Dispute Over Budget Transfer May Highlight Bigger Budget Debate
by Christine Stuart | Jan 13, 2010 8:48am
(4) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: State Budget, State Capitol
A legislative commission that’s been around for 36 years will struggle to make it to the end of the year, if Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s budget office doesn’t let it transfer $100,000 this Thursday.
Teresa Younger, executive director of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, said Tuesday that the Office of Policy and Management has yet to put her commission on the agenda for a Financial Advisory Committee meeting Thursday.
“The money has already been budgeted,” Younger said. She said they just need to move it from operational expenses to personal services so they can continue to pay the few staff members they have left. In order to do that they need the approval of the Financial Advisory Committee, which is controlled by the governor’s budget office.
Last year Rell proposed eliminating all six legislative commissions, including Younger’s, but the General Assembly decided to keep them and simply cut their funding by an estimated 50 percent to help close the budget gap. The General Assembly also eliminated Rell’s appointments to the commissions.
Younger said if the commission is unable to make the $100,000 transfer it will struggle to make it through the end of the fiscal year.
Jeffrey Beckham, spokesman for the Office of Policy and Management, said no decision about whether to add the commission to the agenda has been made.
“We’re aware of the request and we’re taking a look at it,” Beckham said Tuesday night. “They have already overspent their budget by quite a lot and it looks like they don’t have enough money to make it through the end of the year.”
He said he doesn’t believe the transfer will help it.
“They’re a few pay periods away from being in the red,” Beckham said.
Younger said that’s absolutely not true. She said over the years the commission has developed private-public partnerships to help it maintain its mission and programming expenses.
“It’s not his job to micromanage our budget,” Younger said. “We have not overspent our budget.”
She said all of the commissions money, including grant funds, are managed through the Office of Legislative Management, not the Office of Policy and Management.
Rep. John Geragosian, D-New Britain, who sits on the Financial Advisory Committee and chairs the legislature‘s Appropriations Committee, said this budget was negotiated and for Rell’s administration not to agree to the transfer “undermines the intent of the budget.”
“It’s dishonorable and backhanded,” Geragosian said Tuesday. “I hope they come to their senses and make the transfer.”
He said the General Assembly budgeted a specific amount of money for these commissions and some adjustments need to be made. He said if the governor’s office refuses to allow this transfer it will “set off a nuclear war on the budget.”
“This has nothing to do with implementing the budget,” Beckham said. “This was not unforeseen.” He said the commission should have known what they were up against.
“It’s not the fault of anyone in the executive branch,” Beckham said noting that Rell never signed the budget.
“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Younger said. “We’ve never overspent our budget and just last year we gave back $300,000.”
She said when the commission works with state agencies like the Department of Corrections to implement a stipulated agreement with female correction officers the commission never asked for more money.
“We did it. No questions asked,” Younger said.
The commission provides discrimination and harassment training to 10,000 state employees, holds public hearings, and advocates on behalf of women who make up 51 percent of the population in the state.
(4) Comments
posted by: City Hall Watch | January 13, 2010 4:07pm
There he goes again, shooting his mouth off and pretending he knows anything about the budget. Rep. John Geragosian, D-New Britain, who sits on the Financial Advisory Committee and chairs the legislature‘s Appropriations Committee is one of the architects of last year’s financial fiasco and this year’s crisis as well, Really, John, given your history, you should probably try to lay low and not draw attention to your growing record of incompetence. If you had done what you’re paid to do, this wouldn’t even be a story.
posted by: PatrickT | January 13, 2010 5:05pm
Isn’t this just another leftover useless commission that has long outlived it’s usefulness? Why not just disband it and be done with it? Sooner or later the so called “representatives” are going to be forced to face the reality of being broke. I can see the next poor slob that gets to be Governor may have to face the state going bankrupt. I’ll bet that’s something the legislators are really looking forward to.
posted by: grizzy78 | January 13, 2010 5:49pm
I disagree that the PCSW is an unneeded organization. If you actually took the time to review on their website all of the work that they accomplish each year, you wouldn’t be so quick to judge them negatively. For example, the PCSW has been instrumental in the state’s anti-trafficking efforts. I have met the Director, Ms. Younger, on multiple occasions and she is a very astute, intelligent and accomplished woman who has done a tremendous amount of good for women in Connecticut.
posted by: jonpelto | January 13, 2010 9:24am
It is stories like this one that I find most disturbing about the Rell Administration’s approach to governance. The Governor supported the budget by allowing it to go into law. It is the budget - for good or for bad - until it is changed which means it is the law.
The intent of the budget when it came to the PCSW could not be clearer, everyone who watched the process roll out knew that. The budget intended to make this transfer.
She could use her rescission authority to cut up to 5% of any line item, including each line item in PCSW, but she can not cut beyond that amount without legislative approval.
The Governor must carry out the law and yet OPM “hasn’t decided”?
This isn’t simply about the PCSW, this relates to the most basic elements of Connecticut government and budget process.
Since when does a Governor allow their administration to decide whether the law should or should not be followed.
Democrats and Republicans alike should be very concerned when any elected official believes that they are somehow exempt from having to follow the law.
This time it is the Commission, what will it be next time?