Majority Rule Needed, Not a Recall
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| Also listed in: Courage Campaign Staff |
Want some shock and awe, many vital programs are going unfunded as the state of California enters it 70th day without a new budget. In short order, health care programs are having difficulty making their payroll, college students are digging in their empty pockets to pay tuition and low-income working parents no longer receive the assistance they need for childcare. All this while Republicans stick to their no tax increase pledge.
As a hopelessly minority party in Sacramento, state Republicans have successfully stuck to their guns thanks to the two-thirds requirement to pass a budget. Which means, Democrats must persuade five Republicans in the Assembly and two more in the Senate before their can be any budget compromise. In an ironic twist, Repbulican State Senator Tom McClintock believes there should only be a simple majority needed to pass a new budget.
LA Times columnist George Skelton
gets the goods:
I doubt the rest of the members of the state GOP are impressed by McClintock's contrarian thoughts about the "Yacht Party's" chief budget bullet. The two-thirds requirement.
Given that we are half way through his final term, recalling leadership-challenged Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pointless. Especially since he could prove to be a helpful partner in future budget considerations beyond his administration by working with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass to push a ballot initiative that would amend the two-thirds requirement to simple majority rule as it used to be.
Children, students, health care employees and their patients are hurting, its time to stop talking about a majority rule ballot measure and start collecting signatures.
As a hopelessly minority party in Sacramento, state Republicans have successfully stuck to their guns thanks to the two-thirds requirement to pass a budget. Which means, Democrats must persuade five Republicans in the Assembly and two more in the Senate before their can be any budget compromise. In an ironic twist, Repbulican State Senator Tom McClintock believes there should only be a simple majority needed to pass a new budget.
LA Times columnist George Skelton
gets the goods:
- "The two-thirds vote for the budget has not contained spending, and it blurs accountability," McClintock says. "If anything, in past years, it has prompted additional spending as votes for the budget are cobbled together."
Cobbled together by trading votes for pet programs and pork projects.
"It dilutes the responsibility of the majority party for the budget," McClintock continues. With a simple majority vote, he believes, the ruling party "would be much more careful about what it put in the budget."
I doubt the rest of the members of the state GOP are impressed by McClintock's contrarian thoughts about the "Yacht Party's" chief budget bullet. The two-thirds requirement.
Given that we are half way through his final term, recalling leadership-challenged Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pointless. Especially since he could prove to be a helpful partner in future budget considerations beyond his administration by working with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass to push a ballot initiative that would amend the two-thirds requirement to simple majority rule as it used to be.
Children, students, health care employees and their patients are hurting, its time to stop talking about a majority rule ballot measure and start collecting signatures.