State House battle: House abruptly adjourns

By: News Staff

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House Speaker Nick Mattiello abruptly ended what was supposed to be the last day of session after he got word Senate President Dominick Ruggerio was considering submitting a budget amendment to the car tax article.

"The Senate President gave me his word that he supported the budget" said Mattiello.

The Speaker says he and the Senate President had an agreement on the budget, he told reporters he was blindsided by the last minute effort.

"When you shake someone’s hand I expect what we agreed to, to be honored. Otherwise I don’t know why you go through the process" Speaker Mattiello went on to say.

However, contrary to what Speaker Mattiello says, the Senate President denies that there was an agreement in place.

"I don’t remember any handshake” said Ruggerio. “We never discussed my support of the budget. He knew how I felt. He knew I was concerned about sustainability.”

Ruggerio admits he did not tell Mattiello he planned to submit the amendment, but says it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

"I had asked him before that I felt it would be the appropriate thing to put some type of trigger mechanism in the event of" said Ruggerio.

Despite the Speaker’s urging for the senate to just go ahead and pass the budget as is.

The Senate then passed that car tax amendment which would add a trigger blocking reimbursements if at any point the state becomes unable to afford it.

This is an amended version of the budget as a whole, sending it back to the House which is no longer in session to approve it.

"I really have no opinion as to what they did today. If the shoe was on the other foot I certainly would’ve not walked out" said Ruggerio.

However Mattiello stands with his decision saying, "We have no plans to come back at this point."

With the House not in session, the new budget will not be enacted Saturday as it was supposed to be. Instead, the state will continue on with the current budget indefinitely.

This unexpected turn of events also leaves several bills still up in the air;including, the Senate passed amended versions of the paid sick leave and a bill to ban domestic abusers from owning guns.

WLNE-TV / ABC6 2017