Democratic leadership and the governor’s office recently agreed on spending targets for each department.
But Republicans, like Senate Appropriations vice chair Jon Bumstead, say they want more involvement.
“When our minority vice chairs are not engaged at the committee level, it’s really difficult to move forward with a lot of these budgets.”
But Senate Appropriations chair Sarah Anthony, a Democrat, says they’ve been overcommunicating with Republicans.
“We’ll see many of their concepts and ideas reach the final project. But at the end of the day, the people did decide that they wanted to take our state in a different direction. And I think our budget should reflect the will of the people.”
This is Democrats’ first time leading the process in decades.
