During budget negotiations, many legislative leaders talk about fiscal responsibility, but they do not apply this to the legislature’s own budget.

Every year House and Senate Appropriations Committees hold budget hearings in which they require dozens of government department heads to explain how state money was spent last year and to justify the appropriations they are requesting for the new budget year. This year, the Appropriations Committees held more than 95 hours of hearings.

One “department” is always missing from these hearings. It has the seventh largest annual appropriation of all departments, $477 million. The “department” is our legislature.

The budget bills allow the legislature to keep unspent money which accumulates in their coffers, year after year. All other departments

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