Democrat Chuck Colgan took to the Senate floor yesterday, asking his colleagues to avoid a “tragedy,” to find a way to compromise, and to get the state’s budget done (because Mr. Colgan doesn’t want to stay in Richmond “’till June, or May, even April.'”).
While delivering his plea, Colgan made it clear he intends to help his caucus members get at least some of what they want, but also that he is not interested in compromising on the question of Senate control:
Colgan later told reporters that he is not about to break with his caucus and give Republicans the 21st vote they need to pass a budget. But he spoke out today because he was growing more concerned about the toxic partisanship in the historically collegial Senate, he said.
“There’s too much animosity,” said Colgan, who was first elected to the Senate in 1976. “It’s not like it was in the old days.”
Ah, the old days…like when Democrat Hunter Andrews lorded over the Senate, and several governors. Enforcing collegiality is quite easy when a bully runs the joint.
And even by Colgan’s own admission, the old days were not exactly a bed of roses:
Colgan, the most senior member of the senate, rose to his feet to talk about abuses of power employed by majority when he first joined the senate 36 years ago–bills that were assigned to fake subcommittees that never met; budgets crafted by a few members meeting at a hunting lodge; other items considered in executive sessions where the public and even many senators were not allowed to attend.
But let’s give Mr. Colgan the benefit of the doubt and say that he was speaking out of true concern for the institution’s reputation. What of the budget demands Democrats have put on the table? Senate Finance committee chairman Walter Stosch responded to them this way:
Senate Finance Committee Walter Stosch, R-Henrico County, said the budget requests that Democrats outlined in their letter to McDonnell would cost about $150 million in general fund money and $300 million from other sources, amounts that “vastly exceed any available resources that we’ve identified thus far in the budget preparation process.”
Stosch asked Democrats to submit budget amendments detailing their requests to the Finance Committee, which will meet Friday morning.
As Steve Rossie reminds us, this will be the second time Democrats will have been given such an opportunity:
The day each chamber presents its budget the chambers entertain floor amendments before the final up-or-down vote. There are dozens of floor amendments, each with the requisite questions of the patron, debate, parliamentary inquiry and vote. The Republican controlled Senate accepted almost all (if not all) of the Democrat sponsored amendments, a process that took considerable time and lasted late into the afternoon, delaying committee hearings into the evening. After all that work and all those accepted budget amendments, Senate Democrats still blocked passage of the budget. What was the purpose of offering all the amendments if they were still going to block the budget?
We all know it was because of power. But now that Stosch is allowing them, once again, to propose amendments to the amendments they’ve already made (and that were, in the main, accepted), he’s essentially calling their bluff.
Produce all the amendments you want. They will get a hearing. They may even be accepted. But if Democrats vote the budget down again, their faltering jig will be up.
