Proportionality Bill
Our proportionality bill never made it out of the Senate Finance Committee.
Our “Plan B” is SB 42, which now contains an amendment that includes our proportionality language. The bill, which was passed by the full House earlier this week, now has made its way back to the Senate, where members will be asked to give their consent to the changes the House made. We have the votes to obtain consent and anticipate that the legislation will pass later today.
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Budget
Yesterday, the Senate passed the budget approved by the Conference Committee. We anticipate that the House will do the same today. We will provide a detailed look at the budget in the next week or so but, in general terms, it provides increased funding for community colleges and financial aid.
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Legislation
The final days of the session are often the most crucial and scary because the life and death of proposals can change quickly as they are attached to existing bills. That said, we can identify with some certainty several issues that have not survived, including:
- Guns on campus – Proposals to allow guns on campus have died. This issue had strong momentum and support but, fortunately, the clock ultimately ran out. We can expect this discussion to continue during the next session.
- Community college purchasing bill – For three consecutive legislative sessions, with the expertise and support of DCCCD’s purchasing department and business officers from across the state, we have been able to move our purchasing bill further and further through the legislative process. Unfortunately, this bill was among many that did not survive the House deadline.
Some additional issues of concern have not yet been resolved, including:
- The 6-drop fix – Our original legislation to “fix” the 6-drop rule did not survive. However, we have attached this language to a couple of other bills that are still waiting for legislative action.
- Posting course information on our Web site – This bill, HB 2504, has continued to move this week, although we were able to slow it down with some amendments in the Senate; it probably will survive the weekend. We do, however, have one final play that may help lessen the impact of this bill.
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Legislation Tracking
For additional details about some of the bills that DCCCD is tracking, visit our Legislation Tracking Web site.
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