Parsing the Budget Vote

By Steve Poftak
June 22nd, 2009

29 Democrats voted against the budget last week and I’d like to know why. (Tip of the pen to BlueMassGroup for the roll call document.)

They are Arciero, Benson, Bowles, Callahan, Costello, Creedon, Dempsey, Driscoll, Fagan, Fallon, Fresolo, Garry, Golden, Greene, Gregoire, Kujawski, McMurtry, Miceli, Murphy (K.J.), Nangle, Puppolo, Rogers, Rush, Scaccia, Smith, Spiliotis, Stanley (T.M.), St. Fleur, and Torrisi.

Part of that group is probably the fiscal conservatives — I’d note Arciero and Rogers as part of that group.

There’s also a number of reps from border (or close to border) districts — Arciero, Bowles, Costello, Dempsey, Garry, Torrisi among them.

And lastly, there’s a curious group who voted for the sales tax increase but against the budget — Benson, Bowles, Costello, Dempsey, Fagan, Gregoire, Scaccia, Spiliotis, and St. Fleur. Now, the budget is a complex document, so there’s lots of possible reasons but one hope that these folks aren’t hoping to have it both ways — being for the sales tax before they were against it.