There are some things you can’t find on Google.

But with a long memory and good staff, you can get what you want.

Republican legislators have been invited to discuss their proposed budget cuts at a joint meeting of the House and Senate fiscal committees.

“This is a first,” a budget staffer told the Sun in a front-page story today.

“Not true,” I said to myself.

I knew we had done this before because I was on the committee when it happened.

I spoke to a budget analyst who used to staff Appropriations. She found the 1997 letter from Chairman Rawlings inviting the House Republican Caucus to present its budget savings proposals.

I then shared it with the Sun reporter.

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It’s good to know somebody’s reading this diary.

I ran into an executive branch official at lunch. “What are you working on?” he asked.

“A bill that would restore money to the Cigarette Restitution Fund that’s been redirected to Medicaid to meet budget shortfalls,” I replied.

I was a lead sponsor of the bill creating that fund. It directs money received from the legal settlement with the tobacco companies to research and prevention programs related to cigarette smoking.

“That law passed ten years ago. It may be time to study how we allocate that money in the future,” the official said. “As you write in your diary, sometimes you can accomplish things without passing your bill.”