The self-styled “fiscal hawks” of the Louisiana House of
Representatives won a couple of battles yesterday – at the cost of near-certain
defeat in the larger war to control the state’s budgeting process and in empowering
their strange bedfellow allies House Democrats.
Yesterday,
the House
Appropriations Committee went through the operating budget bill HB
1 and withdrew substantial funding for health care, and some for higher
education, to excise what’s termed “one-time” money from that. This refers to money
that is redirected from other funds, much tied to dedications of revenue, that
comes from recurring sources, as well as other money from non-recurring sources
such as asset sales. But it was all a mirage of sorts, for if passed by the
House, perhaps almost exclusively by the majority Republicans, the
Republican-controlled Senate is sure to put back in the nearly $500 million and
return it for concurrence.
This tactic is to avoid the requirements of House Rule 7.19, which means
that before a budget vote if this budget contains more than a growth factor
over the previous year of one-time money, a two-thirds majority must be secured
to proceed. With this kind of funding removed, this prior vote is not required
for this version, nor for later concurrence in a budget returning after Senate
action. It’s an approach tacitly endorsed by the Gov. Bobby
Jindal Administration, whose budget is on the line.
The rule was a brainchild of the “hawks,” formally known as members of the
Louisiana Budget Reform Campaign, to
enforce their vision of fiscal prudence that states that in period of budget
growth this kind of funding largely should be left to finance activities to
which it is tied, regardless of the relative importance of those activities.
Unfortunately, their conception is so narrow, by lumping in recurring funds with
the nonrecurring, that they politically marginalize themselves instead of
taking a more flexible approach, one that more validly reflects kinds of
revenues, spending, and prioritization of spending, as recently
recommended, which can serve as a step towards genuine fiscal system
reform.
This approach might give them the influence that they have ceded to
Democrats (almost all of the group are House Republicans; it includes one House
Democrat, a House no-party member, and a Senate Republican) by the necessity to
build their own budget. This document is necessary if they are to have any
leverage at all, because without it, the shuttling happening now can moot their
agenda with impunity. Only if they can send an alternative (most likely by
hijacking the supplemental appropriations bill HB
677) that passes the floor that can persuade enough senators to take it up
can they have anything more than the slightest influence.
Regardless, for this to succeed, in building their own budget they must
work with the opposition for only that way can they get enough votes. And
thereby they transfer influence to Democrats by giving them the power not just
to foist tax increases, but also a chance to score political points. Getting
rid of some tax exemptions isn’t necessarily a bad idea depending on what they
are, as heard just months ago by the
Legislature in its gathering of information about the utility of these, but
which does have the effect of raising taxes selectively. The political problem
comes as the Democrats can use the Republican “hawks” to claim that the GOP as
a whole wants to raise taxes to fund more government, shifting the debate from
the appropriate size of government, a debate Republicans win, to who best
defends government programs, an argument Democrats win. Ironically, the only
way forward for the group that prides itself as “fiscal conservative” is to
espouse a most liberal approach of tax increases.
Only because of the “hawks” do Democrats get a chance to pass tax
increases in order to replace the one-time revenue, or at the very least become
relevant and needed in the budgeting decision. Regardless of the outcome – the current
Jindal Administration strategy or a “hawks” alternative budget – Democrats
become the necessary constituency for success in either case, when without the
intra-party GOP split they would have little influence on the process nor any opportunity
to shift the argument from the appropriate size of government.
Ironically, the scenario has played out to give the “hawks” two of their
wishes. Part of their legislative platform has been earlier
resolution of the budget in order to give legislators more time to vet it,
and it’s already about to leave the House for Senate consideration with about a
month before session’s end. And they get another because of the move to
sideline them, a budget bereft of one-time money, which they will find
impossible to vote against. Both of which, of course, will result in a final
product back from the Senate probably chock full of one-time money with not a
lot of time to deal with it.
So, let’s tote up the “hawks’” achievements. They get to cast a
symbolic vote ratifying their agenda that does nothing substantively to “reform”
the budget process. They empower their otherwise powerless ideological
opponents in the budgeting battle and risk inviting the size of government to
grow in the process. That’s good work so far if you want to look like a
reformer instead of being a reformer. Or perhaps to be an economic liberal wolf
in a conservative sheep’s clothing.
1 comment:
I see that you were really, really premature on this one, Professor.
The money is back in the Bill after attempts to approve the amendments received only about 25% favorable votes on the House floor.
In other words, the overt tactics of the Speaker and Administration to bypass the whole House, and the Geymann Rule, appear to have crashed.
[Aside: After comments like Speaker Kleckley made yesterday, about taking the money out and then conspiring with the Senate to put it back in, would you vote to keep him in that leadership position, if you were a State Representative?]
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