Capitol Journal: A built-in budget mess

From Sacramento

Don’t blame Republican legislators, not entirely. Or Gov. Jerry Brown. Or Democrats.

They do share blame, in the order listed. And Brown, as of Wednesday at least, was the big loser, having promised gubernatorial effectiveness and not delivered.

But the major blame for ceaseless fiscal dysfunction at the state Capitol is a crappy governing system. With that you get a crappy product. And you — the California voters — pretty much designed this system, led like lemmings by special interests with self-serving agendas.

Count the systemic flaws: Term limits that rob the government of legislating experience and policy depth. A runaway initiative system that leads to ballot-box budgeting and legislative straitjackets, including a strict formula tying up roughly 40% of the state’s general fund for schools.

But the biggest clog in the system is the two-thirds legislative vote requirement for tax increases, a byproduct of Proposition 13 that Californians approved 33 years ago.

That measure not only dramatically lowered local property taxes — a worthy cause — but also, the way it was implemented, severely gummed up California’s relatively smooth governing system. It transferred much of the control and funding responsibility for local services — such as K-12 education — to Sacramento while eviscerating the state’s ability to raise taxes to finance the local burden.

It has been a mess.

The vast majority of states require only a simple majority of legislative votes to hike taxes.

Sixteen states require a supermajority, eight of them two-thirds. Five require just three-fifths, a hurdle California Democrats would accept in a heartbeat. California is the only large state that requires a supermajority for all taxes. Florida mandates it solely for the corporate income tax, Michigan for the state property tax.

So we’re out there alone among the big states, saddled with a massive millstone when trying to deal with money.

Let’s put this in perspective: Legislators are confused and conflicted enough already because they represent, and basically reflect, the confused and conflicted voters who elected them. Look at any polling results. Voters want services and think someone else should pay for them.

Merely obtaining a majority consensus in today’s polarized political climate would be difficult for the Legislature on a volatile issue like taxes. Raising the bar to two-thirds makes it practically impossible without huge political payoffs, often including large slabs of costly pork.

For many, this may seem ideal because it prevents Democrats from raising taxes. But it also prevents the majority party from governing. It allows a one-third minority to block the majority will. Little of substance gets done. The budget deficit keeps being punted to the next Legislature.

Most significantly for the minority party, the two-thirds requirement keeps the majority from being held accountable. If Democrats were allowed to raise taxes, they’d do so at their peril and be punished at the ballot box if voters strongly objected. That’s how parties get tossed from power.

As I wrote this, the legislative houses were debating a so-called budget that — for the umpteenth straight year — was laden with shameless gimmicks and contained one irresponsible concept previously rejected by Brown: the peddling of prime real estate to private investors, who then would rent it back to the state at a future cost of extra billions.

Democratic leaders hoped to send their contraption to the governor by Wednesday midnight, meeting a rarely achieved constitutional deadline.

Call it the Payroll Protection Act of 2011. Under last year’s Prop. 25, legislators must permanently forfeit their pay and expense money for every day they don’t pass a balanced budget after the June 15 deadline. That’s a sharp prod.

The main feature of Prop. 25, however, was to allow the Legislature to pass a budget on a majority vote rather than two-thirds. That does expedite the process.

Now the lawmakers can pass a crappy budget on time rather than squabble all summer and pass it months later.

Brown should send this legislative product out with the overnight garbage. I expect him to waste little time shredding much of it, then try to renew tax negotiations with Republicans and complete a deal before the fiscal year begins July 1.

This was not the budget Democrats wanted to pass. They supported Brown’s proposal to close a projected $26-billion deficit with half cuts, half taxes. They made the cuts in March. But Brown couldn’t coax two Republicans in each house to renew higher income, sales and car taxes — and call a special election to secure the voter approval he foolishly promised while running for election.

For Republicans, it has been both an abuse and misuse of their scarce power. They’ve used the two-thirds vote for obstructionism, not for leverage. Employing it for leverage — as has been urged by business groups — they could have negotiated long-sought spending, pension and regulatory reforms.

Perhaps some still will.

Brown erred by continuing his quest for a costly, risky special election after Republicans turned him down in March. That was his out: He could have declared that he’d tried, but the GOP wouldn’t let him keep his campaign promise. Then he could have dealt directly with the Republicans on taxes and bypassed the unions who were needed to finance the election campaign.

Democrats — legislators and the governor — should have been more forceful with public employee unions and insisted on substantial spending and pension reforms.

Honest political redistricting and open primaries, starting next year, will improve the system and possibly turn legislators slightly toward the center. But until the majority party is permitted to govern and is held accountable, California’s Capitol will continue to produce crap.

george.skelton@latimes.com