so my goal, along with my legislative team, headed up by sophia kitler, our goal was to take out the politics of the budget process and really infuse the policy access of how we are driving our budget. and i think we created a budget that was more transparent, that created robust, in depth, and thoughtful policy conversations that helped shape why we do what we do. i mean, in essence, we're all public servants. most of us took an oath to be here, but we are serving because we believe in the work that we're doing. we believe that we are given an opportunity to help people and have a -- to help them have a positive impact on their live, and we cannot ever lose that focus. and sometimes, it gets lost, so what we set out to do was to have a stronger, more transparent and more democratic process. we wanted to make sure that we are funding our greatest needs and investing in the most effective programs. you see this is a unique process because if you recall, the budget actually starts in september. many people don't know that, but the process starts in september, and last september, it sta