Despite what they said,
it's not too hard to figure out why the Senate Republicans blocked two
construction bond bills proposed by Democrats, one for education and the other
for roads and bridges.
The idea is to starve the
governor and the Democrats of cash for projects that they could use to promote
their reelections this fall. No more, no less. Everything else they said or
what you may have read in the papers was pretty much a diversion from that core
issue.
For instance, Republicans
in both chambers have complained for months that the governor doesn't have a
"revenue source" for his proposed bond plans, and they repeated that
claim when the Senate Democrats moved a much larger school construction plan
and a road plan of their own.
The media has repeated
these Republican claims without comment every time they've been issued. But
these are general obligation bonds, which means they are backed by the full
faith and credit of the state so the money comes right out of the General
Revenue Fund no matter what condition the state's budget is in. Essentially,
the Republicans want the Democrats to increase taxes to pay for any new bond
plan, but they don't come all the way out and say that and they know full well
that they would loudly rail against a tax hike even if the Democrats were
foolish enough to back one.
On the other side of the
aisle, the Democrats knew that the Republicans wanted to "starve the
beast" so they designed their legislation and the debate for maximum
political impact.
The Democrats spent almost
the entire day on the bond issue - even though everyone knew it was a doomed
effort. From an hours-long committee meeting, to an excruciatingly lengthy
floor debate, the Senate Democrats made sure that the Statehouse media could
not ignore the issue.
The two bills were drafted
without any Republican input whatsoever, even though they both needed a
three-fifths majority to pass, which guaranteed a negative reaction from the
GOP. Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson said during the debate that the
governor at first agreed to meet with him Thursday to discuss the bond bills,
then at the last minute postponed the meeting until Friday - a day after the
vote was to be held. The governor's office claims that the guv didn't know
about the Senate Democrats' plans in advance, but he certainly did know what
was going on when he canceled the meeting with Watson that afternoon.
Knowing the bills were
destined for the dustbin, the Senate Democrats did all they could to create as
much political hay as possible, accusing the Republicans of everything from not
caring for school children, to hating the governor to cheering President Bush
as he spends billions to build schools and roads in Iraq.
Neither side told the
truth before, during or after the debate, so the coverage you saw in the media
was mostly generic "he said, she said" stuff that made it impossible
to know what was really going on. In reality, it was a dog and pony show
designed merely for the consumption of anyone who might glance at the headline
or read the story.
This has happened many
times before. In fact, the governor himself participated in one of these
charades back in the mid-1990s when he was a House Democrat and the Republicans
controlled both chambers and the governor's mansion. The Republicans tried to
push through a construction bill and the Democrats, who had been locked out of
every major decision that year, took their revenge by voting against it. The
bill died.
Back then, the Democrats
complained that the state couldn't afford the new borrowing (even though that
proposal was much smaller than both the current governor's plan and the Senate
Democrats' much larger spending effort), just like the Republicans did this
time around. They also complained about a lack of a revenue source, but, like
the Republicans this year, they wouldn't propose any new taxes to cover the
increased borrowing costs and the bill failed.
The problem during the mid
1990s was that the Republicans threw bipartisanship out the window and then
suffered the consequences whenever they needed a Democratic vote. The same
exact thing is happening now. The arrogance of the majority and the
intransigence of the minority have combined to stop a much-needed roads and
school construction bill from passing.
It's a shame, but it's
what passes for governance in Springfield.
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Rich Miller also publishes
Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter. He can be reached at
thecapitolfaxblog.com.