Senate Staycation – Budget Edition

Now that budget negotiations are in full swing, the Republican leadership in the State Senate has decided to take a week off. From WPLN:

The Senate decision to take a break from floor sessions gives the two sides an additional week to work out the kinks.

Senate Republican leader Mark Norris says one committee will discuss the budget early next week, but otherwise senators will sit back and see what the House wants to do.

“But the objective is for us to get the budget through Finance [Committee] so that the House can see where we are prepared to be, on the floor, but not have floor sessions here, until Monday, May 24th.”

Senate leaders would rather see the House take the first step on the budget because senators only have three days left to collect pay. After that, any work they do will be uncompensated. The House has five paid days left.

In past years, when the legislature ran out of paid days, they worked for free until they passed a budget-but they complained about it.

Call me a conspiracy buff, but this doesn’t smell right.

First of all, what took the Republicans so long to get their “counter proposal” out there? We’ve had a draft of the budget since February 1 and yes, it’s been amended, but still, there’s been more than enough time for the Republican leadership of both bodies to get it together.

Another thing that just doesn’t smell right is the fact that starting tomorrow State Legislators can start fundraising again. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but when the Speaker of the Senate is running for Governor and his fundraising is suffering due to the ban, it’s understandable that he might be wanting to get out there and raise some dough.

Too bad he’s more concerned about the gig he wants rather than the gig he has.

Republicans can solve this problem by backing off the draconian cuts they’ve proposed for the state budget. It doesn’t help that the entire Republican plan basically represents some funny math that reshuffles the numbers around recurring and non-recurring funds.

Here’s a tip: Acting in good faith is always better than playing games for political gain.

In the end, the only reason we have a legislature is to pass a budget and pass laws when they’re needed. The Republican leadership in the legislature has totally forgotten this, preferring instead to pass laws THEY need for political points, with a “We’ll get to the budget when we get to it” mentality.

This is neither good nor smart government, but it’s what Tennesseans can expect for a very long time if they return these clowns to the legislature in November.

It’s way past time for the Republican leadership to stop playing games with the future of Tennessee. Maybe they’ll realize that, but I’m not holding my breath. In the mean time, I’m sure Speaker Ramsey will be quite effective “leading” the State Senate from his campaign HQ. Like I said the other day, I Got a Place You Can Stick That Boot.

Tags: Budget, Fundraising, Mark Norris, Ron Ramsey, State Legislature