Inching Along
Posted 4/27/09
The General Assembly must adjourn no later than June 3rd. Earlier this year, lawmakers in both parties said they wanted to work together to write a new two-year state budget plan and resolve the multi-billion dollar deficit by that date, in the public interest. Instead, progress toward a budget accord seems to be creeping along at the pace of a little inchworm.
Officially, budget negotiations kicked off April 20th. Five days later Republican Gov. Jodi Rell was asked by reporters to rate the progress. “If you had to sum it up ‘better or worse’, I’d say better,” Rell explained. “We’re certainly talking,” she said. “People are setting out ground rules.” Translation? Not much has happened yet.
Rell, ever the optimist, is wishing for the best—soon. “I think we’re all hopeful that we can come to an agreement (on the budget) before the end of the legislative session,” she noted. “Having said that,” Rell added, “I do not see a sense of urgency by many.”
Of course, the Rell administration and Democratic leaders who control the General Assembly, have spent months bickering over the size of the deficit problem. In February, when she issued her plan for the two-year state budget, containing no tax increases, Rell pegged the deficit at $6 billion while Democrats claimed it was more like $8 billion. “If you ignore billions of dollars in deficits, anyone can balance the budget,” said Stamford Democratic mayor and potential gubernatorial hopeful Dannel Malloy.
These days Rell and the Democrats are “inching” closer on the size of the deficit, but Rell says that’s because it continues to grow, while Democrats say its been a looming disaster all the while.
Democrats also say you cannot cut vital state programs to the bone in the interest of balancing the budget, because you create more havoc in the state’s recession-driven economy by doing so. They maintain some tax increases are necessary and they’ve proposed hikes in business taxes and the state income tax (for wealthy folks).
Rell still enjoys singing her “no new taxes” song, but she is always careful when reporters try to box her in by asking if she’d veto a budget that contains tax hikes. A week ago, the governor said: “I never say never.” Last Friday, she seemed to leave the door open to tax hikes—if only by an inch.
Asked if tax hikes may become unavoidable, Rell replied: “You ask me will that be inevitable, revenue may be inevitable, but you need to be sure you’ve cut as far as you can.”
That brings us back to those caterpillar-paced budget negotiations. The Rell administration will push for more spending cuts, while the Democrats will demand Rell wake up to the necessary inclusion of tax hikes in any budget plan.
Until both sides find a core around which a compromise can be built, negotiations will plod along like that lonely inchworm. Ironically, this is the time of year little inchworms are gobbled up in great numbers by gluttonous migrating songbirds. Hopes for a solid and timely budget resolution could be picked off in similar fashion.