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Discussion

March 29, 2007

Do job without whining

Gov. Brad Henry has a beef with state legislators over their proposed budget, and his beef appears petty and misdirected.

Henry vetoed Wednesday $6.8 billion of the Legislature’s $6.9 billion general appropriations bill, calling its formation “flawed.” Henry has complained for the last few days that he did not have input into the bill, and that it’s too early in the session to come up with a spending budget.

Did the governor wake up this past week and suddenly discover that the Legislature has been meeting for two months? If the governor wanted to negotiate state spending, why didn’t he have his advisers meeting with legislators? And if they were shut out, why didn’t he say something sooner?

But no, the governor’s real beef is the worn-out complaint of partisan politics.

Well, we’re sorry, but that’s the way our government and politics operate. And the two-party system, with its flaws, has served us reasonably well.

Instead of whining that he’s being mistreated, the governor should say what he doesn’t like about the bill. He should get into the fray and do his job, even if the pieces don’t fall where he likes.

We fear, though, that Henry’s lopsided re-election last November has made him think he’s invincible and the ultimate state authority.

But our government has a series of checks and balances. One of them is that a governor or any elected representative doesn’t get his or her way all the time.

And governor, we’re glad to see an appropriations bill in March. It’s not too early.

Don’t wait until May to come up with a budget proposal and entertain criticism, or the Legislature will need a special session to do its job, just like it needed one last year.

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