You knew it was going to be a tough budget year for fiscal conservatives from the minute that Governor Schwarzenegger introduced his budget to the legislature — one that was more or less embraced by the ultra-liberal legislators that dominate the State Senate and State Assembly. As a Governor who campaigned in two different elections as a fiscal conservative, we were looking to him to propose a budget that reduced the size and scope of state government. But instead, again, he introduced a budget that contained deficit spending. Using some football parlance, I equate the introduction of this bloated budget by the Governor the equivalent of a football team downing the ball on their own 20 yard line! Where we wanted strong negotiation between Democrats advocating big government on one side and the government championing taxpayers on the other — instead we got a ‘status quo’ budget.
(Need some ideas on how to shrink state spending? Remember this? Or how about these ideas?)
Predictably, legislative Republicans were unhappy with the budget, and negotiations began to try to trim some of the spending, but of course when you are starting out so close to your own goal line, it is challenging to regain yardage. Still, ultimately the budget that passed out of the State Assembly contained over two billion dollars in cuts (not a small amount) as well as a number of other important policy wins for Republicans. Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines and his budget team can take a lot of credit for this achievement. Still, while Republicans were able to take credit for making the budget a little better than it could have been, it was still a big, larded up spending plan for the state. Unfortunately, right after passing a budget out of their chamber, the Assembly adjourned (Speaker Nunez flew off to Europe for his family vacation) — before their work was complete (they should have waited to see if the Senate would approve that spending plan). This jammed the State Senators. The bad news is that a tax-cut package negotiated by Assembly Republicans that passed out of the Assembly was immediately killed by Senator Don Perata. The great news is that for the first time in a very loooong time, State Senate Republicans rallied and insisted that if you want their essential votes (at least two were needed), more cuts and programmatic changes would be needed.
At this critical point in things is where the Governor, once again, had the chance to prove his GOP pedigree. He could have swiftly and loudly lauded Senate Republicans and backed their play, calling for the tax cut package that had been iced by Perata to be brought to the floor. But instead of using his office and popularity to club Perata and his ilk for their big spending ways, the Governor went on the road to the districts of Republican legislators, putting public pressure on them to stop trying to stand up for taxpayers, and instead approve the bloated budget.
State Senator Dick Ackerman deserves much praise from FlashReport readers. He valiantly led a unified Republican caucus (minus Abel "RINO" Maldonado) to stand tall and insist on what reforms they could get (not as much as they would have gotten if the Governor was on the home team). What did they get? They forced the Governor into committing to $700 million in blue-pencil line item veto cuts, they achieved some reforms so that some development to be shielded from the unfair litigation coming from ultra-liberal Jerry Brown, and a number of reforms in the trailer bills. I think that everyone would agree, though, that in the context of this massive spending plan, the combined achievements of Villines and Ackerman were modest in comparison. Too bad for California families.
Clearly the big legacy of the 2007 budget impasse was the solidarity that was discovered by Senate Republicans. In a place where many capitol observers and pundits never thought you would see such unity and resolve, there it was — and there it is! Senate Republicans are still more cohesive and "together" than in many years. Which has a significant impact on the budget negotiations for next year, as well as other matters where a 2/3 vote is needed.
I really cannot heap enough praise on Senate Republicans for their efforts. Especially notable was the strong voice of Senator Jeff Denham, who is still in the midst of a potential recall election because of his principled stand, and who was stripped of a key committee assignment by Perata as well.
I’ve spoken to many Assembly Republicans lately, and I think it would be fair to say that this resolve is "catchy" — I think they are inspired by the solidarity of their colleagues in the Senate. Mike Villines will be armed with a strong, unified caucus behind him as negotiations begin on other key policy issues.
In the end, Republican legislators in Sacramento made the statement that this is not a GOP budget. By a margin of only a couple of votes, barely enough Assembly Republicans voted for the bloated budget. And over in the Senate, it was just the exact bare minimum. Our only hopes for fiscal sanity in a future state budget are that (1) the Governor relocates his fiscally conservative resolve (maybe it’s locked in Susan Kennedy’s desk drawer?) and (2) we get fair legislative districts to allow Republicans to capture more seats in the Senate and Assembly. Without those things, we have only the 2/3 vote to rely upon (though now we have shown a willigness to withhold a 2/3 vote on a budget).
We’ll close this budget wrap-up by requesting (in vane, no doubt) that the Governor veto this budget, so that negotiations can be reopened and more spending cuts and programmatic changes can be made to benefit California taxpayers. Assuming this doesn’t happen, we’ll renew our reasonable call for the Governor to declare that any bill that hits his desk in the next few weeks without plenty of GOP votes to be dead-on-arrival.
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