Democrats say this is evidence that Republicans cannot publicly disagree with the governor Watch video
TRENTON — In the weeks before the budget battle engulfed Trenton, Senate Republicans tried to restore millions of dollars in funding to social service programs only to see their support wilt under the partisan flame, according to documents obtained by The Star-Ledger.
Records show the same Republicans who initially supported increasing funding for items such as programs for the visually impaired, nursing homes and tuition and legal assistance for the poor ended up voting against similar increases when Senate Democrats tried to override the governor’s vetoes earlier this month.
Republicans supported the increases through budget resolutions submitted to the Office of Legislative Services in early June. The list of resolutions is expected to be released later today.
Democrats say the resolutions are evidence that Republican lawmakers privately believe restoring the cuts were the right thing to do but publicly cannot step outside the shadow of the governor.
“That the Republicans themselves sought to restore some of the very funding they voted against last week is at best hypocritical, and at worst proves just how much in the governor's back pocket they really are,” said Derek Roseman, spokesman for the Senate Democrats.
Republicans, on the other hand, say the resolutions illustrate that they were willing to negotiate on the cuts but only if they were part of reasonable budget plan. Democrats blew that opportunity when they failed to reach across the aisle and introduced their own plan that was built on questionable revenue estimates and was constitutionally unbalanced.
“We would have been happy to negotiate,” said Adam Bauer, spokesman for Senate Republicans. "But all that goes out the window when Democrats want to put forth a purely political budget that was one billion dollars out of balance.”
In early June, Senate Republicans introduced a number of budget resolutions that would increase funding for programs aimed at the state’s most vulnerable. They included $1.5 million for the Commission of the Blind, $3 million for tuition grants and $9.7 million in legal services for the poor.
Democrats agreed with the restorations and actually increased a number them above what Republican Senators sought when they sent their own budget to Christie, who vetoed nearly $1 billion out of the plan.
Christie and his fellow Republicans said Democrats were playing politics by submitting a plan based on “fictitious” revenue projections that allowed them to increase funding to social service programs. That would allow Democrats to label Republicans as unsympathetic as they did the responsible thing and cut the funding, Republicans argued.
Senate Democrats tried, unsuccessfully, to override the vetoes and forced Republicans to cast tough votes that will be used against them in the fall as Democrats try to hold on to the Senate and the Assembly.
Some of the restorations Republican senators sought — and eventually opposed — were not costly and would not have thrown the budget off balance. So why did they vote against the override?
“We are not going to govern by override,” said Bauer.D