ON OCT. 3, at the annual dinner of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, Speaker of the House William Murphy acknowledged that the state is in a fiscal crisis.

As Gomer Pyle once said: “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”

On Oct. 10, the Tax Foundation ranked Rhode Island 50th — the worst in the country — in its State Business Tax Climate Index.

On Oct. 15, Speaker Murphy issued a letter to the members of the House of Representatives announcing that there would be a special session on Oct. 30. The speaker did not specify what legislative business would be brought before the House. The House’s own internal rules say only that bills presented during special sessions of the General Assembly should be “noticed” at least 24 hours before their “presentation.” Interpretation: If there is to be notice, it is by the thinnest margin possible.

On Oct. 23 the AFL-CIO leadership for Rhode Island mailed a letter to every senator and representative, calling for an override of the governor’s veto of 12 bills. The theme of 10 of the bills, with minor exceptions, pertained to strengthening or emboldening the grip of unions that rely on public funds.

On Oct. 29 the public, and most members of the House, got their first look at the agenda for the following day. When the leadership finally announced what bills were to be taken up, the 10 pro-union bills were on the calendar of the House or Senate, or both. All were scheduled for veto override, precisely as requested.

On the morning of Oct. 30, the very day of the House session, State House leaders, including the House’s own fiscal advisers, were making final preparations for the Revenue and Caseload Estimating Conference, scheduled for the following morning, Oct. 31. In this meeting, the flow of money from taxes is calculated, and the cost of various government programs is projected.

As it turned out, it was a very bad morning. As The Journal later reported, the “tax revenue numbers were numbing.” Sales-tax revenue for the four months preceding Oct. 30 was down 2.4 percent compared with the same period the previous year. In fact, it was down 8 percent in October alone.

And the news only got worse. The net amount that Rhode Island collected from personal-income tax, instead of increasing by millions, as had been projected, was down $1 million from the same period in the previous year. Yet, the cost of government continued to climb, unabated, thanks to the Democrat-authored, veto-overridden budget passed in June 2007.

In light of these numbers, Rhode Island’s projected budget deficit for next year had climbed to as much as $450 million. An impartial observer might have thought that things in the Ocean State were as bad as they could get on Oct. 30.

Wrong.

They were about to get worse, much worse.

Starting at 4 p.m. on Oct. 30, every AFL-CIO bill placed on the calendar for override of the governor’s veto passed the Democratic-controlled House and Senate by large margins. Vetoes on another 15 bills were overridden as well.

At a time when everyone recognized the state faced a severe fiscal crisis, the Democrat-controlled House and Senate overrode vetoes on a total of 25 issues. Of this total, four either raised taxes or increased the cost to the public of using government services; fifteen raised the cost of government outright; and three restricted the governor’s ability to act as the chief executive without legislative meddling.

Even Gomer Pyle could connect these dots: “Shame, shame, shame!”

Rhode Island government needs a reality check. It’s long past time for the leadership of the House and Senate (continuously controlled by the same party since 1935) to stop catering to the special interests and find a way of working with, rather than against, the executive branch to solve our problems. The people demand it and we must respond.

Nicholas Gorham, of Coventry, is the House minority whip. Laurence Ehrhardt is a Republican state representative from North Kingstown.