House Gives Senate the Finger

The House spent much of Tuesday giving the Senate the finger.

“Which finger?” Speaker Chuck Kleckley joked at one point.

Although House members did concur with Senate amendments on some bills, when it came to the revenue raising measures — seven bills in the so-called “tax package” — the House rejected what the Senate had done.

Some rejections, like the cigarette tax increase, were tough. The author of that bill, Rep. Hal Ritchie, made a plea for the members to agree with raising the cigarette tax to $1.08 per pack, instead of the $0.68 per pack the House had okayed.

“My daddy used to tell me, he said, ‘Son, figures can lie. Liars can figure.’ These figures right here will save lives,” Ritchie said.

Other bills, like Ways and Means chairman Joel Robideaux’s bills, to which the senate attached the SAVE plan --  a  so-called “revenue neutral” phantom fee for college students -- were gleefully rejected.

“I move that we reject the Senate amendments,” Robideaux announced. “They’ve put an unfriendly amendment on the local bill.”

“All right,” Speaker Kleckley agreed, then called on “Rep. Smith for a question.”

“So, Representative Robideaux, you intend to SAVE your bill, right?” Rep. Pat Smith punned.

“That’s what I’m hoping to do, yes, ma’am,” Robideaux responded, getting some hearty laughter from the members.

At one point, Rep. Joe Lopinto had a question for the Speaker.

“Did the Senate do anything right?”

“It doesn’t look like it, at this point,” was Kleckley’s response.

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Karen Carter Peterson was keeping tabs on the House

“I’m just listening to the House, and they said, you know, ‘Is the Senate doing anything right?’ And they said, ‘No!’ in unison. ‘NO!’,” Peterson reported to the upper chamber.

“Well, it’s good to hear they’re in unison on something,” Senate President Alario responded.

Senate Secretary Glenn Koepp was kept busy reading out the rejection messages from the House, and there’s more to come today. The House is set to vote concurrence on Senate changes to HB 1 this morning. Since they have turned away the revenue raising bills to fund that version of the budget, undoubtedly the House will reject the budget, as well.

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