Every time legislative Republicans provide the votes to use the state’s credit card — borrowing 
through the issuance of bonds — it’s a big win for Democrats, and very bad news for California taxpayers.
For decades now, the state budget has continues to grow and grow to the point where it is now well over $100 BILLION annually. Translation: California taxpayers are paying way too much in all of the various types of taxes and fees that go to finance state government activities and programs.
With strong majorities in both houses of the legislature for many decades (with a small blip for a moment in the mid-90’s where we had a Republican majority in the Assembly for one session), it has been voracious appetites of liberal Democrats that have let us to this unfortunate spot ("Best Supporting Actor" awards go to those GOPers who roll to provide the 2/3 votes needed to pass a budget). Republican Governors were not successful at stopping this growth in state taxing and spending.
So it is into this environment that we have the latest news that a ‘deal’ has been struck in confronting our state’s prison overcrowding problem. Let’s make no bones about it — the only reason that there is a crisis at all on this issue is that the Democrats have refused, year after year, decade after decade, to allocate some of the ample annual state revenues towards prison construction. (This is how we also ended up in our ‘infrastructure crisis’ – resulting in a major use of the state ‘bond’ credit card.)
Once again, we have proven that the only unity that the Democrats are willing to show with Republicans is surrounding spending initiatives.
Every Republican who cast a vote for this plan today can try to justify their vote on the grounds of having no choice, with massive borrowing required to solve this crisis caused by the Democrats. But the reality is that, one again, Republicans have shown our willingness to foster a big-spending Sacramento environment. Voting for a bond is THE SAME as voting for a tax increase — it allows for an increase in state spending WITHOUT reprioritizing the current spending calamity.
The principled vote here, in my opinion, would have been to reject the bonds.
Until Republicans are willing to let the poor priorities of Democrats really impact the public, nothing will ever change.
Two thoughts in closing, if California had a lean state bureaucracy, without the decades of liberal spending programs added to it by Democrats, I could support financing prison construction over time. But once again we have taken the pressure off to make budget spending reforms.
And finally, a lot has been made of the fact that the legislature was ‘forced to act’ or a judge would act in the legislature’s stead. Would it really have been that bad if a judge had required that California spend current tax revenues on prison construction?
Consider this – what incentive is there for Democrats to put common-sense infrastructure (roads, prisons, dams) in the budget if they know that Republicans will provide the votes to borrow billions to finance these things?
It’s time to cut up the state’s credit card, like any family would do if they couldn’t properly manage their monthly cash-flow. Republicans gathered to sign a pledge that they would never vote for a tax increase. We need a similar pledge against authorizing more bonds, burdening future generations of Californians.
In the meantime, we’ll continue to look far and wide for a ‘deal’ with Democrats that actually reduces the size and scope of state government.