Budget Vote Set, but on What Budget?
The news is that the state Senate and the Assembly will take up the budget today.
The question is: what budget?
Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget calls for closing the state’s $26.5 billion deficit with a combination of program cuts, funding shifts and a June ballot measure that would extend some $12 billion to $14 billion in taxes and fees for five years.
Well, the Legislature’s Democrats have done their part, approving most of the cuts Brown has called for. And the governor has managed to figure out enough budget deals and program transfers (which the uninitiated might describe as gimmicks) to narrow the gap a bit more.
But unless Brown has a couple of secret GOP votes tucked into his back pocket, he’s still short of the two-thirds of the Legislature needed to put that budget measure on the special election ballot.
Voting on the Budget Bill – Ready or Not
With budget votes called in both the Senate and Assembly today, one wonders how well legislators know the details of the proposed budget. While debate raged over the potential for a special election and the tax extension part of the budget plan, the California Taxpayers Association took a look at what is actually in the budget bill and came up with some interesting insights.
CalTax reports that the proceeds from the sales and car tax increases would be state revenue, and would be put into a special fund and earmarked for local governments to pay for the public safety programs that would be transferred from state to local governments.
This “public safety” money would be on top of what is now spent on public safety because another provision prevents local governments from using this transferred revenue to replace other funding for public safety. CalTax asks an interesting question: “With local governments facing massive deficits, would this provision make them unable to reduce police and fire budgets?”
GOP Endorsement Debate Critical to Party’s Future
In the aftermath of Proposition 14, members of the California Republican Party (CRP) will make a very significant decision this weekend to determine the process and criteria we follow to endorse candidates. It is an important discussion for us to have and we all want to see the Party succeed in future elections, but unfortunately one of the proposals on the table will only weaken the Party.
The current CRP Chairman’s proposal, while it may sound good on its face, actually gives a very small number of Party insiders the power to decide endorsements – something that flies in the face of decades of our Party’s proud history of letting voters decide our Party’s nominee. This proposal threatens to disenfranchise many Republican voters, including our men and women serving overseas who have no way to participate in the Party’s endorsement process under Chairman Nehring’s plan.
But this plan is problematic in other ways. It requires that an endorsement be made in every single race, even when two ormore quality Republican candidates are running against each other. It also does not provide for the endorsement of a Republican candidate after the June election in the event the “officially endorsed” candidate loses that primary. That means that our candidates could be limited or cut-off from vital resources needed to run a winning campaign.
OK Governor Brown, Let The Voters Really Decide
For the past few months, Governor Jerry Brown and his Senate and Assembly Democratic leaders have been speaking off the same song sheet – “it would be ‘unconscionable’ to not let California voters decide the direction of the state.” Shouldn’t it also be “unconscionable” for the Democratic leadership to only have California voters decide on taxes and issues these legislators care about?
Well, I say, let the voters decide.
Let the voters decide whether $500 billion in unfunded pension liability is too much of a burden for our state.
Let the voters decide whether California should have a spending cap.
Let the voters decide whether newly hired state workers should be moved into a 401(k) type retirement plan.