Now, suddenly, because of sharply rising medical costs, the cap is in play, blocking payments for the first time. Amid wrangling over how to get the bills paid, both sides are using the cap as a sword to fight for their respective spending plans - not just as a tool to make sure the other guys follow the rules. Gov. John G. Rowland says the state has no way to pay them fully under the cap law. Connecticut has more than enough money to cover its obligations. That is either rare or unprecedented - yet another point of disagreement.
Next year is, after all, an election year, with the governor's seat up for grabs.
They have a motive beyond making the governor look bad. They need that extra breathing room, along with some other financial wizardry, to pour more money into aid to towns, higher education, welfare, mental health and other programs they favor. Nothing doing, Rowland says. He and his budget chief, Marc S. Ryan, insist that this year's spending is legal because the extra money was built into the budget already. It was earmarked as money to be saved, but it was in there, and so, the Rowland team says, all the state needs to do is transfer it and spend it.