Timing of special budget session spurs debate

AUGUSTA – Legislative leaders inched closer to agreement Friday on the timing of a special session to deal with the state’s budget problems, but Democrats continued to resist Republican demands for a specific meeting date.

The hour-long meeting between House and Senate leaders was described as “cordial” by both parties. House Speaker Michael V. Saxl, D-Portland, said the leaders determined a series of joint meetings of various legislative committees and the Appropriations Committee would be the best way to reach legislative consensus on how to resolve the state’s fiscal dilemma.

Gov. Angus S. King has offered a solution for closing a gap in the state’s two-year budget that could exceed $200 million. On June 19, the governor proposed to offset more than half of the deficit with a package of unilateral spending curbs that included state employee furlough days and a $10 million cut in funding for local education. In order to meet Maine’s constitutional requirements for a balanced budget, King needs more money from accounts such as the laptop computer fund and tobacco settlement fund that cannot be tapped without legislative approval.

The timing for the special session prompted some bickering among Republicans, Democrats and the Governor’s Office this week. Democrats and King are inclined to wait until the end of August after two key forecasting committees have had a chance to analyze the latest financial indicators. National, regional and state economic trends, rather than the receipt of actual state revenues through August, will guide the economists’ analysis.

Kay Rand, the governor’s chief of staff, said the federal government updates its economic analysis every quarter and the next report is due July 24. The state’s Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission is slated to meet July 26 and the state’s Revenue Forecasting Commission will meet at least twice after that to review all of the findings, with its last meeting scheduled for Aug. 28.

“It’s the timeline that’s been established for the [fiscal year] 2003 forecast revision,” she said.

Republicans are pressing to convene the session no later than the week of Sept. 23, a time frame King has described as “the earliest” possible opportunity to recall the Legislature. To encourage that goal, Senate President Richard Bennett, R-Norway, and other GOP leaders want to call for a Senate confirmation vote on some gubernatorial appointees during the week of Sept. 23. They reason that it would be easier to call the House in to confront the budget issue at that time since the Senate would already be in session.

“We need a date because we’re suspicious that the Legislature is reluctant to act and by not attaching a specific deadline it will be difficult to actually build consensus,” Bennett said.

Saxl countered that Bennett could do as he liked, but insisted that the Senate’s plans would not influence the schedule for committee hearings on King’s budget proposal. The speaker insisted the hearings must move at the pace needed to allow committee chairmen and House committee leaders to reach consensus on a solution to the budget shortfall. If they are able to accomplish that task before the week of Sept. 23, Saxl agreed the option for a late September session was possible, but not definite.

The speaker said he had no intention of calling members back without identifying a budget-balancing remedy. Saxl wants a fast-tracked special session that would consume only “one and certainly not more than two days.”

“I think we need to know what we’re going to do explicitly,” Saxl said. “I want to have people agree before we come in. Otherwise, we’re going to come in and just spend the taxpayers’ money.”

Because ongoing chaotic developments in the stock market are negatively influencing the recovery of Maine’s economy, House Republican leader Joseph Bruno of Raymond said the state’s financial problems deepen each day the Legislature delays in convening to address the governor’s plan.

He said the sooner cuts can be made, the more money the state can save.

“This picture is getting uglier every day,” Bruno said. “The budget problem is worsening and it’s not improving. The stock market was down 255 points at noon. The longer we wait, the worse the issue is going to get.”