Governor Bill Walker says he sees what the Legislature is doing by recessing after he called a special session and he’s not impressed…
Gov. Walker: “There’s moves that I could take, there’s moves they could take. I think they’ve made their wishes known, and I’m not going to play that game.”
Walker said the budget is currently just a spending document with no source of income.
Gov. Walker: “And again, as I’ve said before, nobody in the discussions has the magic number that’s going to make revenues match expenditures. Under anybody’s scenario, we have got to be able to access our reserve accounts.”
Walker said he shares consultant David Teal’s concerns…
Gov. Walker: “We are potentially impacting our credit rating in this state, by our inability to access our savings.”
The Governor said we’ll only have ourselves to blame if the State is unable to finance its partnership in a gasline.
Gov. Walker: “That concerns me a great deal, because we’re headed into negotiations on something we’ve long wanted, to be a partner on a gasline. For us to be in an unfunded scenario on our own operating budget, what kind of a message does that send, as far as our ability to participate in a significant fiscal, responsible way on a gasline ownership?”
Walker said if legislators are testing his reserve, they’ll find he won’t back down and will not be rescinding his call to a special session. He insisted the process would work best if lawmakers remain together instead of “fracturing” around the state.
