OK. This is getting weird.
The Star-Ledger reported that Assembly Democrats staged a sit-in earlier today, demanding that the state treasurer meet with them because of comments made by the governor yesterday. Gov. Jon Corzine is threatening a veto of the budget if it does not include his proposed sales tax hike.
The day, as the Ledger reported, was “strange … even by Trenton standards.”
(T)he Assembly Budget Committee convened this morning, demanded the state treasurer come to them, waited all day and then recessed at 5:30 p.m. — without taking a vote on any bills, or on a version of the state budget.
The sit-in left budget negotiations “in a state of emergency of their own” — a reference to the flooding hitting the western part of the state.
Here’s the Ledger’s description of the fun and follies:
This morning, the Assembly Budget Committee staged a sort of sit-in. The committee, led by chairman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden), was scheduled to vote on a budget bill that does not include Corzine’s proposed rise in the state sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent. But when committee members assembled in a room filled with lobbyists just after 11 a.m., they said there would be no vote.
Instead, they called on state treasurer Bradley Abelow to come to the meeting room and explain in detail Corzine’s statement the night before that he would veto the Assembly budget plan.
The committee even sent a Sergeant-at-arms to the treasurer’s office and then the governor’s office — but he was rebuffed at both places.
Corzine, who was holding a news conference about the flood preparations, criticized the Assembly committee’s action.
“My treasurer has been made available over and over again now doing things on the spur of the moment — which is, by the way, one of the major problems we have in this whole budgetary process,” Corzine said.
Seems pretty obvious that neither side is in a mood to compromise. So don’t expect a deal on this budget anytime soon.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Hank Kalet 