Watchdog needs to bite

And speaking of holding the line on state spending (see above) the House is losing one of its cooler heads with the surprise resignation of Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey (DHaverhill), who is resigning to become a lobbyist.

The budget chairmanship is a traditional launching pad for the top job, so whoever Speaker Robert DeLeo picked was going to be seen as next in line. Last night DeLeo said he would nominate Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez of Jamaica Plain.

But frankly we’re less interested in the reading of the speakership tea leaves at the moment than we are in ensuring, as progressives try mightily to pull the Legislature leftward, that the Ways and Means chair continue to be a fiscal realist.

Yes, spending increased significantly during Dempsey’s tenure, and during the Patrick administration he was perhaps too comfortable dipping into the rainy-day fund. But Dempsey was not a profligate tax-and-spender — and he grasped the importance of reducing the state’s reliance on one-time revenues to balance the budget. Sanchez — taking his cue from DeLeo, we hope — will need to cultivate a similarly sensible approach.

One Democrat told the Herald last week DeLeo should go with a more liberal pick, more responsive to progressive ideas. That may be what Democrats need, but with revenues lagging and a never-ending supply of kooky spending ideas bubbling up in the House, that’s the last thing the taxpayers need. When it comes to the budget we hope Sanchez continues in the recent House tradition.