There are zero House Republicans serving on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee; Speaker McCoy appointed only Democrats to the seven available House slots. By contrast, Lt. Governor Bryant, a Republican, gave two of the seven Senate slots to Democratic senators.
Likewise, Senate Democrats also are represented on the appropriations conference committee charged with negotiating a budget deal with House counterparts. Not so with the GOP on the House side. All four House conference committee appointees (one was removed and replaced by another) have been Democrats.
The House Democratic leadership, aided and abetted by often careless media characterization, projects an annoying “House versus Senate” paradigm with regard to the budget impasse. The McCoy majority’s unspoken attitude, nevertheless keenly felt by those of us in the minority, is that House Republicans don’t matter and don’t count when budgeting decisions are made.
The funny thing is that my Democratic House colleagues seem to have a blind spot when it comes to the wholly predictable result of such blatant partisan exclusion. A case in point was the McCoy leadership’s failed efforts, on three separate tries last Wednesday, to extend the Regular Session beyond the 60 extra days already allotted, even though everyone acknowledged budget negotiators were not close to reaching a deal. Because the extension vote required a 2/3 super-majority for passage, oft-ignored House GOP members suddenly found themselves “players” in the budget process after all.
House Republicans did not want to force a special session. Indeed, had a real budget compromise been in the offing, we joyously would have agreed with our colleagues to extend the regular session a few more days so that the budget could be finalized. But with negotiators still at admitted impasse after 60 extra days already, most House Republicans concluded that the time had come to pull the plug on the failed regular session. It absolutely was the right thing to do.
Greg Snowden Blog
Clarion Ledger
6/6/9
