At the 2007 annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Connecticut Joint Appropriations Committee and the State Office of Policy and Management was awarded the first Con Hogan award for “their achievements in considering how state spending affects key outcomes for Connecticut families and the environment.” This was due to their focus on “results based accountability”. With the large budget deficit, it will be interesting to see how well they do this year.

The initial indications are that it may be a rough battle for the appropriations committee to stay on task. Already Gov. Rell has gone on television poisoning the well by suggesting that anyone who doesn’t support her version of the budget is just a “special interest”. Meanwhile, she is being pilloried by some of these “special interests” as merely mimicking Pres. George H.W. Bush’s promise of no new taxes and suggesting that her focus on making government smaller is following down the same path as Grover Norquist’s goal of getting government down to the size that it can be drowned in a bathtub, the way it was in New Orleans.

Will Gov. Rell’s plan mimic that of Former President Bush? Will more costs need to be picked up by local governments, forcing them to raise taxes similar to the way Pres. Bush’s policies forced states, including Connecticut to raise taxes in 1989-1991?

Gov. Rell gave a good speech. She says she is seeking to avoid forcing municipalities to raise property taxes by not cutting Education Cost Sharing (ECS), by putting off unfunded mandates and by seeking regionalization.

Yet when you look at other cuts she is proposing you have to wonder if some of the cuts will actually end up costing the citizens of Connecticut more. As an example, according to Mark Pazniokas’s blog post Watchdogs Cut From Rell's Budget , Rell’s cut of watchdog groups in the government includes “The elimination of consumer counsel would remove an independent entity that often challenges utility rates, sometimes suing state rate-setters. “

Will the loss of such watchdog groups end up costing the taxpayers more than Rell is trying to save them? If we learned anything from the financial crisis on Wall Street which has precipitated much of the budget deficit, it is that we need strong watchdogs.

Now it is up to the legislature to sort out what the budget really should be. In her speech, she attacked people who would criticize her budget proposal. Then she went on to ask them to work with her. It seems to lack a basic understanding of interpersonal dynamics.

The award winning Connecticut Joint Appropriations Committee has a rough job in front of it. It needs to get past Gov. Rell’s divisive rhetoric and focus on what it has been recognizing for doing so well, “considering how state spending affects key outcomes for Connecticut families and the environment.” Let us hope that they look beyond the speeches and focus on “results based accountability”.

We, the citizens of Connecticut can have our say to. The proposed budget can be found on the Office of Policy and Management website. Be prepared, however, the budget in brief is 57 pages long and the whole is nearly 800 pages long. It will take a while to sort through all of it.