UPDATE: The Senate Finance Committee (yes, that's right, controlled by Democrats) just approved the McNulty plan to reduce the budget target.
The new Speaker of the House threw Democrats a curve ball yesterday when he announced that the House would not blindly endorse the rosy revenue estimates from the Office of Legislative Council.
Instead he proposed a budget target 2.75% below revenue projections. In recent years both Leg Council and the Governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting have badly missed the mark at times on revenue projections. According to McNulty's press release Leg Council's projections one year ago were off by as much as 17%.
We understand that these projections are complicated, especially as you are entering a recession as deep as this one has been, and Leg Council certainly hasn't done anything intentionally wrong here, but this recession isn't over and we need to get realistic about how much money the state really has to spend this year.
Kudos to McNulty for forcing Democrats in the Legislature to get serious about this budget crisis. The days of balancing the budget by accounting gimmicks and raiding cash funds are gone, and this year hard choices and program cuts will have to be made.
It’s just unconscionable for the Dems to start throwing a fit after all they’ve done over the past two years: raising fees and taxes, raiding funds, relying on temporary federal funds. There are no other options to delay the pain, and I’m glad Republicans are going to be doing what needs to be done. After the appalling way the Democrats handled the budget while they were in charge, it’s just despicable that they’d fuss and bluster from the safety of the minority.
Finally, a realistic approach to the state budget. I’m tired of the politicians blindly spending left and right. We just can’t afford it!
I hate to say it but the repubs are right on this one. Its embarrassing that democrats are arguing.
call for tough measures. In the real world this is exactly how a business would plan their budget. Government’s biggest issue is that they refuse to act and operate like a business. The concern that they will just run out of money never seems to be a reality to them. The true is, it can happen. It’s great to see the Republicans taking the lead on fixing the problem.
like just another greedy corporate special interest is more like it! Why is nobody talking about how immature and childish McNulty was acting on the floor?