It is an outrage and of supreme concern to me and to many other people that the legislature stands poised to vote on a budget today — and still the budget and its trailer bills have not been made public. 

I know the broad strokes, as it were, as those have been released.  But so much of this massive document is in its details.  Doesn’t the public deserve to see and understand the details in a budget before it is adopted?  Shouldn’t legislators have the benefit of feedback?  The benefit of perspective from those a little further away from the negotiating table?

As an anecdotal example of the devil being in the details, I am fairy sure that this budget includes the "expansion of a fee" that amounts to smacking over two-thirds of seniors in nursing homes that are NOT on government assistance to the tune of $4600 or so every year.  This is a harder hit on these seniors than the massive tax increases in last year’s budget.    This little "nugget" is in hiding, has not been vetted and legislators should ask whether self-sufficient seniors, who have done exactly what we would like in being responsible enough to save to pay for their own retirement, should be used as pawns to balance the state’s books.

What else is in this deal?  It is very, very hard for those of us in the dark to truly say whether this budget is a good one or a bad one — whether I would urge my legislators, Senator Mimi Walters and Assemblyman Jeff Miller, to support it or oppose it.

I recall that the Governor’s May revision included almost a billion dollars in various fee increases.  How many of these are in this document?  How many are what the left would call a "fee increase" but the rest of the world would see as a tax increase?

I can tell you this — if I were in the legislature, I would never vote for a budget that has not been available to the public, and that I haven’t been able to vet with those engages citizens from my district who are all impacted by such an important matter.

Taxes?  No Taxes? Spending cuts?  Or more spending?  Realistic revenue assumptions?  Unrealistic ones?  All of these questions and more should be discussed in the public marketplace.

It is totally fair to reject a budget because of a failed process.  But it is not too late to fix this.  Just publish the proposed budget and trailer bills — and perhaps an easier-to-digest summary that doesn’t skip key provisions (like the example of smacking seniors above).

Then schedule a vote for early NEXT week.  Let the public have its say.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.