BY CARL GOLDEN

When a legitimate public policy interest coincides with a political strategy, it produces a perfect storm.

Such a storm is brewing in the attempt by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to amend the Constitution to remove the sole authority to certify state revenues from the governor and place it in the hands of a three-person certification board.

Designating an individual or a government body to decide the amount of tax revenue anticipated in a given fiscal year is an “inside baseball” matter with little broad interest in the electorate as a whole.

If Sweeney’s proposed constitutional amendment makes it to the ballot this year, it’s likely voters will either ignore the question altogether or cast a guesswork yea or nay.

Despite the Senate President’s insistence that his proposal is designed to bring New Jersey into line with sound budgetary practices and instill greater fiscal stability in the process, there remains the nagging feeling that it is a part of his grander strategy to chip away at executive branch authority and prerogatives and reverse the flow of power away from the governor’s office and back to the Legislature.

It was that power reversal desire that drove Sweeney’s strategy on the budget and led directly to a compromise in which — by most accounts — the Senator came away with more than did Gov. Phil Murphy.

Governors have enjoyed exclusive revenue estimate authority for some 70 years and it has been the source of periodic tension between the executive and the Legislature.

The authority has become an anachronism, a throwback to an earlier day when the Legislature was barely part-time and didn’t enjoy access to individuals with expertise in the field of finance and budget planning.

Governors have been accused of cooking the books, establishing anticipated revenues at an unrealistically high level to avoid tax increases — a tactic used routinely by former Gov. Chris Christie whose public brawls with the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services budget staff were the stuff of legend — or estimating at an equally unrealistic low level to force legislative acceptance of revenue raisers, a criticism directed at Murphy.

Sweeney has positioned himself as a champion of good government interested only in putting an end to shenanigans engaged in by both parties while, at the same time, advancing his power sharing agenda.

A perfect storm, indeed!

The Administration has expressed opposition to the amendment, arguing that it undermines the separation of powers provisions of the Constitution and criticized Sweeney for failing to act to strip the power away from Christie who, they claim, distorted the revenue estimate authority for purely political ends, like avoiding tax increases at a time when he was seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

The Senator readily conceded he should have acted more vigorously during the Christie Administration, but history is history, what’s done is done, and it’s time to correct that mistake.

The reasonableness and logic of vesting responsibility in a non-political revenue certification board rather than a governor for whom politics is a constant presence and consideration is a compelling argument.

Murphy’s task is the more difficult one, rooted in a business as usual posture in which revenues can be manipulated and used as leverage in budget negotiations and confrontations with the Legislature.

While the Administration’s separation of powers argument may be a valid one, it is a rather complex one not easily explained in 50 words or less to voters being asked to oppose the amendment.

Time is running out for Sweeney, however, and despite Senate approval of the proposal, the Assembly must act by Aug. 6 to meet the deadline for ballot placement in November.

More ominous, though, is the coolness expressed by Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex), who could, if he so chose, delay action for another two weeks and effectively end the issue for this year at least.

Sweeney acknowledged that he and the Speaker haven’t reached agreement at this point, but 11^th hour deals and accommodations have become fairly routine in the legislative process and hope remains until it doesn’t.

The Senator can, of course, renew his effort next year, convincing Coughlin that the issue could benefit Democratic candidates in a year when the Assembly stands for re-election.

Sweeney has, though, made his point directly and unequivocally.  The message has been sent that he and the majority he leads will be a force to reckon with for the next three years and he does not intend to wait passively for Administration directives and orders.

The authority to set revenue estimates may be the battle, but power sharing is the war. And, Sweeney has shown he’s pretty damned skilled in combat.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.