My favorite reform proposal is California Forward’s suggestion of a two-year budget for the state. I find this idea hysterically funny because it’s so out of step with fiscal reality. California no longer even has a one-year budget.
We’ve moved to a four-month budget.
The legislature negotiated a budget in September, another budget in February, and is negotiating one now. For all the angst about the July budget, I wonder how much it really matters. For all the rhetoric about balancing the budget for real this time, it’s clear that the $24 billion or $26 billion of “solutions” that will be part of any deal will be made up of borrowing, gimmicks and other fictions. It’s a safe bet that – barring an unexpected reversal in the world’s economic fortunes — in another four to six months, the legislature and governor will have to come back and negotiate another budget.
In such a difficult and volatile moment, it’s not clear to me what the point of a two-year budget plan is. It’s an interesting intellectual exercise, but it’s likely to create more political infighting. We need less negotiation and more aggressive cash and fiscal management. Perhaps we should move the other direction – to daily, instantaneous budgeting – where we adjust the numbers day to day, if not week to week. Call it real-time budgeting.