Today legislative Democrats will apparently bring forward their budget amendment plans in a series of votes today. Republican legislators should prepare to vote no – no, no, no, no…
Here are a few key reasons why this plan, being put forward by Democrats, should be rejected in its entirety.
- No Transparency Or Notice: No one is really sure what is actually being voted on today. In principle, GOPers (and frankly, Democrats, too) should reject any legislative proposals being put up for a vote that have not been in print for 72 hours and all of the legislators have had time to read the actual language, and get input from whatever sources they deem helpful. See the note from Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries below, on this particular topic.
- Billions In New Taxes: Despite numerous and repeated statements from Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass that the rejection of 1A would lead to an “all cuts” process of squaring the state’s finances, that is not what we have here. Despite the overwhelming rejection of higher taxes by voters, this proposal (so they say, since we haven’t seen anything in print) contains billions in new taxes.
- Gimmicks Galore: Democrats, in describing broadly the proposals that would be up today, apparently think we should close the budget gap with gimmicks. Some of these gimmicks include the selling of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, a questionable transfer of funds from redevelopment agencies to schools, and shifting over a billion dollars in payroll to the next fiscal year by delaying state workers’ June 30 paycheck by one day (presumably with the idea of doing this in perpetuity).
- Incomplete Solution: We have at least a $24 billion shortfall. I say at least because it seems that every number that comes out ends up being drastically short of the real gap. That said, Democrats, if the bills they put forward actually match their rhetoric, are offering up “solutions” that are billions short of this mark. A vote that implements part of the needed cuts but not all of them helps to empower the advocates of tax increases. If we “kick the can” to the Spring – it will be too late in the fiscal year for cuts to be implemented, and fuel arguments for tax increases.
The bottom line – poor process, taxes, gimmicks and incompleteness – four solid reasons to reject every proposal put forward by Democrats today.
Now, check out this memo that Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries issued yesterday…
To: California Families and Taxpayers
From: Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries
Re: State Budget Vote Called – Without Details available for the Public or Legislators
In a surprise announcement Assembly Speaker Bass announced at 3pm today that the State Assembly will hold an unusual Wednesday Floor session, presumably to address the growing $23 billion state budget deficit.
Legislators may be asked to vote on $13 billion in cuts and $8 billion in taxes, or possibly larger cuts or larger tax increases. The problem is that nobody really knows for sure because NO information is available to the public or Legislators as to what is being planned. It appears that we are again going to be asked to walk out onto the Assembly Floor and vote without ever having seen any specific language in advance of the vote. It could be massive tax increases. It could be devastating cuts to local government funds. It could be large scale releases of convicted felons from prisons. It could be all of the above!
Simply put – we don’t know what the majority party Leadership is going to ask of us in just a few hours. Once again, we’re being treated like mushrooms—kept in the dark and served up heaping piles of… legislation!
Of course, this sort of closed government wouldn’t be possible if the legislature would pass ACA 8, which I introduced earlier this year to force legislation to be published 24 hours before a vote could be taken.
If you are concerned about the potential for trouble, as you should be, you can watch the proceedings live on the California Channel (carried by some cable systems) or online at www.calchannel.com If you cannot catch it live, you can watch the archived version online later. Warning: This Session could be a long one, lasting into the evening.
Speaking of archives, for a sense of the political culture of the Assembly, watch the beginning of this past Monday’s Assembly Floor session. You may find the “opening prayer” to be quite illuminating.