01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 22, 2004

IT WAS A SIGNAL that the game was fixed, and the labor bosses who effectively control the General Assembly could breathe easy. The first thing that Rhode Island House leaders did Friday afternoon when considering the budget was to dump Governor Carcieri's language defining who could be a state employee, eligible for taxpayer-funded goodies.

Frank Montanaro, boss of the AFL-CIO of Rhode Island (and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island), no doubt smiled. As a member of the state Labor Relations Board, Mr. Montanaro had helped push through the scheme to help make day-care providers unionized state employees. That change could wring $10 million more a year out of the pockets of Rhode Island's long-suffering taxpayers, who are already among the most heavily taxed Americans. Governor Carcieri's language was an attempt to redress that, and it was instantly gone.

Then the members got right to work:

The company that owns Lincoln Park, some of whose executives were indicted on federal charges of trying to corrupt the Rhode Island legislature, got more money.

Members approved a power grab by the General Assembly to micro-anage budgets at the state's colleges and university, stripping the Board of Governors of Higher Education of that responsibility. That makes decisions affecting those institutions even more political.

They approved a power grab by Chief Justice Frank Williams. Instead of going through a public-hearing process, where the pros and cons of giving him greater power could be vetted, Article 47 was simply attached to the budget and slammed through. Fourteen of the seventeen lawyers who voted -- some of whom appear before state courts regularly -- gave the chief justice what he wanted.

When it was over, and the budget passed 49 to 22, House Democrats held a victory party with beer and wine. Mr. Montanaro stopped by to celebrate yet another triumph for his special interests

But the celebrations may have been premature. As Republicans were quick to point out, the state constitution requires the "assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the general assembly" to pass certain spending in the budget. And there are 75 elected members. Forty-nine falls one vote short of two-thirds.

Included in such appropriations is money for "local or private purposes" -- the money lawmakers like to spread around their districts to help buy their re-election.

How did House Speaker William Murphy and House Majority Leader Gordon Fox so monumentally flub this one -- failing to muster enough votes on a budget for the first time in memory?

Apparently, it was because Governor Carcieri put up a fight. Furious that House leaders had rejected his few requests when they finally discussed the budget with him Friday morning, he began negotiating with rebellious Democrats, and peeled off just enough votes to create chaos. Fortunately, in any system that has become corrupt, chaos is the public's friend.

Mr. Fox charged that Governor Carcieri had promised to eliminate GOP competition for Democrats in exchange for their votes. If true, that would be a shortsighted and contemptible tactic, since competition is about the only thing that scares a politician into considering the public's interest. But the Democrats apparently made promises, too. Rebel Rep. David Caprio (D.-Narragansett) alleged that Brian Coogan (D.-East Providence) had been offered a sheriff's job to flip.

In the end, the most powerful politician in the state -- Speaker Murphy -- was reduced to stalling for time, while Democrats feverishly tried to round up a 50th vote. Meanwhile, Mr. Fox railed on the House floor, shouting at foes, as Mr. Caprio put it, "like Howard Dean times 100." When Mr. Murphy failed to scrounge 50 votes, he had the chamber approve the budget anyway and send it to the Senate -- a tactical mistake, surely, since that threw the ball into the Senate's court. He might have been better off postponing the budget until he had enough votes in his pocket.

What happens now? The Senate may slightly tamper with the House budget and send it back for a fresh vote. By then, Mr. Murphy may have his 50 votes. Or reform-minded senators may press for some serious changes in the budget, to better serve the public's interest, though success seems unlikely.

Whatever happens, though, Friday's budget maneuvers revealed a flaw in the machine that for decades has been running the state as a wholly owned subsidiary of the public-employee labor unions. Mr. Murphy has rebellious Democrats in his ranks. Governor Carcieri, rather than wave the white flag to more powerful forces, has made it clear that he intends to do battle.

On Nov. 3, if voters approve the separation-of-powers reform, the executive branch will become more powerful, with many more bargaining chips. Rhode Island will have a governor with clout to carry the fight for the general interest, representing the voters who elected him statewide. Legislators may have to consider him in their budget calculations.

As the nation's founders well understood, checks on power are greatly in the public interest. They were big fans of a little chaos in the legislative process.

Edward Achorn is The Journal's deputy editorial-pages editor. His e-mail address is eachorn [at] projo.com.