A likely lack of Republican resonance on the pension

It's a bad thing to not put money into pensions for a few years. The Governor was right to call to shore up the pensions and the benefit trims in the pension deal are significant and deserve credit. It isn't easy to take on pensioners or school districts. So the only tactic left for the GOP is to call the trims superficial and focus on the 2.2 billion not contributed to the pensions. But that doesn't really resonate outside of pensioners and state employees. The far superior result for the GOP would have been an overtime session where those 'irresponsible, mismanaging Democrats can't get the job done again.' That would have portrayed an image of incompetence. Instead, the Dems are looking like they can portray an image of responsibility in a tough budget to the average voter. Maybe if the GOP tacticians agree with that sentiment of a lack of any advantage, they might agree to bond the 2.2 billion to save the state billions more than the 30 (or whatever) billion the implemented reforms will save.