* House Speaker Pro-Tempore and Co-Budgeteer Kam Buckner spoke with reporters after caucus today…

Reporter: Can you can you talk about the budget as much as you can without getting yelled at?
Buckner: We’re close, we’re having good conversations. We are parsing out some of the finer details. […]

Reporter: The governor’s comments on revenue, yesterday. He said he would veto any proposal that had broad based revenue, service taxes and things of that nature.

Buckner: Broad based is a bit of a subjective term. We’ve always said the governor has said Speaker said this, the president has said that. Whatever we do to the balance the budget can’t be on the backs of working people. […]

Reporter: Is there a plan if this doesn’t get done by May 31?

Buckner: I don’t think that we’re at risk, obviously, we have a constitutional mandate that we have to adhere to. But more than that. Once again, the instability in Washington, the people in Chicago and Cairo and Carbondale need to know what’s going on, what they’re gonna look like if we’re gonna try to get them that.

Reporter: Are you confident that you can get at least 60 votes to pass the budget? This is a time of year, there’s often infighting between progressive and moderate Democrats, but what does it look like this year? Like do you are you confident that with whatever you’re gonna put out there, could you get at least 60 votes?

Buckner: One of the pressures you have with a big tent like ours, is that you have a lot of bureaucratic ideologies and political stances. We got a strong progressive caucus. We got a strong New Democrat Caucus, formerly known as moderates, folks who care about fiscal discipline. Also folks who care about making sure that our vision our values are applied as well. So I’m not worried about it, I know that we have to have more conversations about how we get to the requisite number of votes that we need to pass a budget. But when we get to the finish line, we have the final project, there will be, I think, that nothing is covered from a discipline standpoint of resources,

Reporter: Is there aything you can say, as far as teasers, like, will there be revenue enhancements? If so, what do they look like? We faced a billion, about a $1 billion deficit just a few weeks ago, it was projected by many. I mean, can you give any idea how that’s being closed to pass a balanced budget?

Buckner: To maintain the integrity of caucus conversations and budget negotiations, I won’t go into any specificity to that. I’ll just say we are running every single scenario to make sure that we land in a place that palatable to all of us.

Reporter: Has there been any agreement on any new revenue?

Buckner: Going back, I’m not gonna make news on that right now. We’re having conversations.

Reporter: Has online gambling become more attractive?

Buckner: Okay, there are a number of things people are floating out there I am not somebody who really understood the online gambling space. […] We’ve been talking to folks about it. We’ve heard from the advocates in the industry. And we’ve looked at states across the country, seeing what they’re doing right and what they’re going on. These conversations are bringing all those things into the table, and we’ll land on the right side.

Reporter: Asked about HBIA:

Buckner: So good question. I think what was passed last Thursday or Wednesday, whenever it was in Congress, does make things difficult for that program, for sure. Lawyers much smarter than me, I’m a lawyer, but not a good one, so lawyers much smarter than me are parsing through it to see what it means. As we finish up the many conversations, it’s really just about fine tuning everything to make sure that we have done all we can to serve as many people as we can. […]

Reporter: Have you talked about hemp regulation as a means of generating revenue?

Buckner: That has been a part of the conversation. Folks have talked about what that will look like in this budget. I don’t know that it’s something that’s gonna be able to happen in the next 48 hours.

As always, please pardon any transcription errors.