Campbell working on spending cap

Alicia Robinson

In November, voters might see three separate ballot initiatives that

attempt to rein in the state budget with a spending cap, but at least

one initiative’s backer, state Sen. John Campbell, isn’t concerned

about the competition.

Right now, Newport-Mesa’s senator has a bigger worry: His fellow

spending-limit supporters, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and the

California Taxpayers Assn., have to sort through the five latest

versions of Campbell’s initiative and decide which one will be used

to gather signatures so it can ultimately go to the ballot.

Once that happens, they’re likely to have two months to collect

about 750,000 voters’ signatures to qualify the initiative for a

November special election.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened legislators with a

special election if they don’t act on several sweeping reforms he

proposed earlier this year.

Under Campbell’s initiative, the state budget couldn’t grow faster

than inflation and population are increasing. The reason there are

five new versions of Campbell’s spending limit, the senator

explained, is that they have subtle differences. Some include

exceptions for education and health care spending, for example.

“They’re the same car with different options,” Campbell, a former

auto dealership owner, said. “What we wanted to do is put those out

there and get feedback.”

Once a particular version of Campbell’s California Deficit

Preventions Act is chosen, supporters will need to gather at least

598,000 valid signatures. Their schedule will be tight, considering

they were expecting to prepare the issue for the November 2006

ballot.

“The advent of the special election in 2005 has kind of changed a

lot of things,” Campbell said. “If we’re going to make the special

election in 2005, we probably have 60 days to collect signatures

instead of five months.”

He’s not sweating the other two initiatives that could also be on

the ballot -- the California Spending Limit Restoration Act and the

California Live Within Our Means Act -- because he thinks most

versions of those issues filed with the Secretary of State have

technical errors. They also lack the necessary financial backing, he

said.

And Campbell isn’t worried that the two competing bills will end

up on the ballot.

“The people who want a spending limit will support one or the

other,” he said.

His proposal can count on some local support. The Orange County

Taxpayers Assn. has always supported Campbell’s efforts to cap

legislative spending, association President Reed Royalty said.

Orange County is a “donor” county, meaning people here send more

money to Sacramento in taxes than they get back in funding, and

Royalty’s group has tried to remedy that.

“The fact that the state keeps going into debt hurts us more than

it hurts everybody else because we pay more than our share of the

bill,” Royalty said.

Business groups, such as the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce,

are also likely to back the initiative, because the state’s budget

problems mean more costs get passed on to businesses, Newport chamber

President Richard Luehrs said.

“We’ve been complaining for quite some time that it’s expensive to

do business in the state of California,” he said.