House Speaker Lawerence Denney, after the House's overwhelming defeat of the governor's favored transportation bill, said, "I think the message is that the debate on the floor on all the other gas tax issues was the same - that we realize the need, but now is not the time." Denney said the House decided to concur in the amendments and then kill the bill rather than going to a conference committee with the Senate because "we think it's faster. I think the outcome would've been the same - I think the conference committee would not have come to an agreement on that particular bill."

A few minutes later, Gov. Butch Otter had scheduled a press availability after a Land Board meeting, but he canceled it. "I'm not going to make any comment until after I meet with the leadership, and I've got a meeting set up with them," Otter said tersely. His chief of staff, Jason Kreizenbeck, said, "We will work with House leadership to see if we can get a new bill."

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