Political Capitol

… you have to respect the guy for insisting he be the one to speak directly with reporters on any and all stories.

In my time covering Hartford and the capitol I have found some legislators and other government officials/agency heads very accessible and others almost impossible to speak with either by phone or in person.

It is not uncommon for officials to use spokespersons to answer questions posed by the press.

From my personal experience and that of others at The Advocate, Blumenthal doesn’t do that. When you call his press office with a question, they take the question and he returns your call personally. For urgent matters it is most likely that same day.

Now I know critics of the AG, who is a Democrat, will say he is a politician who never met a press conference he didn’t like and benefits from being “media friendly.”

But I will also say that as a reporter, I would love to be able to talk to each and every state official, from the Governor on down, whenever necessary and pose direct questions to them rather than going through their PR staffs. (Nothing against the PR staffs, by the way. They can be very nice and very helpful. But still, it’s always better to go straight to the source.)

Jeffrey Beckham, spokesman for the Governor’s budget office, said today that Comptroller Nancy Wyman was incorrect and there is no $500 million structural deficit to worry about in the current, 2009 fiscal year. 2010, yes, but not 2009.

“It’s something we’ll have to confront in the ’09 session,” Beckham said, referring to January when the General Assembly reconvenes to craft a new, two-year state budget for 2010 and 2011.

“But the ’09 deficit is the $300 million number,” Beckham said. “And that number could worsen, because of the fall off in revenue.”

When I have a day off, as I did Wednesday, I try hard not to check work related e-mails and phone messages. Some of my bosses would argue I don’t check them enough when I’m on the job, but that’s another issue…

This morning I looked at my cell phone and found two messages awaiting me from the Governor’s office about the state budget deficit for the current, 2009 fiscal year.

Turns out that on Wednesday state Comptroller Nancy Wyman threw folks at the capitol a curve ball. While the Governor’s budget staff and the non-partisan office of fiscal analysis have been projecting $302 million and $293 million deficits, respectively, Wyman announced the number stood at $800 million.

And at the end of the day, it’s the comptroller’s number that, for a host of reasons, counts.

So the Governor’s staff called myself, and probably all the other reporters, yesterday to allege that Wyman had made a mistake and the deficit was, indeed, still $300 million.

Flash ahead to today. I figure the issue has been ironed out and by now everyone has agreed upon a number.

Wrong.

Steve Jensen, Wyman spokesman, said Rell’s office is “dead wrong.” Yes, he said, there is a $300 million deficit. But, Jensen explained, there is also a $500 million “structural deficit” caused by the state’s reliance on previous surpluses to pay for current expenses.

“And now that’s run out,” Jensen said. “So there’s a $500 million hole we believe should be dealt with this year … Our job is to tell the taxpayers ‘x’ ‘y’ and ‘z’. That’s what we’re doing.”

I asked Rell’s office to clarify their position on the $300 million versus the $800 million deficits and they e-mailed me the following statement from the Governor:

“Even though the comptroller has confused the fiscal years by mistakenly adding part of next year’s deficit to this year’s deficit, the bottom line is that the state faces incredible fiscal challenges tha twill require leadership, tough decisions and deep spending cuts,” Rell said.