Word from all sources is that the confidential meetings of Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Darrell Steinberg, Senate GOP Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and Assembly Republican Leader Sam Blakeslee – with only their most senior staff members present – has resulted in the framework for a deal to balance the state’s current budget, which currently is projected to spend $26.2 billion more than the tax revenues coming into fund it.
The last time the so-named “Big 5” came to a budget deal, it was February and it was a raw deal for California taxpayers. Not only did the secret meetings results in well over $16 billion in higher sales, income and car taxes, as well as a families with children losing a key tax exemption – but that deal also produced the ill-fated Proposition 1A, which required “adult supervision” from California voters to reject any more tax increases to deal with the state’s fiscal woes.
As I look back at the terrible big budget/big taxes/open primary deal of February – one of the biggest problems with the deal was not even the terrible public policy within it, but the flawed “secret” process, which led to only a small group of State Capitol insiders really knowing what was in the deal, with state legislators in the loop to varying degrees depending on their influence and personal relationship with legislative leaders. If the actual budget bills were in print for that vote in February, then the ink was not even dry.
The secret process of negotiations for this imminent budget deal is not a good harbinger of things to come in this deal. I should note that both the Governor and Senator Hollingsworth have Twittered from the Big 5 meetings, and the agenda to the meeting have been on the Governor’s website, which is certainly a step in the right direction.
I’m not saying that the budget deal won’t be good – but given the track record lately of the “Big 5” process, it becomes critically important that the negotiated budget deal be available in its final print form for at least 72 hours so that not only do legislators have a chance to read and absorb the finer points of the proposal – but frankly all of the details need to be available to the media, to bloggers like here on the FlashReport, and to all of the various constituency groups that are going to be materially impacted by the policies proposed for adoption.
Obviously the Democrats who hold majorities in the two legislative chambers control the process of bill printing, and timing of votes – but legislative Republicans and the Governor have a lot of say in this process because of the two-thirds vote requirement needed for many of the changes – and of course the Governor has his veto pen. This means that whether Democrats want to or not, Republicans have the ability, and the responsibility to withhold needed support and votes for any product of “Big 5” negotiations that is not in print, and available to the public, for 72 hours prior to consideration.
Frankly, requiring that the final document being public for three days should be a negotiated point that is agreed like every other specific policy agreement in the package. And its inclusion should be a "deal breaker" for Republican negotiators if it isn’t part of the deal.
Failure to do this will ultimately lead to criticism of the process that will provide an unnecessary and unfortunate distraction from heralding what may be some tremendous achievements in a newly adopted plan.
Transparency to the public in this process is critical – and we urge all 120 state legislators and the Governor to insist on it.
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