Cavala: Panetta ‘Reform’ Commission Rehashes Old Issues, Provides No Realistic New Ideas

The other solution to “volatility”, according to Panetta, is to “modify the tax system to reflect the current economy”. I think that means we should extend the sales tax to services – increasing revenues as we do so. This proposal would lead to a spirited debate among Democratic lawmakers (which services?) if they could find so much as one Republican lawmaker who wanted to join in that debate. They can’t. If new taxes are part of the solution, then the Republican Party is part of the problem. Committed to “bipartisanship”, Panetta and his colleagues have to hide from this fact.

(3) The “short term fix” nature of our current budget debate. Panetta’s solution is to “increase public awareness” of long-term commitments. Does this mean opposition to the “bullet train” bond? The failure of lawmakers – as opposed to the public - to consider “long term impacts” may have something to do with their own short-term life in public office. Look at today’s “big five” meetings: a lame duck Governor, a termed out pro-tem, two GOP leaders who lead a group of politicians unwilling to consider ANY of Panetta’s solutions, and a Speaker new to budget deliberations. Long-term perspective? When Willie Brown confronted George Deukmejian during the budget crunch of ’83 he’d served in the Legislature for 17 years, served on the Budget Committee for eight years and chaired it for four. That made a “long term” perspective possible.

(4) The budget does not set “clear priorities” or ensure dollars are “best spent to achieve results”. The recent release of statistics on the graduation rate of high school students indicates we are losing ground: a third of our high school students fail to graduate – higher in our largest school district – even though we spend 40% of our budget on schools. Should we spend more? Should we seek repeal of the ballot mandate that we spend at least 40% of our tax money on schools? Panetta and his group are silent on this issue – the single biggest budget issue.

(5) Lawmakers spend too much time on minor issues rather than seeing money is well spent and seeing it is better spent in the future. We need more “legislative oversight”. “Oversight” by Legislative Committees really means oversight by the majority party of the actions of a Republican Administration. Speaker’s Bustamante and Pro Tem Lockyer set up a staff task force in the mid 1990’s to oversee the Wilson Administration’s work. Wilson spokesmen decried it as a “partisan witch hunt”, refused to comply with public records requests, and generally stonewalled efforts to eliminate waste, inefficiency and corruption.

Oversight work has foundered since Speaker Hertzberg, as later Speakers sought modus vivendi with Governor Schwarzenegger on budget and policy issues and sought to avoid oversight activity that could embarrass him and harm what was believed to be a beneficial personal relationship.

None of the above is ‘news’. So clearly the Panetta group is not out to provide ‘neutral’ counsel to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Legislature. Rather they are setting the stage for yet another ballot measure effort to fix the ‘problem’ by meddling in the internal workings of the Legislature. Aided by a Capitol Press Corps eager to seize upon any critique that justifies an appropriately cynical attitude towards anyone elected by voters.

Bill Cavala was Deputy Director of the Assembly Speaker’s Office of Member Services where he worked for over 30 years.

Mr. Cavala manages election campaigns for Democratic candidates.