Lawmakers pass final piece of budget

Lawmakers have approved the final piece of the budget package.

SB403 replenishes the money in a series of contingency and emergency funds the state uses to get through the biennium.

The largest amount is the $7.5 million put into the Legislative Contingency Fund.

The bill also puts $5.5 million in the Stale Claims Account and $3 million in the Statutory Contingency Account. The Emergency Account will get $150,000.

The measure also includes some specific appropriations. DMV will get $24,000 to implement changes to the governmental services tax and the Department of Taxation $95,000 to implement changes to the local school support tax.

Finally, Taxation will get $527,850 to implement changes in the tax structure caused by other new laws passed this session.

The accounts on the list are used to pay such things as the costs of fire suppression and other emergency costs incurred in between legislative sessions.

The other elements which make up the budget have already been passed and, following the governor's vetoes, approved despite the vetoes. The major pieces are the Appropriations Act, Authorizations Act, state worker pay bill, K-12 education bill and capital improvement projects bill.

Taken together, they create a total budget of just over $12 billion. The General Fund portion of that is just over $6.6 billion.