"The job is not yet done, lawmakers," editorializes the News Tribune. "Now it is highway time"

The paper notes that while the passage of an operating budget was a foregone conclusion, the genuine accomplishment of the Legislature would be passage of a transportation package.

"At the risk of belaboring the obvious, roads and bridges do not grow on trees. Santa Claus doesn't lug them down the chimney. You've got to buy them"