A California Republican

It is now January 12, 2008. It is way past the Christmas deadline that the Governor promised a budget shortfall solution by. It is past the new year deadline that Sen. Steinberg said was in place. It is relaly late, and very bad news.

In order to make the legislators focus on the budget, Senate President Pro Tem Steinberg wants to limit the number of bills a member can introduce in 2009 - to 19. What about limiting the number of bills to 0 until there is a budget solution - at least to the current year impact? Why not a 0 bill limit in both houses until this gets solved?

It may be that way, by default. If the Legislature doesn’t deal with the budget deficit as called for in the Special Session by February 14 (Happy Valentine’s Day), then they cannot take up any other bills until they deal with the Special Session budget issues.

All of which begs another question, why are the legislators not focused on this issue? It hits their constituents. It hits schools. It hits children and elderly. Everyone who votes for them is going to feel an impact in some way. Even if the impact is simply a rise in the amount of sales tax they pay, or having more kids on the streets when the after-school programs are cut - everyone is going to feel an impact. Which should make the legislators feel a sense of urgancy.

But every year the California public is faced with “a budget deficit.” This year it is larger than other years, but to the average person, they don’t know what makes this one so different. In fact, from my discussions with legislative staffers, they tend to feel that other than the number, the situation is the same and that the same solutions will eventually win out.

The habits that the Legislature has gotten into when solving budget deficits have put the state in this position. It is a horrible position to be in. If this budget deficit isn’t solved, there will be huge cuts in serrvices (which are needed) and tax increases (which I argue are not needed).

Something rotten this way comes.