On Tuesday, Feb. 21, we completed our work in the Senate and adjourned at 5:45 p.m. to start our crossover break.
Since our committee work was complete, we spent Monday and Tuesday in floor session debating bills dealing with several agency budgets, distribution of the state share of the oil and gas taxes and distribution of the motor vehicle excise taxes.
We also debated the PERS plan and whether it should continue as a defined benefit plan or be converted to a defined contribution plan.
The feeling in the Senate is that it will cost less to fully fund the plan if we continue with defined benefit.
The House has a different idea so we will get to visit that coming up in the second half of the session.
We will hit the ground running with committee work on March 1 with seven bills in education related to school construction, career and technical education and optional high school curriculum, along with a few other topics.
In the Agriculture and Veterans Affairs committee, we have three House concurrent resolutions and 10 bills to work on Thursday and Friday.
It is hard to imagine that it is March 1 already.
We have a lot of ground to cover by the end of April.
Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Randy D. Lemm
District 20 Senator
701-430-1536
