Right Thinking: Sensible compromises lead to layup budget
Andrew C. Spiropoulos
A layup may seem like a guaranteed basket, but, as basketball fans know, even professional players sometimes miss the easiest of shots. The game of government also has its layups, and, like in basketball, you shouldn’t take making them for granted. From the look of last week’s announced budget agreement, state Republican political leaders made their shot, earning some cheers.
Republican leaders possess enormous structural advantages. Given their overwhelming majorities in both houses, party legislative leaders can gather enough caucus votes to do anything they please. On the financial front, despite the coronavirus, state revenues increased enough so that leaders can spread enough money around to please a variety of constituencies, but they haven’t yet gone up enough to start a war over how to spend the extraordinary bounty. In addition, any inclination of Republicans to fight each other is being tamped down by their knowledge that, while next year should see increased revenue, there’s a reasonable chance that the current growth is an ephemeral product of profligate federal spending and an inflated money supply. Everyone’s inclined to be cautious, and cautious people reach deals readily.