If Doc Brown pulled up in front of the statehouse, driving his souped-up time-traveling DeLorean, and offered Ted Strickland a glimpse at Ohio’s budget future – would he take it?
Probably not.
In this week’s Columbus Dispatch, Strickland said that we need to be focused on the here-and-now and wonders why there is “such incredible interest in the 2012-2013 budget.”
“‘I am puzzled that there is such incredible interest in the 2012-2013 budget when we ought to be focusing on trying to deal constructively with the problems that exist now,’ the governor said last week.”
This was not the case when Strickland offered up his first budget two years ago. The, then curious, governor provided four year budget projections, which his budget director gloated about:
“Two years ago, state Budget Director J. Pari Sabety bragged to lawmakers that ‘for the first time in Ohio history, this executive budget has projected revenues and expenses for the next four years.’ Republicans have noticed that the four-year projection does not exist in this budget -- further fueling speculation that the budget can be sustained only for the next two years, just enough to carry Strickland through re-election in 2010.”
