With the 2011 second special session wrapped up for the holidays Rep. Mark Hargrove, R-Covington, said in a statement he believes budget leaders in the majority party could have done more to address the spending gap created when they passed an unsustainable budget last May.

The special session wrapped up Dec. 14 after the legislature passed  a bill which makes a $479 million adjustment to the $2 billion spending gap the state faces. The spending adjustments included the use of federal money to replace state dollars, one-time fund transfers, unclaimed property cash and slight reductions to certain programs based on caseload changes.

“I think we can all agree that when the governor announced in September there would be a special session at the end of November, there was plenty of time for substantial progress in the budget negotiations in the House and Senate,” Hargrove said in a press release. “Instead, majority leaders came to Olympia unprepared to offer solutions, leading to a lot of wasted time and tax dollars. We made some slight progress by passing a partial fix to the spending problem, but in my opinion it wasn’t enough to call it a successful effort.”

The 2012 regular session begins Jan. 9, and is scheduled to last 60 days