Readers of today’s Flash Report main page probably noticed some articles about the Assembly Judiciary Committee passing an anti-Proposition 8 resolution yesterday, HR 5. This news was probably lost in the intense focus on budget debates, but taxpayers should be outraged about this for two reasons.
First, why on earth is the legislature spending taxpayer dollars to hear a resolution (non-binding pontificating) on an issue that voters decided twice (at great expense to the state already)? Maybe it had something to do with that fact that anti-Proposition 8 organization Equality California had been planning a lobby day for their supporters for months and Democrat leadership didn’t want to disappoint them. (If only conservative organizations could coordinate with the legislature on the timing of our committee hearings!)
Packing committee room 4202 with their supporters, including the ubiquitous attorney Gloria Allred, the Assembly held an almost two-hour hearing about why Proposition 8 should be overturned. (Keep in mind that many lawmakers have already signed on to an amicus brief in the Proposition 8 case, thus expressing their opinions about the issue.) Perhaps lawmakers could have spent this time finding wasteful government programs to cut.
Second, in the middle of our state’s budget crisis, this sends the wrong (or accurate, depending on your perspective) message to citizens: we care more about advancing our political social agenda than solving our state’s budget problems. The hearings were likely scheduled so that the resolutions would pass quickly enough to influence the California Supreme Court’s March 5th consideration of lawsuits against Proposition 8, but the budget standoff has preempted the entire legislative schedule.
The Senate finally cancelled their afternoon Judiciary Committee hearing for their version of HR 5, SR 7, and went into session to haggle over the budget. The Wall Street Journal is completely right: our state is suffering from “runaway liberal governance.” Such pandering to liberal interest groups in the middle of a serious budget crisis is the perfect example of the majority party’s true priorities.