I could not be more proud of the fifteen members of the Senate Republican Caucus. Despite an immense amount of pressure, and an immature Democrat Senate President who "locked in" the entire 40 member Senate in their chamber overnight, they remained unified as a caucus, as Republicans.
Going into this period of budget negotiations, Senate Republicans took a pact, made a pledge, took a vote — until a majority of our caucus is satisfied with the negotiated budget agreement, we will all refrain from voting from a budget bill. In doing this, Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Dennis Hollingsworth are significantly more empowered to negotiate on behalf of Senate Republicans.
The reality, as spelled out by so many Republicans, is that the budget bill that was passed out of the Assembly is a bad one for Californians. Yes, Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines made a tactical call that in his opinion, it was as good as it was going to get given the GOP’s minority status (not to mention all GOPers being hamstrung when the Governor proposed a spending package so large that even the Democrats could coalesce behind something that spent less).
But, of course, Villines’ calculated support for this budget bill also included a tax-relief package that was simultaneously passed out of the Assembly, and which Senate President Don Perata declared dead in the water.
So I am confident that very same budget that got zero Republican votes yesterday morning was back in the Assembly, without that tax relief package, it would also have received zero votes out of the Assembly Republican Caucus.
That said, Republicans should continue to stand their ground. Not only is it fair and reasonable to ask for a budget that does not contain deficit spending (as state income careens to the highest levels in history) but it is a moral obligation to try and do so. And, of course, having state government spend only as much as it takes in is just the tip of the iceberg where needed reforms are concerned.
There isn’t enough space in this commentary to start to list the terrible, misprioritized spending of state government that is the product of decades of Democrat reign in the State Capitol. My favorite example was the tens of billions in bond funding foisted on taxpayers and their children and grandchildren to pay for infrastructure, specifically because Democrats refuse to prioritize annual pay-as-you-go infrastructure spending over their social engineering programs designed to take from one Californian to give to another.
Anyways, getting back to my opening point — Senate Republicans are doing the right thing. The question that must be asked is whether no budget at all is better than the one upon which they are being asked to vote. In this case, the answer is a no brainer — no budget is better.
Invariably, a lot more pressure will be put on the individual members of the Senate Caucus. So we urge all of the GOPers in the Assembly to make 15 phone calls, or send 15 e-mails to their colleagues — and commend them for standing together, and urge a no vote on this budget.
On a closing note, I would like to specifically commend State Senator Abel Maldonado. Perhaps because in past years, he has shown a penchant for not sticking with the GOP team, my expectations of him in this scenario are lower than they might have been. Sticking with the team is what will motivate GOP activists from around the state to come and help him with his reelection next year. That said, Maldonado has been an important part of a unified Republican Caucus, and deserves to be commended.
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