Williams, Who Couldn’t Come Up With a Budget Bill That Would Attract His Full Caucus, Calls for House Vote, “Leadership” Meeting With Rell

So at 5 p.m. Friday Senate President Don Williams and Speaker of the House Chris Donovan stood side by each and promised to ram through a deficit-mitigation plan to erase the half-billion-dollar shortfall in the budget that runs through June 30. Over the next 12 hours, culmimating in a 5:19 a.m. Senate vote, the deal with the House unraveled under threat of a Gov. Rell veto. How much fun do you think the governor, in Denver visiting her grandkids, no less, and her chief of staff, Lisa Moody, had? The Blogster believes plenty indeed.

Here’s Williams’ current news release on the state of reduced budget expectations. Williams could round up only 21 of his 24 votes, proving that the Senate Democratic caucus was the weaker link in this ploy.

 So today, Williams “is urging” the House to schedule a debate on the Senate bill. “The mitigation plan contains nearly $185 million in spending cuts and fund reductions. It also increases the state receipt of federal funds through a hospital fee (similar to Gov. Rell’s proposal), and delays the cut in the estate tax for multi-million dollar estates,” Williams said. “Not only does the plan balance the current year’s deficit, it also reduces the deficit in the next fiscal year by more than $70 million. It is time for the House to pass this bill. I am also calling for a bipartisan budget meeting with all leaders as soon as the governor returns to Connecticut.”