• We're back at work in the Capitol after a four day weekend.  The Valentine roses are on the desks, and the once a year red colored lights are shining up through the glass blocks to the Capitol rotunda. 
• In Appropriations today we are hearing from two state bureaus:  Information and Telecommunications, and Administration.  Those are fuzzy names for the computer gurus and the building and infrastructure managers of state government.  We'll talk about everything from the number of cars state government buys in a year to the challenges and urgency of replacing 20 year old computer applications to our award

winning public broadcasting network this morning. 
• Last week the recommendations of the summer study committee on education were voted down in our House Appropriations Committee.  The proposals were a simple guarantee to schools of at least a two percent annual funding increase, and the other one was to return education per student funding to where it was five years ago before budget cuts.  Both were opposed by the administration, saying we'd have to find money to fund them.  At the same hearing we approved bills to prepay over $58 million dollars of bonded indebtedness.   The cost of returning education to the level of support of five years ago

(Continued on page 3)