bus-driver

Rep. Fannin and the reps driving over the cliff

The mirrors in the Capitol Building must be broken.   Either that or the leges think they are invisible.

Rep. Jim Fannin is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (The budget-writing committee.).   He is also the author of House Bill No. 1 which funds the state’s Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2010-11.

Here’s what Fannin had to say about his own legislation:

[Fannin] estimates that $2 billion in one-time dollars were plugged into the budget bill by the Senate. One-time dollars are funds that will not materialize again in future years, akin to using savings to pay monthly household expenses. Baton Rouge Advocate, June 23, 2010.

“I don’t see how the citizens of the state can be happy,” Fannin said.

He said the state missed an opportunity to start making decisions that will help manage the budget in the future.

“We really have a flood coming,” Fannin said. Ibid.

A central part of the House and Senate budget dispute involved planning for the “cliff year” ­ when the loss of a billion dollars in federal stimulus and Medicaid money and other one-time state revenue would leave a crater in the budget. Associated Press, June 23, 2010.

While acknowledging that the budget he passed is a disaster which will make the public unhappy, he pushed his colleagues to support it.

At least now we know who’s driving the bus as the state runs off the fiscal cliff — Jim Fannin and a majority of his House colleagues.

To see how your rep voted on the budget go here.

A Yea vote is to intentionally drive the state over a “fiscal cliff.”  A Nay vote is for a responsible budget.   Absents are counted the same as Nay votes.

A Yea vote by Republicans is further evidence that being registered as a Republican and being fiscally-conservative are not the same.

C.B.