One argument against convening a special legislative session Jan. 2 to address the budget deficit is it would cost taxpayer dollars that might be saved if the vote took place during the regular session.
The regular 2009 legislative session begins Jan. 7.
It is true that special sessions do not come cheap. When legislators returned to the capitol in November to vote on a plan to decrease the deficit, it cost, according to the Office of Legislative Management, $18,500.
And that does NOT, according to OLM, include the money the individual Senate and House Democratic and Republican caucuses paid to order out lunch and dinner.
“These costs are paid from caucus funds and the appropriate caucus determines where the food is ordered on a particular day. No contracts exist for these purchases,” Dana Crompton, a state employee who helps keep track of this stuff, wrote in an e-mail.
Christopher Cooper, spokesman for Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who is pushing for the Jan. 2 special session, said those concerned about the cost make “a valid point.”
“But the Governor just believes that there’s an urgency to getting this deficit mitigation in place,” Cooper said.
Were a special session held, I guess lawmakers could at least find savings by brown-bagging it.
