California Budget Problem Is Partisanship- Not The 2/3 Rule!
The Issue: California’s budget spent a record 84 days passing the California State Budget. Some argue that lowering the required vote to pass the budget in the Legislature (2/3 in each house) would break the budget deadlock. Would lowering the threshold required to pass a budget in California improve the California budget process?
When Governor Schwarzenegger first developed the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year Budget, he did a tour of cities throughout the state explaining what his budget criteria was and how it was supposed to work. Below is a graph that he used to just justify his budgeting solutions. It shows the change in revenue for the state compared to the expenditures since 1998:
If you inspect the graph, you will notice that the expenditures for the state have continually increased year after year despite the level of revenue the state is receiving. This means that the people who have been the main crafters of the budget (the Democratic Party Leadership) have been spending larger and larger amounts of money, whether or not the state can afford it. Normally, they try to justify this by encouraging tax increases for businesses and individuals.
The framers of the California Budget process developed the 2/3 majority rule for a specific reason: to ensure that with the one major issue that crucial to our state’s long term survival, the budget plan has to be so well supported that at least 2/3 of the state’s representatives will vote for it.
Now this is not just a support of the Republicans, it works in the reverse as well. If the state was represented by roughly 60% Republicans who recommended the closure of major services that are allocated in the state budget, a group of prudent Democrats who didn’t hold a majority could ensure the survival of those programs because of the 2/3 rule. The 2/3 rule doesn’t create gridlock in the budget process, it ensures the rights of the minority, something I thought Californians valued.
It is the lack of compromise of behalf of the majority party, the Democrats, that creates budget gridlock. Since they are unwilling to negotiate, they are trying to modify the budget laws they fail to work within.
To learn more about California’s budget-making process try the California Budget Challenge. The Challenge allows you to create your own version of the state budget-deciding what to spend and what to tax. You can then alert your legislators and the governor of the policy choices you made. It’s a great way to learn about the trade-offs involved. Try it! http://www.next10.org/challenge
I can’t believe that the budget doubled from 1998 to 2008 and that they democrats can’t find ways to cut spending. The taxpayers are hurting in this economy and all they want to do is find creative new ways to raise taxes.
Did anyones wages go from $58,000 a year in 98 to $106,000 in 2008? That is the tax bump these politicians have burdened the California citizens with. What a joke these politicians are taxing and spending other peoples money. They are worried about school funding decreasing. How about counting the American citizen children that we are educating and then counting the total number of kids in the schools. The difference in those numbers is where the savings lie. My tax dollars are going to educate foreign nationals. I work hard and the democrats take my money and force me to educate non-American children. Unlike Michelle Obama, for the first time in my adult life I am not proud of America.