State budget poker

This newspaper has long been a strong advocate for transparency in governance and remains so. But this recent proposal by Senate Democratic leaders to conduct what promise to be extremely difficult budget negotiations in front of CT-N cameras and reporters strikes us as opportunistic.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and legislative leaders face some dire numbers. Tax revenues finished $413 million below budget estimates. Income taxes paid by the state’s top 100 taxpayers dropped 45 percent compared to 2015.

Now facing a $390 million shortfall, the state’s elected leaders must figure out how to get through the end of the fiscal year ending June 30. Then they have to enact a twoyear state budget plan that closes a projected $5 billion deficit, a number that represents about 12.5 percent of current projected spending.

Democratic Senate President Martin M. Looney and Senate Majority Bob Duff are urging the budget negotiations among the governor and party leaders “be held in the presence of the news media and broadcast on CT-N.”

We don’t recall that idea when Democrats were in strong control of the legislature. Now that the votes of Republicans, tied 18-18 in the Senate and just a few seats short in the House, may be needed to pass a budget, suddenly the Democrats want open negotiations.

Closely watching such proceedings would be special interest groups, ready to pounce on legislators if their favored program is the subject of budget-cut discussions. Less apt to be observing are average taxpayers. They’ll be busy working. That means any talk of tax hikes may not get such an immediate adverse reaction. Perhaps Looney and Duff are making that calculation.

With cameras and press watching, one also has to wonder how candid legislative leaders will be about the pain they must inflict to repair state finances.

Republican Senate President Len Fasano dismissed the proposal as “an attempt to shift the conversation away from the severity of the budget situation.” But that only happens if Fasano and his fellow Republicans allow this to turn into a distracting debate on the negotiations instead of the budget.

Instead Fasano should call Duff’s bluff (and Looney’s, too). Let the press and cameras in, and then fight like hell to avoid another big tax increase while standing against the special interests. The Democrats may end up wishing they had opted for business as usual.