The state Senate Democrats are talking about passing Democratic budget cuts as early as Friday night – even if the House Democrats fail to agree on the cuts.
As such, Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell says that cuts in the Senate are “knowingly meaningless” if they cannot become law. The two Republican leaders – House GOP chief Larry Cafero of Norwalk and Senate GOP head John McKinney of Fairfield – agreed Thursday with Rell that the cuts will only matter if they are accomplished by both the House and Senate.
“I don’t know if it’s a show or not,” Cafero told reporters Thursday at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
“It is a show,” said McKinney, who was standing next to Cafero. “Anything we do in the Senate is purely for show. It’s a phantom gesture.”
While the exact date for the vote was still unknown, Senate Democrats have guaranteed that there will be a vote to reduce the projected $350 million for the current fiscal year by next Wednesday. The vote could come as early as Friday night or it could come next Wednesday. Senators are still determining the schedule because of the upcoming Passover and Easter holidays.
“We’ve known about this budget since October, and now we’re told the only time we can fix it is Friday after 5 p.m.,” McKinney said.
But Derek Slap, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, questioned where McKinney has been during the long budget battle.
“Speaking of show, we’re waiting for Senator McKinney to show up,” Slap said. “Where is their balanced budget plan? They haven’t shown up in the budget crisis. They never produced a balanced budget. They need to show up. We’re working on a plan, and we plan to vote on it very soon. … They’re doing their impersonation of Republicans in Washington – the party of no.”
Difficult decisions need to be made, Slap said, and the Senate is trying to move as swiftly as possible.
“Senator McKinney doesn’t want to work on Friday night?” Slap asked. “For all the talk of making tough decisions, they’ve been nowhere. They’ve been MIA.”
Democrats have been squabbling behind the scenes over the cuts. Some say this is the first time in 18 months that the Senate and House Democrats have broken apart – with some fiscally conservative Senate Democrats clearly pushing for more cuts.
The Senate never had the votes last year to override Rell on the budget or tax package because five key Democrats – Sen. Robert Duff of Norwalk, Joan Hartley of Waterbury, Gayle Slossberg of Milford, Paul Doyle of Wethersfield, and Ed Meyer of Guilford – all balked at various tax and spending plans.
Sen. Andrew McDonald of Stamford became the 19th senator last June when he agreed to a budget plan that allowed the bill to pass by 19 to 16 with one lawmaker absent. That bill, however, was vetoed by Rell. The final budget was passed in September, and it became law without Rell’s signature.
McDonald told Capitol Watch on Thursday that he had not yet seen the final proposed budget cuts for the deficit-mitigation plan and could not talk about them until seeing further details.