By Steve Thompson, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party
You know your state government is completely corrupt when something like this happens. Democrats in CA control the Legislature and all the major state offices (Governor, Lt. Governor, Controller, etc). The only thing they do not completely control is the people (they’re still working on that). So it’s almost comical but really quite sad to see Democrat Legislators suing our Democrat State Controller over the fact that he docked their pay when they did not produce a balanced budget on time last year.
Yes you read that right. Voters recently gave the Legislature the ability to pass a budget with less than the two-thirds majority, but with the caveat that legislators would not receive pay or expenses if they did not pass the budget on time (see Prop 25). As some readers may remember, the Legislature passed a sham smoke & mirrors budget by the deadline, but the State Controller (also a democrat) called them on it. The budget was declared not financeable and the State Controller refused to pay legislators until they passed a real budget.
Now Democrat legislators are actually suing the state for docking their pay. You can read an article about the lawsuit in the LA Times.
State Controller John Chiang had this to say about the matter: “The issue before us is not the role of my office, but how to enact the will of the voters,” he said. “It is noteworthy to point out that the Legislature’s budget proposal was not only vetoed by the Governor for not being a ‘balanced solution,’ but it was determined by the Treasurer to not be financeable, and would have, within months of its passage, led to the issuance of IOUs.
“While nothing in the Constitution gives me the authority to judge the honesty, legitimacy or viability of a budget, it does clearly restrict my authority to issue pay to Legislators when they fail to enact a balanced budget by the Constitutional deadline of June 15.”
What’s amazing about this story is not that the Controller docked the legislators’ pay. It’s not amazing that the Legislature failed to produce a real budget by the deadline. It’s not even amazing that the democrat legislators would complain.
What’s amazing is that democrat legislators are so confident that voters will never punish them no matter how audacious and corrupt they become, that they are now suing the state for docking their pay as punishment of their own failure to govern.
What’s amazing is that democrat voters from the districts of these “untouchables” will probably never even read about this act in the paper, and will continue to vote these scumbags right back into office.
Of course, I shouldn’t be surprised. When Jane Dolan got her 1% deal from Governor Brown (she gets paid $40,000 a year for one meeting a month), local democrats in the Chico area rushed to defend this blatant example of government cronyism. On the other hand, some of those same democrats thought Dolan was untouchable as well. A myth that Larry Wahl (in Elliot Ness fashion), handily shot down.
Meanwhile, the same democrats who vote for crony handouts and sue for state perks want us all to pay more taxes to finance their corruption. They’re even willing to threaten cuts to your children if you don’t go along. This November, let’s show them how “untouchable” their tax and spend corruption really is with a nice fat defeat at the polls.
” local democrats in the Chico area rushed to defend this blatant example of government cronyism.”
This is why I worry about Lando’s tax proposal. How many people in Chico could be fooled into paying higher local sales tax? And phone tax? And state sales tax increase as well?
I worry Steve. But thanks for the photo – tres a propos.
This quote from Mike Gatto, Assemblyman from Silver Lake (So.Cal.) the sums up a lot of the problems in California right now, “I now have to explain to my wife and daughter that we won’t be able to pay the bills because a politician chose to grandstand at our expense”
What hubris from one self centered narcissistic public steward. But to me what is most disgusting is the voters in his district will most likely re elect him.
Q, after reading your post about Republicans NOT opting out of the suit, I reread the LA Times article once more, you know, that ‘pro Conservative newspaper’ and nothing was mentioned about Republicans, now I am sure their not happy either, because non of them voted for a poorly written and ineffective budget, but they get the same pay cut, because no budget of any meaning was passed in the time allowed, but I ramble.
So I went looking for another article and to my surprise only found articles like this snippet:
“Faced with another billion-dollar budget deficit, a weak economy and high levels of unemployment, ‘DEMOCRATS’ in the State Legislature took decisive action Tuesday to protect their own pocketbooks”.
Where are the articles using Republicans sue?. I know there out there some where ,sort of like your rebuttals to all thing you disagree with!
Harold, you mean the “poorly written budget” that rolled over $1.7B in debt to this year from last year and then missed revenue projections by a whopping $800M…and now we’re faced with more cuts targeting schools and not stupid redundant agencies and all the waste we have… that budget? ; ) -Jack
Quentin, we allowed you to start posting here again as long as you posted somewhat respectfully, I strongly suggest you try to temper your comments. You’re starting to get very abrasive and insulting again and if you engage in personal attacks you will get the boot – FAIR WARNING. -Editor
Of course Republicans are included in the lawsuit. Excluding them would nullify the complaint! Democrats brought the suit according to the article; Democrats are the whiners…Baaaaah….NO FAIR!
Jack,
Although he resorts to his usual attack the messenger because he can’t argue the point comments, this one was pretty tame compared to his making sick references to my anatomy and trying to scare my family with references to my home. I am still of the opinion that Mr. Colgan has worn out his welcome and does not belong on this blog, but this comment is hardly the worst I’ve ever had hurled at me.
I do think it’s funny though that someone who professes to be non-partisan always jumps to defend democrats whenever I mention the indefensible stunts they pull. It takes a true spinster to try and pin this lawsuit on republicans who had nothing to do with it too. I stand by my belief that QC is a paid democrat hack.
As for my future retirement, I have NO intention of retiring after only ten years. With apologies to the liberals whom my existence brings great anguish, I intend to be working in my field for many years to come. The fact that I am a state employee and pay into a state retirement is only further reason for me to vote conservative, as the liberals in this state are likely to bankrupt all public retirements before I and many others like me get there.
Steve, now this is the best way to handle our detractors and you did it with class, thank you.
-Jack