I also rise in opposition to this bill and to the continuation budget as presented. This budget starts out without adequate revenue to protect the public. With this budget, we are laying off police officers. We are not making our payments to public schools at the level we should be. We are not protecting the public health as we should, not providing services to community mental health patients, not providing services to people in psychiatric hospitals, and not protecting the safety of our public.

It is because this budget is just a continuation of the current budget when we don't even have the revenue for a full year. So, in and of itself, this continuation budget does not protect the public. I want to protect the public, and I think that we should be taking the action necessary to do that. We need to make sure that we are providing services to the level that is necessary and to the level that our citizens expect. This continuation budget does not do it, and I oppose it and I urge members to oppose it also.