Winding Down

The state legislature is taking its first votes on the budget this morning, and this coming week promises to be the last for this current session ... with a lot of stuff left on the table.

Late yesterday we got the word that Sen. Joe Sam Queen had managed to get language into the budget bill to split the 24th Judicial Dist. into two, but as of this a.m., that provision appears to be back in limbo.

Last we heard, ASU's funding for a new College of Education bldg. is safe, and so is the Town of Boone ... from any special bills exempting the university from local law. The two entities will have to work together within the law to find a suitable location for that building.

But we're holding our breath to see what gets slipped into the budget at the last minute. There is, after all, a well known form of legislative magic that goes under the general heading of legerdemain.