It's really refreshing to see an article like this in a California newspaper. From today's LA Times comes a story with the headline California's next budget battle could get easier:
Democratic gains of even a couple of seats on Nov. 4 could ease California's annual struggle to match spending with revenue. Eight Republican votes are now needed to pass a budget by the required two-thirds majority of lawmakers. If voters reject Republican candidates in some districts, Democrats may have a smaller anti-tax bloc to battle and fewer arms to twist to pass a budget.
This is something we at Calitics have known for years, but the media typically resists speaking this particular truth to the public. Instead they prefer to blame "partisanship" or some unknown budget god for creating this crisis. Of course the budget problems are a direct cause of Republicans, whether it was Prop 13, or their reckless 1998 tax cuts, or Arnold's VLF and budget balancing bonds, or recent Yacht Party-induced budget delays.
The solution has always been obvious: elect more Democrats and punish Republicans like Mimi Walters and Tom McClintock who don't vote for budgets at all.
Yet another reason for California progressives to Stay for Change - don't travel to swing states, travel instead to the key swing districts in the Assembly and the Senate, races that will be the difference between a sane and fair budget and another crippling Republican-induced delay.
UPDATE by Brian: This should be paired with the Dan Walters article I put into the Open Thread yesterday. Walters points out that after November 4:
As a practical matter, then, it will be easier, perhaps much easier, to enact the new taxes that Schwarzenegger, Democrats and groups such as the Education Coalition want when a new Legislature begins its session in December.
The chattering class is slowly getting it... |
