With all due respects to the anti-government cabal out there, and you know who you are, there will not be a shutdown of state government on October one. Nope, sorry.
The governor has crafted an ingenious method to erase a $700 million deficit for this year and next and the Republicans are gloating and smiling in approval.
How’s that?
She has quietly cried uncle on trying to raise any kind of tax or fee to get the job done.
Recall that the governor steadfastly held to the notion that state services had been slashed enough and she favored a sales tax on services to raise some new moola.
The more she pushed, the more the GOP leaders pushed back and they have won.
Asked about crying uncle on the issue, the governor glibly retorted, “I’m not crying about anything…”
She and budget director Bob Emerson have laid on the table a variety of budget balancing gimmicks which are “not in anybody’s face” as Emerson noted the other day. And when he made his pitch to GOP budget writers, “the response was positive” he reports.
Now, there will be little scrimmages here and there on spending priorities, but that’s normal. But minus a draconian scrum over raising taxes, which caused the last major shutdown years ago, it should relatively clear sailing to put this puppy to bed.
Work begins in earnest next week, so they say.
Please disregard this blog however, if some how, they find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on September 30th.