Inside baseball can make the difference between winning or losing a game.
Or passing or losing a bill in Annapolis.

Every bill gets a fiscal note.

It’s our budget staff’s best judgment as to the cost to implement the legislation.

A high fiscal note and your bill is dead.

If the bureaucracy does not like what you’re proposing, its estimate of the cost will be on the high side.

You are not powerless.  You can make your case to the fiscal note writer about the projected costs before the note is distributed at the bill hearing.

Or you can ask for the equivalent of  a fiscal note months before your bill is introduced.

If the cost of the Oregon tuition plan (students pay after graduation based on their income) is sky high, any bill won’t go anywhere.

That’s why I asked our professional staff to do a pre-fiscal note fiscal note.

The response raises important questions about both cost and implementation.  For example, Who will monitor repayments from alumni and how will noncompliance be addressed?  Could students opt out of the program and pay regular tuition?

Better to respond to those concerns now than next February.