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Cavala Says: Criticism Of Legislature Misplaced While “Showtime” Governor Escapes Responsibility
By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento
“I’ve got a great idea, let’s put on our own show”. Thus Mickey Rooney’s line in a half dozen “barnyard musicals” of the 1930’s. The same worn script is now being used by the government in California’s budget crisis.
The legislative “show” is the repeated effort of Democrats to cast Republicans as the villains in the state’s budget crisis for their refusal to offset service cuts with new taxes. The GOP has their own script, claiming they are all that stands between Democratic taxes and economic ruin for California.
The audience for these shows, the Capitol Press Corps, writes critical reviews of both shows. They prefer fantasy scripts of the sort written by the retiring “budget nun”, Liz Hill. Her recommendations have the strange virtue of rave reviews while commanding absolutely NO votes from ANY of those who employ her for advice (!)
Meanwhile our Governor grins and embraces additional spending in the billions for health care - and now a $10 Billion “school reform” package while preaching against new taxes and saying the Legislature (not the Governor) “has a spending problem”.
This would be a scandal but for the fact the Capitol Press corps knows that exaggeration, prevarication and outright lies are part of the Governor’s childlike “enthusiasm,” charm and charisma. He’s at worst a comedic villain, a Captain Hook in Neverland.
Calling for Billions more in spending and not a penny in new taxes while California faces at least an $8 Billion shortfall is only part of the Governor’s charm. He wants to balance the budget by slashing public education and releasing felons from our prisons. Asked whether he was seriously proposing actions of this sort – opposed by 80% of California’s voters – the Governor just grins and mumbles things about shaking up the box. In other words, the budget he’s required to present by our Constitution is simply another Hollywood fantasy.
But somehow the Governor’s script gets favorable press reviews while the show in the Legislature is tanked for insincerity: the Democrats aren’t serious about raising oil severance taxes (because they rushed it to a vote). The Republicans weren’t serious in their opposition because gasoline prices (their public reason for opposition) aren’t directly related to drilling costs.
Our system of Government is based on a division of authority between the Executive and Legislative powers. The Executive proposes policy solutions to problems, the Legislature accepts, modifies, or rejects those solutions and oversees the efficient functioning of the ‘administration’ of laws by the Executive.
When the Executive doesn’t take that responsibility seriously, when it proposes policy which is nonsensical and not directed at problem-solving, the system breaks down. The Legislature is ill equipped to perform the functions of the Executive.
And legislators should not be subject to criticism that they are doing a poor or insincere job filling in for a frivolous and incompetent Governor.
Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.
He attended undergraduate and graduate school in the 1960’s and received a doctorate in political science at UC Berkeley. He taught political science at UC Berkeley during the 1970's while he worked part-time for the State Assembly.
Cavala left teaching at UC Berkeley and went to work for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in 1981 until his tenure as Speaker ended in 1995, and he has worked for his five successors as Speaker up to and including Speaker Fabian Nunez.
Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.
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