A California Republican

I am all about responsible legislation. And responsible legislators. They don’t have to do what I want, but I think that they should do what is considered responsible. One of the big things that members of the CA Legislature are elected to do is pass a budget. On time. They have a deadline, and they know what that deadline is. The new fiscal year starts on July 1. The budget needs to be signed by then. They know the Governor gets 10 days to sign/veto the budget, so it should be to him by June 15, just in case there are some weekends in there. This is what they know.

What they do is a whole different story. See, the budget process in CA is strange. It doesn’t matter, until the floor vote, what the Republicans think. Because until the floor vote, everything can pass through sub-committee and committees and even conference committee with only Democratic votes needed. So the Republicans are ignored until the floor vote. And then both sides go into negotiations. All the members know this is the way things go. And all of them know that the people who elected them would like an on-time budget. So why do they wait until so late to get any Republican feedback and input?

I think the real reason is so the Democrats can put forth the budget they want, and then rely on the Republicans to make cuts to it to make it some-what responsible. Then the Dems don’t have to go back to their districts and say - sorry we couldn’t fund this program, the Republicans cut it, and in order to get a budget at all we had to go with that, so blame the Republicans. This has been a very success approach for the Democrats to take. It is made more successful by the Republicans refusing to put a  plan out there early on, and waiting for a while. And the bland and bold statements Republicans make - No new taxes. Instead, they need to put a plan out there. I am working on creating one.

Here’s the first step - really take a look at the budgets. Maybe not all the budgets. I am not sure that the $300,000 alloted to the State Commision on Law Revision is really worth their time. But look at the big eaters - Education, CDCR, Health and Human Services. Do you really know where that money goes?

http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/Kthru12Education.pdf

The link above links you to what the enacted K-12 Education budget looks like. Tell me if you can tell where the money goes. Part of my job is looking at these things and understanding them, and I cannot really tell you where the money is going. I can tell you what general program it is going to, and what the major changes are. But I cannot tell you where all the money goes from there. If you go to the Department of Education website - which is by far the largest funded thing in K-12 Education - you cannot tell where all that money goes. It is really insane that there is not transparency to the budget. This is part of what gets us in trouble each year.

California has a roll-over budgeting. Each department simply gets what they got last year, in addition to any changes they wish to make. No department truely knows where all their money goes. I really don’t think they do. Maybe, if there was a Public Records Act request, someone would be able to figure it all out. But from the budgeting information the state gives out, no one can figure it out.

And no one wants to. If you have some time this next year, I urge you to watcha  budget hearing online, or listen to one online (you can go to the Senate and Assembly webpages for links to their radio). There is nothing going on in there. No real hard questions to anyone. I have had to testify at these hearings. I was representing a department that wanted an additional $25 million last year. There were no questions on the request. None. Not even a simple, “can you please tell me why you need this money.” They simply got their money. It is truely ridiculous the way this works.

So now the current members of the Legislature are on vacation. They aren’t going to do anything before Thanksgiving. The Democratic leadership thinks they have a better shot at a budget they like with the new Legislature, not the old one. But I think they are smoking something. Everyone knows there won’tbe a solution to this problem. That would take real guts. And the CA Legislature doesn’t have those.