Matt has a post on it, so we can send you his way. But suffice it to say, last night’s dealings will be the stuff of legend: Nobody I’ve spoken to can recall such a close vote, with the Senate Prez, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader, all coming to vote ex officio, together.  The supplemental budget ended up passing out of committee 7-6 — and it was all after a caucus that lasted for about 2 hours, as members tried to sort out what the hell was going on.

We on the House side have the advantage of voting on the budget piece by piece — I voted against several articles on our side, related to municipal funding, health care, welfare for kids, and more.  The Senate votes on the whole thing, up or down.

The fundamental problem — and the issue on which most of the senators in question took their stand — is that we’re still in a paradigm where worthy interests (the above three, for instance) are being pitted against one another. We need to shift the dynamic so that increasing revenues is on the table. First and foremost — we should restore the long-term capital gains tax back to the 5% where it was a few years back. It’d increase revenues by about $50 million, in a very progressive way. And we’d still be lower than Massachusetts, where long-term cap gains is taxed at 5.3% and short-term at 12%.

It wouldn’t be enough to close the whole gap, but it’d be a start.

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