The voters of California appear to have rejected 5 of the 6 ballot measures. The only one that is passing is 1F- it would ban pay hikes for politicians until a budget is passed.
Voters are fed up with our broken political process and both Democrats and Republicans need to take note. We'll see if they listen and are actually able to get a budget in on-time this year.
Republicans have been the ones who have held up the passing of the budget the past few years, but Democrats haven't done a good job of pointing that fact out and telling voters what the impacts will be.
Do you really think the problem with the budget is when it is delivered? Let me put it to you this way, if I dropped off a flaming pile of dog crap on your front porch would you only be upset that it wasn't there the day before?
ReplyDeleteI think the whole process is broken and it just manifests itself when the budget is due. And how long before Thomas and Tommy throw their first pile of flaming dog crap on someone's porch?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that this year's state budget --- meaning fiscal year July 09 to June 2010 --- was already passed and signed into law last February. The problem is that it's already at least $21 billion out of whack (and gauging by our elected leaders' track record, it's probably closer to $25 billion already).
ReplyDeleteAs for how to fix it, term limits have to go. Under the current system, the politicians are, as the post suggests, simply going back to work --- which in their minds means finding the next seat to run for.
Since we require a balanced budget, I'm not sure if it is considered a new budget or a revised budget. Either way, coming up with $21 billion this summer is going to be painful.
ReplyDeleteOne of the unintended consequences of term limits is that it has made lobbyists in Sacramento even more powerful.