By Bob Walsh
The formerly great state of California has an
"interesting" budget process made more by the fact that the
Democrat-Socialist party holds a super-majority in both houses and all
the state constitutional officers. They are REQUIRED to pass a budget
to the governor by June 15, to give him time to dick with it before July
1. In the past this deadline was often ignored. This pissed off
people enough that now the legislature loses their pay for the days they
are late. This, however, has NOT led to responsibility. It has,
however, led to creativity.
This
year the legislature has passed what is essentially a fake budget, a
place-holder. This gives them more time to fight (and play chicken)
over specific budget items. There is an admitted budget deficit of
about $30 billion. It is probably actually about twice that but with a
studious application of smoke, mirrors and bullshit the legislature and
the governor can easily pretend that the money fairy will come along and
drop another $30 billion into their laps. Much of the grunt work is
done by staffers yelling at each other so the legislators don't have to
dirty their hands with the nitty-gritty.
The
governor has the final big stick. He can just veto the whole damn bill
and he can, and does, veto individual line items all the time.
In
addition the June 27 deadline for the November ballot will have some
effect this year, maybe-probably. Various bond proposals may or may not
make it onto the ballot. If they make it onto the ballot the
legislature can pretend they will pass and include the money in the
budget. It they don't, they can't.
It is an embarrassment, but not so embarrassing that the Democrat-Socialist are planning on actually DOING anything about it.
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