Daily Republic, The Other Side July 9, 2009

The minority rules in Sacramento

By Kelvin Wade | | July 09, 2009 17:42

California is crumbling. We're contemplating closing 219 state parks. We've cut medical services to the poor, elderly and disabled with more to come. Sacramento is handing out IOUs.

We've got the Democrats' union masters running ads saying soak the rich. We've got Republican legislators who only want to cut our way out of this $26 billion hole. It's as if California is Wimpy, stuffed with hamburgers, and its Tuesday.

It's time we think about lowering the two-thirds requirement to pass budgets to 55 percent.

We're one of only three states that require a supermajority to pass the state budget. Why is a simple majority good enough for most other states?

While California budgets should require only a simple majority, the idea is a nonstarter for most people. So why not a 55 percent compromise?

Perhaps having to pass budgets with 55 percent of the vote will mean that our legislature actually governs instead of passing on ballot measures for us to vote on. We just had a special election in May where only a quarter of voters bothered to go to the polls.

And the message they sent by soundly defeating the budget ballot measures was, 'We sent you people to Sacramento to govern. Do it.'

Having to garner less votes for a budget would make our legislature more accountable. Someone consistently voting for higher taxes would have to answer to their constituents. It could also make legislative races more competitive. It could prove to be a recipe for more moderate candidates.

Of course voters like having that two-thirds requirement on the budget and taxes as a check on an out-of-control legislature. But the way our system is set up, its minority rule in Sacramento.

The system makes it easy for Republicans to do the bidding of their corporate paymasters on the right and for Democrats to be co-opted by their union puppet masters on the left. It's the uncompromising extremes of both sides that help make California ungovernable.

Shorn of a two-thirds vote requirement, having a majority Democratic legislature would actually improve Republican chances of winning gubernatorial contests in the state. Californians may well decide to have Republican governors as a check on the legislature.

The record speaks for itself. We've missed budget deadlines 28 times in the last 32 years. And because the fringes on both political parties won't allow compromise with cuts and revenues, we've been running the state with borrowing and accounting gimmicks. And starting this Friday, some big banks are no longer going to accept our IOUs. We can't keep going this direction.

Earlier this year, a PPIC poll showed that 54 percent favored lowering the two-thirds requirement to 55 percent. We have to do something. We have leaders who can't or won't lead. We have special interests running state business.

Perhaps there's a better idea out there to solve this annual problem. What I do know is if we don't get this budget process moving, the only thing moving in this state will be the people leaving it. Peace.

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This is a week where I expect to get hate mail. It's all good. Relax. California is never going to change the two-thirds requirement.

I like to tinker with computers. i repair them. I've built them. My dad always wanted me to build him a computer. He'd give me the specs he wanted and it was all top of the line. A real high end machine. Then he'd tell me he wanted it for $200. I'd tell him when he found that, buy two, because I want one, too!

Citizens are no different from five year olds. We want it all. We want government services to the hilt and we don't want to pay for them. The real world doesn't work that way. We know this. It's insane that we think we can keep running a state the way we're running it.

Now I know some people will read my column today and think that I want higher taxes. That's absurd. I'm no different from anyone else. I don't want to have to pay more taxes so Sacramento can piss the money away. But we've got taxes on the brain. Lowering the budget requirement to 55% probably would result in more taxes. But it could also result in more cuts. We have to cut and Democrats are not doing the state any favors by doing the bidding of their union sponsors.

In our household budgets, when there's a cash crunch, the first thing we do is cut. We dump the frivolous spending. Out goes the Starbucks, the movies, and shopping sprees. We consolidate trips to save gas. Then we cut deeper, if need be. We dump cable. We change our cell phone plane. We dump the cell. We carpool. We do whatever it takes. But it's cutting that we do first.

And only after we feel we've cut to the bone, do we then take on more hours at work, ask for a raise, search for a better paying job, or add a second job.

I'd like to see legislators do their jobs. They pass budgets in other states. Why do we have to go through this every year, making our situation worse and worse? We need to do something to change the equation. Something...