News

Budget gridlock has become an expensive tradition in Sacramento. For the last 20 years, lawmakers have failed to meet the June 30 deadline 17 times. But this year legislators have set a record with their summer political games bleeding into the fall.

California, once the Golden State, now has the dubious distinction of starting the new fiscal year in the red and without a budget, again. The Legislature's most important project was about 100 days overdue; and each additional day without a state budget further eroded California's credit rating.

One hundred days after the beginning of the fiscal year, California finally has a “balanced” budget. Again the balance has been achieved by the usual gimmickry.

How? By suspending Proposition 98, $1.7 billion of K-12 public education money will be deferred until July 2011; $189 million in Community College funds will be deferred until next year; assuming that California will receive $5.4 billion from the federal government (only $1.3 billion has been approved to date); and $1 billion increase in spending under the dubious assumption that revenues will increase in this troubled economy.
The bottom line is that California is once again deferring the deficit until next fiscal year.

Over the past 20 years, the Legislature repeatedly has failed to pass a budget on time, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions in interest payments and leaving schools, municipalities and state workers holding the bag. The primary reason? The requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers approve the budget. The supermajority mandate turns democracy on its head, handing veto power to the minority.

Proposition 25 should end budget gridlock by reducing the threshold to a simple majority. And just in case that doesn't work, it would withhold salaries and per-diems from lawmakers who miss the budget deadline. We recommend a yes vote.

Over the past 20 years, the Legislature repeatedly has failed to pass a budget on time, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions in interest payments and leaving schools, municipalities and state workers holding the bag. The primary reason? The requirement that two-thirds of lawmakers approve the budget. The supermajority mandate turns democracy on its head, handing veto power to the minority.

Proposition 25 should end budget gridlock by reducing the threshold to a simple majority. And just in case that doesn't work, it would withhold salaries and per-diems from lawmakers who miss the budget deadline. We recommend a yes vote.

Opponents Claims Directly Contradict Court Decision, Stated Intent of Prop 25

SACRAMENTO – In direct contradiction to reality, opponents to Proposition 25, the On Time Budget Act are once again making untrue claims about the initiative in their advertisements. As such, the Yes on Proposition 25 campaign has sent the attached memo – with supporting materials – to television stations asking them to pull the ads from the air.

Proposition 25 would help ease the budget gridlock and deserves passage. Proposition 26's attack on business fees is wrong; it should be defeated.

In 2008, the state budget was approved almost three months after its due date. Last year, a failure by lawmakers to reach a budget deal until it was two months overdue prompted ratings agencies to lower California's credit rating nearly to junk status, and the delay not only held up state payments but cost billions of dollars in interest on government IOUs. This year, Sacramento has set a dubious record for the latest budget ever. If you think this system is working, Proposition 25 is not for you. But you'll love Proposition 26, because it would make the situation worse.
Under current law, a two-thirds majority vote in both the Assembly and the Senate are required to pass a budget or raise taxes. Proposition 25 would end the supermajority requirement on the budget, but keep it in place for tax hikes. (Opponents of the measure falsely claim that it would do away with the two-thirds rule on taxes too, but their absurd legal arguments were demolished by the 3rd District Court of Appeal.) Proposition 26, by contrast, would add a new requirement for a two-thirds vote to impose certain business fees.

SACRAMENTO - The Yes on Proposition 25, Citizens for an On-Time Budget committee has sent a letter to radio stations around California demanding that opponents pull false and misleading advertisements off the air.

The letter states in part: “… your station has begun to broadcast an advertisement, sponsored by the campaign committee opposing Proposition 25, which contains demonstrably false statements about the effects of the ballot measure – statements which have been refuted by a California Court of Appeals in a very recent court decision. We ask that you stop broadcasting this completely discredited ad.”

Olson Ad Pull Memo.pdf

 Get the gridlock out of Sacramento

The two-thirds threshold for passage of a budget is not the only source of dysfunction in Sacramento, but it has been a significant hurdle to allowing the California Legislature to perform its most basic duty. The dance has become all too familiar - and costly to the state. The minority Republicans hold up the budget, extract concessions and the stalemate endures until the state is out of cash. On Friday, legislators set yet another record for the longest overdue budget. The constitutional deadline to have finished the spending plan for this fiscal year, which began July 1, was in mid-June.