Last Week’s California Budget Vote: Failure or First Step Toward Solutions?

By Robert Cruickshank

The legislature voted last week on the Democratic budget plan and, predictably, Republicans refused to vote for it, unwilling to support a tax increase. Closing a $17 billion hole in the budget with cuts alone would pretty much destroy government, which is of course their goal. In turn that would send California from a recession into an outright Depression, as the safety net would crumble and job losses would skyrocket.

The media's coverage of the budget debate is equally predictable. The Sacramento Bee framed yesterday's vote as a "last ditch effort" and the article opened with phrases like "debated, complained and pointed fingers of blame Tuesday." Arnold compared the legislature to a kindergarten, which I am hoping is not a set-up for some 1990 movie flashback.

The result of such coverage is to further depress public interest in and engagement with the budget process. Reporters make it sound like the Legislature is dysfunctional or doesn't care, conveniently sliding past the fact that the budget delays are solely the product of Republican obstructionism.

That means we need to look beyond what the media says to the actual plan the Democrats put forth:

• $8.1 billion in new revenues, from a tripling of the VLF and from freezing the current income tax tables
• $8.1 billion in cuts, including $4 billion to schools and $100 million to community colleges

• $800 million in fund transfers and other gimmicks

It's not a great plan, and the Democrats' united opposition to education cuts from the spring seems to have melted away. That's not a good sign, as the budget fight that began in 2007 seems to move inexorably toward the Republicans.

At the same time, this plan needs to be seen as a first step toward a budget solution. Legislative support for a restored VLF is a big step in the right direction, reversing 10 years of supporting that flawed tax giveaway. Action on the income tax is also a good move, although I would like to see Democrats return to their summer budget plan that called for a restoration of the 1990s tax brackets for higher income Californians.

Comments

Posted by: Jay Gould at November 30, 2008 11:19 AM

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