LITTLE ROCK — The Joint Budget Committee today endorsed its first bill this session, House Bill 1061, the general appropriations bill that authorizes the expenses of the executive, legislative and judicial branches for the next two years.

The bill lists the annual salaries for top officials within those branches for fiscal year 2009-2010. Some examples include $87,352 for the governor; $42,219 for lieutenant governor; $72,794 for attorney general; $17,865 each for the Senate Pro Tem and the House Speaker, and $15,953 for each of the other 99 House members and 35 senators.

Also during today’s budget committee, it was announced that the change to annual sessions, which was approved by voters in November, will be discussed at length at next Wednesday’s Joint Budget Committee meeting.

Amendment 86 requires the General Assembly to meet in regular session every year instead of every other year. The Legislature will continue to meet in odd-numbered years under provisions of the state’s 1874 constitution. The Legislature will also meet in even-numbered years to consider budget matters as required by the new constitution beginning next year.

Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, has already filed a bill asking that voters in the 2010 general election to repeal Amendment 86.

Tags: Legislature

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Rob Moritz, State. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.