House Vote on Senate's Version of Transportation Budget

An interesting thing happened last week. It was Tuesday March 24, 2009. We were in the House Chambers for Session. The Agenda included a vote on concurrence with the Senate version of the Transportation Budget.
Everything appeared to be normal, there was an emergency clause in the bill and the Speaker called for the vote, repeating the question to be voted on, as is customary; The question is, shall the emergency clause be a part of the bill? (I'm paraphrasing because I forgot my papers in the office) The vote came down: 93 nays 6 yeahs. The Speaker then states: (again paraphrasing), The measure failed to receive the constitutional requirement for passage, therefore the House does not concur with the Senate, the bill will go to conference committee.
My immediate thought was that maybe I voted wrong or made some sort of freshman mistake because I did indeed concur with the Senate changes. There was immediate reaction from other members, papers were rustling, a few people quickly left their seats to speak to others, and quiet discussion followed. Minority Leader Batchelder went to speak to the Clerk. The Speaker then proceeded through the remainder of the Agenda.
I sat in my chair speaking with my colleagues who sit around me. We were all wondering what had just happened because we voted according to the question asked. Normally, and by House Rules, whenever there is an emergency clause; the emergency clause and the bill are voted on separately. We had not voted on concurrence! Yet the Speaker said we did and that we voted against it!!!
Later that evening in caucus, the leadership outlined what had happened and what recourse and actions we might take. We were sure to get copies of the Journal - both, to make sure that it would not be changed and to prove that there was never a vote taken on concurrence with the Senate. Some members, like Leader Batchelder, said that in his forty some years in the Legislature, he had never seen anything like this! One would think that the Speaker of the House would know the House Rules!
Of course, all the rest of the week, the media reported that the House had rejected the Senate changes to the Transportation Budget by a vote of 93-6, which I think looks pretty bad. It looks like we overwhelming didn't like what changes the Senate had made. That is simply false. I mean, it would probably have gone to conference anyhow, but the vote would have been more like 53-46.
What happens from here I'm not sure. The Conference Committee has been scheduled and rescheduled about six times now. Of course, I don't know what they have to talk about in conference committee, the only thing we voted on was the emergency clause! It has been suggested that because the democrats screwed it up that they will have to accept the Senate changes or that they might be able to request a reconsideration.
Whatever happens, I know this much; the democrats don't seem to know what they are doing and I did not vote against the Senate changes to the Transportation Budget, I voted against the emergency clause!