Budget Wars: House vs. Senate
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Rhode Island House and Senate are locked in a behind-the-scenes power struggle over the state budget, according to Statehouse sources—who point to Speaker Gordon Fox's rejection of Governor Lincoln Chafee's sales tax plan as the latest stage in the battle.
“It’s an example of a struggle between different branches of government and goes beyond party politics,” one Statehouse source tells GoLocalProv. “It varies from year to year [but] it has escalated in the last few years.”
Senate ‘has become much more aggressive’
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHistorically, the House has always taken the lead on the budget. The House receives the budget from the Governor and pores over it meticulously—voting on each article, unlike the Senate, which votes on the budget as whole. One state rep said that when he arrived at the House in the late 1980s, he did not even recall the Senate holding budget hearings. The Senate, on the other hand, retains the power of confirming judicial and executive branch nominees.
But Statehouse sources say this traditional balance of power has shifted in recent years.
“The Senate over the last couple of years has become much more aggressive and has pushed for an increased role in the budget process,” said Victor Profughi, a retired political scientist at Rhode Island College. “The Senate and how it’s perceived its role have certainly shifted over the last couple of years. There’s no doubt about that.”
Those tensions spilled out into the open when Speaker Gordon Fox issued a statement last week declaring that Chafee’s sales tax plan would not pass the House. Intentional or not, the announcement upstaged Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, who made a similar statement the next day at a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
'We're not going to let you get away with this'
Fox’s announcement caught the Senate off guard, according to Senator David Bates, a Finance Committee member. “I don’t think we expected him to come out and say that at this point,” said Bates, R-Barrington. “The timing was strange because it came 24 hours before.”
Rep Joe Trillo, R-Warwick, said it sent a clear message. “That will kind of pull the Senate’s chain and say we’re not going to let you get away with this,” Trillo said.
“I think it was a strong position for the Speaker to take in recognizing the community’s fears regarding the proposed budget and he took decisive, assertive action to calm the concerns of the business community,” added House Majority Leader Nicholas Mattiello. But he declined to comment on claims that there are tensions between the two chambers.
Statehouse sources say tensions have been escalating in recent years. “Over the last eight years under Gordon Fox the Senate has asserted its authority to ensure that they have a stronger voice within the budget process,” said Rep Rene Menard, D-Manville, who was referring to Fox’s tenure as Majority Leader before he was elected as Speaker. (Menard voted against Fox.)
One obvious sign that the Senate wants to throw its weight around on the budget: it has been beefing up the expertise of its fiscal staff, according to Profughi.
The shot across the bow came last year, when the House passed a supplemental budget only to have the Senate reject it and return it back to the House—a rare turnaround, according to Profughi.
Strange Bedfellows—House Republicans and Democrats
The new tensions between the House and Senate have been accompanied by another change—a new role for the House GOP minority, which has been sidelined in the past, Statehouse sources say.
Over the last 16 years, when House Democrats have opposed Republican governors, House Republicans found themselves marginalized—even if they did not support the proposed budget. But now, that dynamic has changed with an independent in the office. As a result, when House Democrats took up arms against Chafee’s budget this year, that did not necessarily pit them against their Republican colleagues.
House Minority Leader Bob Watson has seized the opportunity, sources say. Watson has privately called on Fox to assert the House’s traditional role in the budget—in return, he has increased the influence of his tiny ten-member caucus.
Last month, when the Governor’s office told House and Senate leaders that it would brief Fox and Paiva Weed together on his proposed budget, Watson insisted that Chafee and his staff instead meet with the House leadership first. Watson got his way—and a seat at that meeting, which included Fox and Mattiello, according to Statehouse sources.
Then, last Tuesday—the day before Fox’s statement—Watson sent a letter to Chafee telling him he needed to start over on the budget.
Later that day, Watson held a private meeting with Fox. At that meeting, Watson said he urged him to speak out on the budget. “I certainly can’t speak to the Speaker’s motivations as it relates to timing,” Watson said. “I will say his timing was appropriate.”
However, Menard credits the GOP letter to the Governor with being a “major force” in Fox’s decision to issue his own statement the next day. And, even though Menard faults Fox for not doing so sooner, he said his action last week prevented the further erosion of the House’s influence on the budget process.
Other lawmakers dispute claims of tensions
Other lawmakers yesterday denied that there are any tensions between the House and the Senate over the budget. Both Bates and Senator Ed O’Neill—an independent from Lincoln and also a Finance Committee member—did not think Fox was trying to one-up the Senate on the budget. Bates also disagreed that the Senate was overreaching last year when it voted down the supplemental budget.
Senate Finance Chairman Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence, declined to comment. And House Finance Chairman Helio Melo—also an East Providence Democrat—did not respond to a request for comment.
But Raymond Gallison, D-Bristol and the co-vice chair of the House Finance Committee, said he was not aware of any tensions between the two chambers. “I think we have a good relationship, to be honest with you,” Gallison said. “The Senate President and the Speaker have always had a cordial relationship.”
Fox spokesman Larry Berman last night declined to elaborate on Mattiello’s comment—except to say that it isn’t true that Fox spoke out on the budget in order to preserve the House’s power over the budget process. A spokesman for Paiva Weed could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
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