EDITORIAL
Veto override session faces major hurdles

Democratic state legislators who want to develop a storm of support for a special session to override Gov. Linda Lingle's vetoes face an uphill battle.

They face public relations hurdles, internal political problems and the raw fact that the budget numbers are running in favor of Lingle's positions.

You'd think their best course would be to retreat and regroup to fight another day. But the pressure for a special veto override session is strong for several reasons:

• First, many of the items vetoed by Lingle go to core Democratic social programs, such as early childhood education and services for sexual assault victims.

Democratic lawmakers also know that calling attention to Lingle's vetoes of these popular, if expensive, programs could weaken her politically.

• But also, Democratic lawmakers are sincerely wounded by Lingle's rhetorical attacks, which suggest their fiscal irresponsibility is the cause of at least some of the state's budget problems. Lingle has as much as said that the Legislature knowingly passed on an unbalanced budget.

Not so, say Democratic leaders. The budget they passed was balanced as written, based on revenue forecasts from the Council on Revenues. True, they say, the council subsequently downgraded its forecast, but that does not make the budget unbalanced as passed.

The flaw in this argument is that legislators were not obligated to spend up to the top dollar projected by the council when they wrote the budget. But they did.

That was a gamble, but it was not illegal or irresponsible. Lingle does little good for her own cause by painting lawmakers in this light.

The other problem facing the Legislature is the dicey prospect of getting the necessary two-thirds vote in the House to sustain an override. House Speaker Calvin Say was openly pleading with Republicans to join Democrats in an override effort, an unlikely possibility.

Finally, to make a strong argument for an override, legislators would have to demonstrate that the money Lingle says is not there is, in fact, available. That's a tough sell. At the moment, the best hope is that the Council on Revenues will go back to a higher projection for the coming year. Consider that a long shot.

The best bet might be to accept the vetoes, cool rhetoric on both sides and begin now on a cooperative approach for the next session.