This ran today in the Riverside Press Enterprise – – –

No Budget Standoffs
Legislators should stop their empty chatter and adopt real fiscal reform

By SEN. JIM BATTIN

This year’s protracted budget negotiations finally concluded with the signing of a $145 billion spending plan on Aug. 24.

The deliberations were marked by unusually personal attacks. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate Pro Tem Don Perata freely branded Republican senators "terrorists" and "vandals" for demanding a balanced budget. The state Democratic Party went so far as to fund a recall effort against Sen. Jeff Denham for refusing to cave to pressure, which included Perata booting Denham from the Governmental Organization Committee.

Despite the name calling that permeated negotiations as they dragged beyond July and into August, virtually every lawmaker in Sacramento agrees that the government’s chronic failure to deliver an on-time budget cannot be laid at the feet of specific individuals. Rather, we all agree that systemic fixes to the process are required.

Perata recently urged the formation of a budget-reform panel consisting of the governor, his finance director, the four legislative leaders and the nonpartisan legislative analyst. It’s a good idea, and I hope we do more than talk about eventually getting around to budget reform. Clearly, the time for fruitless talk has ended. It is time for action.

To that end, here are a few simple suggestions:

Three Simple Fixes

First, Republicans need to be given a real voice in budget subcommittees and the joint conference committee. Given the current makeup of the state Senate — 25 Democrats to 15 Republicans — the majority party can, and does, approve all manner of measures without a single Republican agreeing to them. However, the California Constitution requires that two-thirds of the Legislature enact the state budget.

It’s shortsighted and disingenuous to ignore minority fiscal concerns from January to June and then act surprised when there’s no Republican support for the budget in July. And hoping to buy off a couple votes with perks and political favors is no fiscal strategy, either, but the worst kind of backroom politics.

Let’s legitimize the work of the budget committees by putting an even number of Republicans and Democrats on each. This will ensure that issues threatening to hold up the budget’s passage are addressed much earlier in the process, and that the preliminary plan generated by the conference committee has already been shaped by bipartisan negotiations.

Second, we should establish a "cut list" procedure, whereby predetermined programs are de-funded in the event of an economic slowdown that reduces revenues. The list could give preference to certain priorities, or simply direct that all budgeted programs be reduced by the same percentage across the board.

Third, continuous emergency appropriations during future budget stalemates would allow vital services like health care, education and public safety to continue uninterrupted. A Senate Republican attempt to provide such coverage this year was blocked on the Senate floor by Democrats, even as they took us to task for the prolonged difficulties endured by those dependent on government funds.

Countdown to Calamity

You may recall an ignominious incident four years ago, in which 11 Assembly Democrats — including now-Speaker Nunez — were caught on an open microphone planning to deliberately draw out that year’s impasse for political gain.

This year, Republicans were misrepresented as heartless for insisting on a budget that was balanced only by the loosest of definitions. Both episodes are unfortunate, but underscore the need to protect children, senior citizens, the ill and the disabled from becoming political pawns.

Finally, we need to build greater accountability into the state budget to make certain that California’s revenues are expended as efficiently and effectively as possible. Gov. Schwarzenegger was elected to deliver this promise, and it’s a goal we should never give up on, no matter how forcefully the state’s entrenched bureaucracy resists.

We cannot afford to wait or waste yet another year postponing the fiscal ruin that is inevitable if nothing is done to reform the broken budget process.

When the governor unveils his 2008-09 budget proposal just four months from now, he’ll have to account for a deficit of at least $5 billion. And there will be no Google stock windfall or real estate boom to juice state coffers and allow lawmakers to postpone the tough choices.

The changes I’ve outlined here are straightforward. They could be implemented in short order and yield dramatic results — namely, on-time, fiscally responsible spending plans with bipartisan support.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.