New Fiscal Year, Same Budget Problem
In the end, Tuesday’s absolutely-positively-gotta-pass-something budget session was just another drill.
Senate Democrats brought out a trio of bipartisan Assembly bills that needed to get passed before the fiscal year ended at midnight to avoid poking another $3.6 billion hole in the budget only to see all three fail on yet another party-line vote.
The result? Not only did that $3.6 billion in anticipated 2009-10 school cuts disappear when the clock struck 12, but also under the state’s arcane education finance rules (thank you, Prop. 98), California will now be on the hook for another $2 billion in required payments to the schools for next year, boosting the deficit to about $26.3 billion.
But worst of all, even with the near certainty that the state now will have to pay its clients and vendors with promises instead of cash for who knows how long, there wasn’t even a hint that anyone not in the Assembly is willing to make the compromises that are going to be needed to solve the budget mess.
Running a Red Light on Taxes
Call a cop. A law is being broken. A bunch of legislators are trying to raise taxes using a simple majority vote. That is against the main law of the land, the California Constitution.
Unfortunately, the track record of the California legislature in abiding by the constitution is not so good. Legislators make a practice of breaking the law of the land on a regular basis. I draw your attention to Article IV, Section 12, paragraph C (3): The Legislature shall pass the budget bill by midnight on June 15 of each year. How often does that happen?
Some legislators feel they can treat the law like a unique puzzle, arranging the pieces so as to reach their goal, regardless of what the rules say.
Based on the example set by the legislature, I guess its okay to run a red light. Just tell the officer who pulls you over, I know the law but I’m late for an appointment and I thought it was more important to get to the appointment than to stop at the red light. That’s what the legislature would do. Ends justify the means.
Governor Must Stay Strong on Budget Math, Compromise on Taxes
Governor Schwarzenegger is right to demand that the legislature deal with the entire $24 billion shortfall. Why? Because the budget crisis we face now is itself product of previous budget deals that didn’t solve the whole problem.
The examples are immediate. Even before the ink was dry on February’s deal, the state had another $8 billion shortfall. With the voters’ rejection of some $6 billion in budget solutions and the continued decline in revenues, that shortfall has grown to today’s shortfall. And last fall’s budget was out of balance nearly as soon as it’s signed.