By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
This is the first part in my ongoing commentary on the CA State Budget as it plays out in real time. Keep checking back every Friday for more info on the loony liberals running our state into the ground!
June is almost upon us and that means more than just kids getting out of school, BBQ’s or swimming pools. In the California Legislature this is known as budget time and it’s been getting progressively worse every year. The big question is whether or not this is the year that the proverbial “can” will stop being kicked down the road and the legislators start dealing with the actual budget crisis?
Each year, the California Governor proposes a budget around May and presents it to the Legislature for them to negotiate, chew up, and spit back at him with their thoughts. They can keep or throw out what they want, but by the end of June they’re expected to come up with a budget. Over the last twenty years I think they’ve actually passed a couple of budgets on time, but most of the time they’re late.
Passing a budget isn’t exactly easy in California. You have 80 members of the Assembly and 40 members of the Senate, plus one Governor with a lot of veto power. A supermajority of them have to agree on a budget (and vote for it) to get it passed. Most voters get pretty angry when the budget is late because a lot of state services stop being paid for until it gets done. The problem is that a majority of voters also expect their elected official to vote against a budget that doesn’t represent their best interests. For Republican Legislators this means voting against budgets that raise the taxes on the people (who frankly are tapped out now). For Democrats this means voting against budgets without annual spending increases (COLAs) or that ask anyone on the government gravy train to do with a little less in these difficult times. At least that’s how the fight has played out in most recent years.
This year may be a bit different. You see, this year we’re in a deficit of over $20 billion. This means our projected spending is $20 billion more than what we are projected to bring in with tax revenues to the state. We’ve already borrowed to the hilt in previous years to avoid making budget cuts then. We tried the largest tax increase in state history a little over a year ago and it resulted in revenues going down (also known as diminishing returns). Our government is chasing revenue producing businesses and jobs out of the state faster than Al Gore’s private jet can leave its carbon footprint across the western sky!
In short, the Legislature is backed into a corner. There is no other option than to cut spending down to the levels of what we actually bring in. The incredibly loud noise you will hear from Sacramento over this will be the screaming of many interests in this state who receive our tax dollars in the form of entitlements. The Governor’s proposed cuts have already been labeled as “draconian,” and to be honest there’s nothing fun about it.
The entitlement crowds will be screaming for tax increases to cover their addiction, but it won’t work. Taxes are already so high in California that any further increases would only decrease revenue. Tax cuts might help spur business growth but don’t count on that from the democrat-controlled Legislature. What will happen will be a stalemate with no budget passed on time because the democrats won’t accept reality. However as always the press will blame republicans and then voters will get mad and blame them for the late budget. So how to get a budget on time?
Angry voters have pondered over ways to force Legislators to pass a budget on time. The most common has been the approach of withholding pay, but I don’t believe that would work the way we want it too. Some have suggested doing away with the two-thirds majority for budget passage but that would be like giving cash, needles and car keys to a junkie. Instead, I support an automatic budget solution. If the Legislature fails to pass a budget by the end of June, on July 1st the automatic budget would be triggered. This would be the previous year’s budget PLUS across the board cuts of anywhere from 5 to 15%. Believe it or not, that would get the Legislators’ attention because it would affect all of their constituencies! The threat of an automatic budget would almost guarantee a budget passed on time every year, and with less nonsense as republicans could still hold it up. This is a long-term solution that could probably only pass by initiative though.
Whatever does happen, it’s certain to be an ugly fight. Our local republican legislators have always held the line in this fight though, and they deserve some respect and support for all the bs they are about to go through.