The legislature has the responsibility to produce a budget and place it on the Governor”s desk by June 30 of each year.
The law now requires a two-thirds vote making it nearly impossible to get this done. This year, again, we have no budget well into the new fiscal year. The Governor”s solution? Force all state employees to take minimum wage until a budget is crafted.
While this has been temporarily stayed by the courts, it is revealing that the penalty for the legislatures” failure should be paid by those who have no control of the situation; this is mean-spirited and flawed thinking.
The current system allows for a distinct minority to force their will on the majority, in effect one no vote cancels two yes votes.
Since there is no penalty for failing to perform their duties in this most important function, each side simply refuses to compromise and the state continues to sink deeper into a dysfunctional abyss.
Those on one side of the isle say no new taxes, refusing to consider anything that goes against their mantra.
Those on the other side of the isle refuse to make real cuts in social programs that say, give disability payments to those who deliberately impaired their brains with drugs and alcohol or to illegal aliens. Both sides are rigid. Nothing gets done.
Since the law clearly states that the responsibility to present a budget rests with the legislature, why not pass a ballot measure that would forfeit the pay of all legislators for each day the budget is not passed beyond June 30, for as many as 30 days? Their pay would not be deferred, but forfeited. After the 30th day, the legislators would be guilty of dereliction of duty and therefore they would lose their jobs. Furthermore, no legislator guilty of dereliction of duty would ever again be eligible to run for any elected office in the state. Elections would be held statewide to replace each and every assemblyman and senator within 45 days. During the interim, the previous budget would be extended until 30 days after the new legislature was sworn in.
The plan outlined above will give each individual the incentive to get serious about finding common ground regardless of the side they are on, as nothing is stronger within a politician than the survival instinct.
By banning them from any future elected position in the state, these folks will be faced with the prospect of being forced to find real jobs. I bet they will scramble like Fran Tarkenton when he quarterbacked the Vikings in his heyday. Imagine the halls of the Capital building filled with staffers and their bosses running at full-speed to find common ground.
Our current Governor thought he could use his celebrity and tough image to force the legislators to compromise and break the gridlock. A political neophyte, he had no idea how things got done, or didn”t, within the Capital building. He came to Sacramento as a popular breath of fresh air and now, as his time is coming to an end, it is clear that he failed completely to cure the state of its fiscal problems. In fact, the financial crisis that led to his predecessor”s recall seems quaint compared to the current situation.
Now we have another political neophyte running for Governor, a celebrity from the business world this time.
Records indicate and she has admitted that she didn”t even bother to vote until very recently. She is used to walking into meetings as the all powerful CEO and having everyone jump at the chance to kiss her, ugh, cheeks since the CEO has to power to fire or promote them all.
She is a billionaire, used to getting her way, but she too will be forced to face reality if she”s able to purchase the job.
She has already spent $100 million of her own money only to find herself behind in the polls to an opponent whose total expenditures to date are less than her postage.
Unless we adapt the suggestion made above or something similar to force the legislature to compromise, nothing will change and the next governor is doomed to repeat the failures of the recent past.
Today”s problems don”t need 2,000-page solutions. Sometimes clear, concise common sense is much more effective.
Lowell Grant is a weekly columnist for the Record-Bee. E-mail him at c21vintage@aol.com.
