The revised budget Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell released today borrows millions of dollars to help cover the state deficit.
Democrats quickly noted it was only a few months ago the Governor frowned upon a similar proposal the majority party made in its two-year budget.
“They do nothing to address the bloat of state government,” Rell told reporters at the time in a prepared statement. “Not one agency elimination. Not one merger. Not one consolidation. And THEY ARE BORROWING – YES, BORROWING – to close this year’s budget deficit. It’s as if they have just given up.”
The Rell administration is likely going to respond there are distinctions between what the Dems proposed and what she proposed and that she bit the bullet and made the tough cuts, only turning to borrowing when she had exhausted other options (except tax increases, which she still refuses to embrace).
Rell today essentially said she was holding her nose in proposing the borrowing, calling it a move she would prefer not to make but the Democrats have left her little choice.
“But these notes will be paid off in seven years,” Rell said. “Tax increases are forever.”
But maybe next time Rell or her speech writers should tone down the strong anti-borrowing language because, particularly in these unprecedented fiscal times, something she condemns one month might wind up being part of a final budget solution the next.
