Batt Explains Meaning Of ‘Tightwad’ Lean Budget Passed Early Test, But May Spark Defections

If people had doubts about what Republican Phil Batt meant when he kept calling himself a tightwad during last year’s campaign, the chief executive’s new state budget should erase them.

It accommodates Batt’s promises for permanent property tax relief and beefing up law enforcement and the prison and juvenile justice systems. But to pay the bill in a “nogrowth” budget, the state’s first GOP governor in 24 years wants to make the nation’s most Republican Legislature turn years of conservative rhetoric into the reality of checked government spending.

“The governor has come out with a very lean budget,” admitted conservative Senate Finance Chairman Atwell Perry.

In fact, it could be so lean that enough moderate Republicans might be convinced to join up with a diminished Democratic minority to begin unraveling it. And regionalism, pet programs and constituent needs could well push some conservatives into that new bloc.

But GOP House Speaker Michael Simpson believes most Republicans and even some Democrats may be boxed-in to Batt’s budget by the way it was put together.

Batt lopped $47 million in revenue right off the top by earmarking it for property tax relief. The elimination of that amount of cash that otherwise would have been spent essentially turned a relatively strong forecast for a 7.5 percent increase in tax receipts into one for just a 4.5 percent increase.

The last time annual revenue growth was lower than that was in the 1985-1986 budget year. That produced a $27 million deficit, and to cope, lawmakers had to cut existing budgets by nearly $8 million and hike the sales tax from 4 percent to 5 percent for the last three months of the budget year.

Batt and Simpson agree that if the money is not there, legislators - conservative or moderate - cannot spend it. With proposed spending essentially checked at existing levels, except for a 5 percent employee pay raise, beefing any one budget up would almost certainly require scaling back the property tax cut.

“If they do that, that’s when they’re going to have to answer to the voters,” the speaker said.

The Batt philosophy survived its first test on Friday when the HouseSenate committee endorsed all of the new governor’s payroll cutbacks - all by lopsided, if not unanimous - votes.

But even then, there were indications of cracks in the conservative front. GOP Rep Ralph Steele joined Democrats and Republican moderate Rep. James Lucas in a bid to delay a vote on a major cut for the Agricultural Research and Extension Service. And conservative Sen. Stan Hawkins and Rep. Lynn Loosli both sided with moderate elements in opposing cuts in Parks and Recreation that would include elimination of state park lifeguards.

Everyone has a pet program, and the question is whether budget writers and their colleagues on the floors of the House and Senate can break a long-standing habit of just securing that extra $250,000 or $500,000 to make that program a little better.

“Those can add up real fast,” one budget analyst said.