As the Appropriations Committee hearings wind up in Harrisburg, we prepare to get back to some legislative agenda next week. My hope is that we work on other issues along with the budget this year. I think that stopping work last year on virtually everything other than budget matters, was a mistake and one that will be hard to recover from. We have lost a lot of ground and without a game plan in place to work through the backlog, we won’t catch up. I have decided to do my part as a committee chair and push as many bills through as the schedule permits. If everyone works that way, we can move good legislation forward. We will learn a lot next week about how things will proceed. The results of the recent hearings will probably not amount to much. They help, but not as much as more in depth oversight hearings carried out year round by the committee most involved with the issues of that department. I have been pushing that change since I hit Harrisburg and with some limited success. Most of the committee chairs, however, have not taken the initiative. I’ll keep working on it, it is important.

- John