By snoadmin
There are 47 states that rely on a simple majority vote in the legislator, instead of a two-thirds vote, to pass their state budgets or raise taxes. Unfortunately, California is not included on that list of states. And, since it’s mandatory to reach a two-thirds vote, a minority party’s are almost always vital. Evidently, this takes time — time California doesn’t have.
If passed, Proposition 25, the Majority Vote for the Legislature to Pass the Budget Act, would eliminate this two-thirds requirement in the California State Legislature while also protecting it when it comes to the issue of raising taxes — because does anyone really mind a delay in that? In addition, if the legislators do not reach a consensus by a certain date, it would punish them by requiring they forfeit their salaries until a budget is passed.
Proposition 25 will not give the two parties an opportunity to waste time and thus, money by arguing like children over budget-related issues. Plus, giving legislators more time to lollygag makes things worse — even after the budget is passed. By allocating more time to finalizing the budget, it “inevitably leads to the use of gimmicks to balance the budget,” said state Sen. Joe Simitian (D- Palo Alto).
Eliminating the two-thirds requirement would encourage a quicker process to finalize a budget and hold the legislators accountable for their actions, or lack thereof.
Proposition 25 is supported by the California Faculty Association, California Federation of Teachers, California Nurses Association, and Health Access America.
Supporters of Proposition 25 highlighted the problems with a late budget in a TV advertisement. “Late budgets cost California taxpayers over $50 million a day… Money we need for schools and health care and other services. We can stop that waste with Prop 25,” the ad announced.
Although legislators finally passed a budget and sent it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk before the weekend, wherein he signed it on Sunday. The end of California’s budget stalemate, going 100 days without a budget, was 101 days too long.
Let’s just say the public could have done without threats from the governor to pay state workers minimum wage. Criticism coming from Democrats and Republicans toward the governor’s proposed budget without offering any alternative ideas didn’t help either.
Even with a planned budget, it still falls short of satisfactory. In no way was prolonging the budget beneficial to California. It seems as though Schwarzenegger and his team of lawmakers want to push aside the problems and leave the budget crisis in the hands of the next governor. We’ve never felt sympathy for either Jerry Brown or Meg Whitman but this might warrant it.
The Los Angeles Times put it in a way we couldn’t agree more with, stressing that “the failure of lawmakers, again, to set the state on firm financial footing highlights Sacramento’s dysfunction.”
The budget relies on support from the government, cuts in salaries of state workers and trims of funding/spending. Ultimately, it should close the $19 billion deficit that California faces, but even that may prove to be an unlikely result.
While certain sectors, such as the public school education system, may suffer under the proposed budget, higher education would benefit from it. Both [the University of California and California State University systems] would receive $200 million to compensate for cuts made last year and enough additional money to fully fund projected enrollment growth,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The Daily 49er reported yesterday that the budget “restores $199 million to the California State University system,” and will use that money “to fill in a $305 million cut the state made to higher-education funding in the 2009-10 year.”
Too bad celebrating with a dearly-missed “personal” furlough day would not be fitting for this situation.
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