More budget blues

With more bad news about lagging tax revenue this week, folks on Beacon Hill are re-learning some painful lessons about putting together the annual budget. Or at least, we hope they are.

Lesson one: When economists convene in that annual revenue hearing at the State House — the one the House, Senate and governor use to decide how much tax revenue to anticipate in the following year — it’s always best to be conservative.

Sure, developing the “consensus revenue” figure is a complicated process. But historically there has been pressure to go with the rosiest revenue scenario. That just doesn’t amount to responsible budgeting.

Lesson two is equally important: When the governor vetoes nearly $300 million in spending out of the final budget — citing credible data to suggest the higher spending figure would leave the taxpayers dangerously exposed — restoring all of that spending in a lightning-round of override votes is also irresponsible.

Last July, Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed $265 million in spending approved by the Legislature, concerned that certain accounts were underfunded and that revenue wouldn’t support the authorized spending. Lawmakers voted to restore almost every penny of it, including hundreds of porky earmarks. The willingness of the House, in particular, to go along with those overrides was a blemish on Speaker Robert DeLeo’s otherwise fiscally responsible record.

Even when revenue showed signs of slowing down earlier this year and Baker made a round of mid-year cuts, House and Senate leaders called the action “premature” and talked about reversing them. As it turns out, even that action wasn’t enough.

Baker, DeLeo and Senate President Stan Rosenberg now need to agree on a responsible course of action that restores balance to this year’s budget — while revisiting the assumptions being used to build next year’s budget. With just two months remaining in the fiscal year this task is made even more difficult. What’s clear now is that crossing fingers and hoping revenues outperform projections is never a sound strategy.