Jul 21 2009
Environmental groups and the budget
It is nothing new to hear that the Legislature has passed bills, attached to the budget, that have nothing to do with the budget. These bills are called trailer bills. Trailer bills are supposed to be limited to the legislation needed to implement the budget.
An example of a trailer bill would be if state law requires the local governments to get a certain amount of money, and the state budget reduces that amount of money. There would be trailer bill language (TBL) that implements the change in law so that the provisions of the budget, lowering the money to locals, can be carried out.
However, there are often other items in TBL. Sometimes the TBL can be simple, like instituting another furlough day, and sometimes it can be complex, like approving a contract for a union. In this budget deal there is language that would allow the South Coast Air Quality Management District to overturn a court case which says that no futher power plants can be built in the Los Angeles Basin until their environmental impact analyses are done more completely. The SCAQMD wants language in the trailer bills that would overturn the court ruling, and allow more power plants to be built in the Los Angeles basin. Interestingly, the language SCAQMD wants in the trailer bills is stalled in a piece of legislation, SB 696.
Here is another case of the budget not doing what it is supposed to do, and legislators not caring. In this particular isntance, trailer bills are being abused. The legislation isn’t part of the budget, its part of its own bill. Leave it out of the budget negotiations, and instead focus on the money, not the environmental groups.
