Nobody Needs That Shit Anyway

vt.Buzz:

House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, has been citing April 27 as the date for ending the 2012 legislative session, but the timing is always of great speculation and unpredictability.

Monday, Smith seemed to be hedging on the likelihood of an April adjournment. “I want to go home on April 27,” he said. He added, however, “We’ll see how this week goes.”

The volume of bills backed up on the Senate calendar suggests the session could bleed into May.

Sadly, there are some items that won't even make it out of committee this session, even if legislators weren't in a hurry to get out of Dodge.  We have a four year "timelock" on changing our constitution and it's that time again, with several proposed amendments currently in the Senate, including definition of rights to:

• Healthcare - currently in Health and Welfare.
• A clean environment - currently in Natural Resources and Energy.
• Privacy - currently in Judiary.

I confirmed with Senator Galbraith, their sponsor, that they ain't going anywhere, though he encourages everybody to contact their senators anyway to express support.  Stricly speaking, none of these amendments is absolutely necessary, but given the worrisome trends we've seen across the nation it's not a bad idea to make these rights more explicit.  I'm disappointed that the various committees couldn't get it together to bring these proposals to the full Senate.

ntodd

PS--Michigan has a healthcare right established in their constitution, why can't we?