Will Some Republicans Side With Dems on Budget Battle?

The impending FY2011 budget showdown is a tricky thing. It could cause legislators to worry less about party labels and agree to develop the best plan possible. While Democratic and Republican leaders seem united in the willingness to work together, I doubt we will see Haley Barbour and Billy McCoy singing the same tune many times over the next few months.

We could see the partisan divisions continue to build. Similar to much of last year, the Republicans and conservative Democrats will side with Phil Bryant and Barbour while the Billy McCoy caucus will side with the Speaker and his top lieutenants in the House. We saw this last year until legislators agreed to a budget bill- on the last possible day.

Then there is the thinking that some new alliances will evolve. Faced with the difficult- and possibly unpopular- measures that the governor has proposed, some Republicans nervous about re-election may side with Democrats. That is the thinking of Adam Lynch at the Jackson Free Press who said to “look for cracks in the Republican wall.”

I am not sure where those cracks will come from. Phil Bryant runs as tight of a ship as you can in the Senate, and with friendly chairman on the major committees, I expect measures proposed by Barbour/ Bryant to pass through relatively quietly like last year.

The House would make sense to see Republican defectors. However, because of McCoy’s decision to essentially freeze Republicans (and Democrats who opposed him) out of the budget process- I would not expect them to be ready to support the Speaker’s agenda. The House Republicans have already held a press conference detailing their ideas for what the budget should include. Whatever willingness and desire they may have had to work with the Speaker should have gone out the window when he could not find room for one Republican on the Legislative Budget Committee.