are still a few issues swirling that may shape our future Legislature’s consideration of bills.

One of these is the fate of an informal practice in both the House and the Senate. When conference committees were meeting on bills, it was not uncommon for the House conferees to wring their hands and say, “I’m sorry, but we haven’t yet received release from Finance,” or for the Senate conferees, in like fashion, to say that they haven’t yet gotten release from Ways and Means.

Civil Beat calls this practice “the money chairs’ macabre tradition of not granting ‘release’ to many dozens of bills in the session’s final hours, thus derailing them.”

Whether this practice will continue remains to be seen. The House sacked its money cha

See Full Page