Who is in Charge of the State’s Budget Policy?
Monday, May 03, 2010
Who's really responsible for that budget that drives us crazy every year? Who do we hold accountable? Whose office numbers do we put on our speed dials?
The Governor: Makes Noise
Every year the governor and his staff work for months, if not year-round, to construct a budget for the state. They work to account for every dollar that comes into the coffers and every dollar that goes out. Different governors have different fiscal policies. Some want to curb spending, some want to add funding to areas they believe the state needs help in, some want to increase taxes, some want to decrease taxes. They tend to make a big deal about this.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Legislature: Makes Policy
While the governor and staff toil, though, all year, the real fiscal policy is set down by legislators in the spring of every year when they gather behind closed doors to write their own version of the budget.
Where's it happen?
On the third floor of the State House, where the House Finance Chairman has his office, and in the windowless hearing room in the basement of the State House where Representative Steve Costantino and the House Fiscal staff spend their afternoons and evenings examining the budget the governor has written and making changes to it.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the building, Senate Finance Committee Chair Dan DaPonte and the Senate Fiscal staff spend their time studying the budget that has been submitted. And in early spring, when your attention is focused on crocuses poking through leftover snow, these two powerful chairmen and their staffs come together to discuss their priorities and how the budget will really be crafted.
The Few: Makes Decisions
Those are the meetings that everybody (fellow lawmakers and influence groups) always wants to be in. And while not secret, literally, these meetings are away from the bright light of public committee hearings, or on the floor of the House or Senate. It's executed by a handful of people, and, over the years, this group of people has been fairly steady.
Mainly, the process is steered by Michael O'Keefe, the long time House Fiscal Advisor who previously was the Budget Director for Governor Bruce Sundlun. Mr. O'Keefe retired before the 2010 legislative session, so it will be interesting to see who fills that void. It was thought that stepping into a new spot this year as one of the key players for the House would be Gary Sasse, the longtime leader of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council and until recently, the Governor's Director of Administration. That didn’t work out and Sasse is not working the issue this year.
So while the elephants fight, as the saying goes, is the grass what ends up being trampled? Most members of the Legislature are locked out of the process. Some would argue so are the citizens, lobbyists and other stakeholders. Those that are in the room would argue that there's plenty of opportunity for the public, lobbyists and stakeholders to weigh-in on the budget: in committee hearings and in meetings with legislators in their offices. But they would contend that to open up the budget writing process would interfere with the need for open and frank discussions, especially in a year when lawmakers have to make hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts.
So, who is in charge of the state's fiscal policy? The answer is the governor and his staff certainly set the tone, but at the end of the day it is the House and Senate Finance Committee Chairs in private meeting with their staff who writes the budget and therefore the fiscal policy of the state. You happy with that?
