The battle is on over the state budget due July 1 and the fireworks could shed light on an initiative measure on the November ballot. Designated as Proposition 25, the measure would reduce the legislative vote requirement to pass a budget from two-thirds to a simple majority.
Assembly Speaker John Perez’s budget plan is built on borrowing, although the plan includes a tax increase the speaker believes he can make happen with a majority vote. The attorney general says the plan may be in violation of state law. The treasurer says Wall Street will not buy into the plan because of the attorney general’s opinion letter.
The governor has gone out of his way to point out flaws in the plan, going as far as sending out a press release citing sharp attacks against the plan by newspapers around the state.
Yet, the speaker has influential friends (and even relatives) who are pushing the budget-borrowing plan forward. Yesterday, the speaker held a press conference accompanied by Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, (Perez’s cousin) to support the plan.
More strategically, the Perez plan is hailed as the best budget proposal by influential public employee unions, including the California Teachers Association. One reason is that the plan is designed to borrow money to make sure teachers and other public sector workers do not lose their jobs in these tough fiscal times.
But, most financial experts agree that balancing this budget on the back of taxpayers for the next twenty years makes no economic sense.
The Senate Democrats have their own plan and have not embraced the Perez plan, yet. However, pressure is on from those interest groups that the Democrats can’t ignore. The CTA is putting on an offensive against Senate President Prop Tem, Darrell Steinberg, to "persuade" him to join forces with Perez and the Assembly Democrats.
Now we’re getting to Proposition 25. Under the rule change proposed by the ballot measure, unified Democratic legislators could pass Perez’s plan by themselves with no Republican support. It would take a simple majority.
A plan the Democratic attorney general calls legally suspect; a plan the Democratic treasurer finds wanting; a plan that commits the next generation to pay off next year’s budget could pass under the provisions of Proposition 25 if that measure is placed in the constitution.
Something to remember when it’s time to vote on Prop 25 in November.