LA Sen. Eric LaFleur

When the state Bond Commission met Thursday, they voted to take out the governmental equivalent of a “payday loan”.

With the House and Senate taking today off, this is a chance to update you on some of what happened in the flurry of activity, changing over from the regular session to the second special session.

It’s not unusual for the Legislature to meet on the weekend before the session ends, but it is out of the ordinary when they get the budget bill done a day early. That’s what happened yesterday evening.

“The dynamics of this session is quite a bit different from anything else we’ve gone through, because you all know that these items will be readdressed on Tuesday,” Senate Finance Committee chair Eric LaFleur told the upper chamber, as he presented the conference committee report.

While most of the attention this session has been on the $600-million hole in the upcoming budget, earlier today, the full Senate did their part to balance the current year’s budget, which ends June 30th. They passed what’s known as the “Supplemental Appropriations” bill.

But first, Senate Finance chairman Eric LaFleur offered a surprise amendment.

With very little discussion, the full Senate passed the budget bill today.

“The only thing that we’re here to do is to decide how do we impose 600 million dollars in cuts, because that’s all we can do,” Senate Finance chairman Eric LaFleur said.