Yesterday, the Warner administration’s budget point man, Ric Brown, minimized the significance of changes made to a preliminary budget document (fiscal 2007-2008) that appeared to eliminate $290 million in transportation funds and $100 million for Chesapeake Bay clean-up. But House Republicans aren’t buying his explanation.
Robert Vaughn, staff director of the House Appropriations Committee (HAC), disagrees with Brown’s characterization of the “base budget,” which was presented to the House earlier this week, “as merely a ‘technical’ exercise.” In a letter to Brown dated today, he wrote:
Ric, clearly the development of the base budget is driven by preliminary decisions made by someone. Whether subsequent decisions are made through the “decision package process” is yet another step. However, in my more than 20 years of building budgets, the development of the base budget has always been an integral step in the overall budget process.
As GP Nardo, chief of staff to House Speaker William Howell, elaborated in an e-mail accompanying Vaughn’s letter:
[Brown’s] protestations respectfully acknowledged and notwithstanding, we’re not buying their disengenuous argument. … A DECISION WAS MADE (that is a fact) to remove the transportation funding from the base budget under the pretense that this was one-time funding. … So, unless or until the Governor makes ANOTHER DECISION to put the money back in, we’re going to continue to consider it as it having been removed, which is what the Administration presented to HAC on Monday.
I’d be very interested to hear from those with a vested interested in transportation and/or Chesapeake Bay funding — calling Steve Haner! Calling Steve Haner! — to weigh in on this issue. Are you concerned? Are House leaders overreacting, or is the Warner administration really trying to yank the money?
