I ran early this morning along the river, got to a breakfast meeting and then the Local Government meeting where we got all of the 18 bills through.  It may be a new Senate record.  We had a long caucus meeting today that focused on the legislative priorities of the committee chairs.  It was interesting to hear what people had to say.  Most of the issues were familiar ones and ones that we knew were the hot issues of the day, others came as surprises.  I talked about the need for the state to help local governments get out from under the unfunded and underfunded mandates we place on them.  I also mentioned the tremendous amount of attention that needs to be dedicated to cleaning up problems in the existing laws, many of which haven’t been looked at for decades.  With court cases, technology advancements and changes to federal laws, state statutes become outdated over time.  Antiquated laws are a problem in any area, but when they hamstring what local governments can and can’t do, they are particularly costly and unproductive.

- John