The Governator Gets It Wrong Again
No, no, no, Governor, with all due respect, the special election results DO NOT validate your position. The voters DO NOT want you to slash and burn your way through state services with your famously dull 10%-to-all-departments axe.
With the propositions defeated, what conclusions can be drawn about what the people want? Pundits and politicians are cherry picking the election results, looking for details they think support their own parochial views. The real question is, why did the Governor and legislature use the referendum process to solve the budget impasse?
Putting complex budget questions to a popular vote acknowledged the dysfunction of the legislative process. With a requirement that 2/3 of the legislature approve the budget, the minority party can obstruct reasonable compromises and bring the process of running the state to a screeching halt.
In truth, what Californians have just witnessed is nothing unique. The dysfunctional process happens every year. The economic downturn has exacerbated the scale of the problems but the system has failed to function as it fails to function every year.
The minority uses the 2/3s requirement to justify their refusal to engage with the Democratic majority. They stand at the back of the room, arms folded, angry expressions on their faces, willing the process to grind to a halt. They assume their position of power even though they lack a voter mandate. They pretend to a moral authority that is entirely self-proclaimed. They vindictively strike out at their own members who dare to break ranks and attempt constructive dialogue.
The party of weakness uses the 2/3s provision to give themselves a bully pulpit with which to punish the state.
In theory, a Republican governor could have helped the process. His minority party could have felt empowered which could have led to their actually being engaged in the budgeting process. In theory, a popular personality like Schwarzenegger could have used his movie star charisma to bring people together. In theory...well, theories didn't amount to much in this case.
What California got was more egotistical posturing and blustering. And now the Governator stands ready to swing his mighty axe, saying he's ready to do the people's bidding. Does he really believe that the people want him to slash his way through public safety programs and deny support to schools and health care?
California deserves better.
California is a great state, with incredible resources. We need elected officials who are willing to stay out of the pundit glare and do the honestly difficult work of governance. We need a system that doesn't empower an embittered minority to prevent intelligent consideration of complex issues.
California needs to end the 2/3s requirement as soon as possible.
And the Governor...he needs to stop giving interviews, stop traveling out of state, and stop acting like a politician and actually do the honest work of governing by bringing together disparate factions and creating sensible solutions.
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The Jarvis-Gann initiative (also known as Prop 13) gave the illusion that the amenities of civilized life--paved roads, good schools, libraries, fire and police services, etc., didn't really cost much. They do.
One money saving idea--a unicameral legislature. We don't need an Assembly and Senate. We'd be lucky if we had one House with representatives that actually did their job. With just one representative, perhaps new districts could be drawn up in a way that was less rigged.
I don't care what party is in charge, I just want elected officials to get this state, whose budget is said to be the ninth largest in the world, working well for its people.
Hear, hear! We need a constitutional convention, and we need it yesterday.
The direct vote system in California has been abused and as long as funds are earmarked by ridiculous, and endless, propositions, our leaders are hamstrung.
Get rid of 2/3 majority, and repeal Prop 13. Then maybe we'll get somewhere.
This gov. loves these "special elections" and it costs 10's of millions of dollars to have these "special elections". We have just had #3 including the recall of Davis who's problem with energy was the fault of Cheney. Just Printing the sample ballots and mailing them could probably pay for schools.
1. Dump Prop 13 and assess all property at current value.
2. Fund all school districts based on the number of students, not how rich the area is.
3. Lower the sales tax, but tax internet sales.
Time to legalize pot and tax it.
You must be kidding! The 2/3rds requirement was the only thing keeping California solvent as long as it was. What California needs to do is go through whatever bankruptcy looks like for a state, get rid of all those ridiculous public employee contracts and pensions (especially the prison guards), get redistricting done and start electing decent people to the Legislature. And for idiot voters to stop supporting every feel-good proposition that comes along as if all those great services were "free." I happen to despise politicians of both parties, but to blame the Republicans for THIS is just plain silly. The Democrats and the unions have been riding roughshod over taxpayers for decades.
I'm sure you are right that most Californians, if asked, would not agree that an across-the-board 10% (or 15%, or ...) cut in all spending lines is the correct policy. Unfortunately, it's much harder to find a majority to get behind, say, 25% cuts in some areas so that other areas don't get cut; so to some extent the blanket cuts become the default. BTW, I do NOT like this, it's just how it is.
While I am not a fan of the Governator, you seem to think that he should have somehow been able to use his movie superpowers to force budget reality on the Legislature. I've lived in Cali since 1972, and I can tell you that ever since stinking Prop 13 stuck us with the 2/3 requirement to raise a tax (gasp), no Gov has been able to bring in a properly balanced budget on time. The thing that exacerbates the problem is the gerrymandering that creates safe districts for both parties. Both parties share the blame for this. The existence of safe districts is why the Repos can cling to just enough seats to repel budget sanity, and also how they can compel all their members to march in lockstep -- the Repo districts are SO Repo that breaking ranks will inevitably lead to losing in the primary.
When the property taxes of a three bedroom, two bath ranch in the middle of nowhere are more than Warren Buffet's Malibu mansion, there is something fundamentally wrong.
Arnie came in as a non-American non-Californian and has treated the state as such.
The real lesson that Schwarzenegger and the rest of the elected officials in Sacramento, both Democratic and Republican, should take from the defeat of the propositions is that the people of California want their elected officials to carry out the responsibilities given to them under the state's Constitution.
The legislature should find out what services the majority want, and then figure out a way to pay for them. If that means higher taxes, then so be it. If Republicans in the legislature are unwilling to vote for any tax increase, then the Democrats should "fix" the budget problem by cutting expenditures for things favored by the Republicans. One example of such a budget category would be the bloated state prison system, which is larger than that of most countries and pays its employees much more than the federal Bureau of Prisons pays. Merely by decriminalizing drug possession offenses and by shortening prison terms for non-violent crimes, the state could save billions every year. The state also could save significant amounts of money by limiting pay for State Department of Corrections employees to the pay scales used by the federal BOP.
That is silly.
They are broke.
They must empty the prisons, do away with their police and fire departments, close all but one school in each district, and tax all churches.
Do away with education and public funds for feel good projects.
Legalize pot and tax the heck out of it would help the problem with $ in Calif.
Um, I don't know how to break this to you, but the Democrats are the ones who carry water for the prison guards union. Do you really think they'd limit pay for them now, or even reduce the prison population, if it meant their union buddies wouldn't finance their election?
I would vote for a repeal of the 2/3 vote for approval TODAY. It allows a superminority to wield a power they did not earn at the ballot box.
If a budget can achieve a simple majority of each house of the legislature and the governor, that is enough checks and balances for 47 other states.
This way they can implement fiscal and budgetary policy AND be held accountable for it. A new legislative majority or another governor of another party can change direction.
Right now, because both sides can dig in their heels, there is NO accountable and NO ability to enact policy.
I blame the elected politicians and the voters who do inane ballot box budgeting. But nothing is more to blame than the 2/3 budget rule.
Repeal the 2/3 budget rule, all tax and spending initiatives of the last 10 years, and limit the ability of voters to hamstring the state government by creating unsustainable spending formulas which cannot be amended except at the polls.
If a minority party in the legislature wants political power to control the budget then they need to earn that power through the ballot box, and with the majority being held accountable and either punished or rewarded by the results of those policies..
Time to reduce government
"Reducing" government got us into the budget shortfalls we're dealing with in the Golden State.
One of the first things Arnie did was reduce the Vehicle Registration fees. The income we've lost out on these last few years haven't helped our budget at all.
Remember that the GOP is the minority party in the California Legislature. The Will of the People is not with them. The People of California DON'T want a "reduced" government - we want one that is powerful enough to do it's job, and the GOP refuse to allow that to happen.
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