It is Time to Return Democracy to California’s Budget Process

There is no evidence, moreover, that the two-thirds vote requirement keeps taxes lower or protects against wasteful spending. In 1996, the California Constitution Revision Commission noted that the two-thirds vote requirement “has permitted those who have specific interests, which may or may not be related to the budget, to delay passage of the budget by leveraging their issue into the budget debate.”

The current two-thirds vote requirement also regrettably masks those who should be accountable for our budgets.

We once had true democracy in the state budget process, but in the tense and uncertain times created by the Great Depression, the two-thirds vote requirement was adopted in 1933 for state budgets growing more than five percent from the previous year. A 1962 Constitutional Amendment applied the two-thirds vote to all state budgets.

After more than a decade of budget dysfunction, I believe now is the time to try something different and return sanity and democracy to our budget process.

SCA 22’s provisions calling for majority votes to pass a budget and increase revenues will make the legislature more accountable. It will help fix a broken budget process. Voters will have the information they need to decide whom they would like to send to Sacramento to represent them. Voters could then ensure their values and priorities were represented in our state budgets.

If the majority party overreaches and spends too much or too little—or taxes too much or too little—everyone will know which party to hold accountable. Voters will be able to react. A small minority will no longer be able to highjack the budget process and confuse voters about how a budget problem developed.

The two-thirds vote requirement is keeping the Legislature from doing the job increasing numbers of Californians want their elected officials to do. A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll shows that a plurality of Californians now want the current budget crisis solved with a combination of budget cuts, efficiencies, and revenue increases.

Unfortunately, the two-thirds vote requirement makes such a solution virtually impossible today. Republicans, who have to supply votes to reach the two-thirds vote threshold, have said so far that restoring revenues is off-the-table.

We are apparently unable to revisit the $12 billion in tax cuts enacted over the past decade, despite currently facing the grave concerns expressed over the Governor’s proposed $4.8 billion in devastating cuts to our schools.

To solve this budget crisis, I am arguing that we must have a balanced approach. One including cuts, finding new efficiencies, and restoring at least some of the revenues California had until recently to fund our schools, health care systems, and other priorities.

This is why I have joined with my co-authors, Senator Elaine Alquist, Senator Sheila Kuehl, Assemblymember Mark DeSaulnier, and Assemblymember Loni Hancock, to propose a different budget course for our great golden state.

We must not continue to assume we will get a different result from trying the same process again and again. It is time to pass a comprehensive reform!

With SCA 22, we can allow the majority of Californians to have a budget reflecting their values. It will return democracy to the priority setting that should be a critical part of crafting a state budget.

Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) represents the Seventh Senatorial District, including most of Contra Costa County. He is the chair of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Schools and Community. Senator Torlakson is also a member of the Senate Education and Transportation and Housing Committees. A teacher and coach, Senator Torlakson is the Chair and Founder of the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness, a group seeking to raise the profile of health and fitness in the public schools and in the workplace. He is currently on faculty at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, Calif.