When California’s budget was passed two weeks ago, it came 100 days after the June deadline ”“ a delay that broke state records.
It is a familiar cycle in Sacramento, where legislators seeking to pass a budget with a two-thirds vote can face months of impasse in order to reach a compromise.
Proponents of Proposition 25, which would allow the state budget to be passed with a majority vote, say the initiative will allow the state budget to be passed on time. But opponents counter that it is a scheme to allow state taxes to be raised by a simple majority vote.
According to a California Field Poll conducted in September, 46 percent of voters are in favor of the proposition, 30 percent are opposed, and 24 percent are undecided.
It is unclear whether the UC would benefit from the proposition’s passage in any major way, as it affects the timing rather than the total revenue of the budget, said Daniel Mitchell, professor emeritus in the UCLA Anderson School of Management and School of Public Affairs.
“In a minor way, when budgets are delayed, certain state payments to UC are also delayed,” he said. “But they eventually come to UC after a budget deal is reached.”
Proposition 25 does not affect the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, which states that taxes cannot be raised without a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature, Mitchell said. Instead, Proposition 25 deals with an older requirement implemented during the Great Depression that requires a two-thirds vote in order to pass the state budget.
“Republicans, who have been the minority party in the Legislature for many years, like both two-thirds requirements because it gives them an effective veto power,” Mitchell said. “Democrats have a majority in both houses but can’t cross the two-thirds threshold without Republican support.”
However, Mitchell said there is a risk for Democrats in the future if the proposition passes.
“If there is a budget stalemate of the type we saw this past year, (the Democrats) will be blamed since they had the votes to pass a budget,” he said. “Moreover, they would have to pass one that had no tax increases unless they could get some Republicans to go along.”
Currently, there is not much pressure for the Legislature to pass the budget on time because state money can be allocated by the court system even if the budget has not been passed, and lawmakers are paid during this period, Mitchell said.
The proposition would create a permanent penalty for legislators by withholding pay during the months a budget is not passed, he said.
Kevin Poirier, a third-year political science student, said he will be voting yes on Proposition 25.
Poirier said he thought the proposition would hold politicians more accountable because they would not receive pay when the budget is not passed on time. He added that 47 other states pass the budget through majority vote.
Matt Klink, a spokesman for the No on 25 Campaign, disagrees about the proposition’s effectiveness.
“Everyone wants a balanced budget and on-time budget, but Proposition 25 doesn’t get us there,” Klink said.
Lower thresholds for passing the budget do not indicate an on-time budget, because some states that pass late budgets require a majority vote, Klink said. True budget reforms come with spending caps, pay-as-you-go mandates and a budget reserve fund, he added.
According to Klink, the proposition creates a loophole that allows any tax increase that is tied with the budget to be passed with a majority vote. At dispute is the clause that states “the budget bill and other bills providing for appropriations related to the budget bill may be passed in each house by … a majority of the membership concurring.”
Although the California 3rd District Court of Appeals rejected that argument when they approved of the language proponents placed in the ballot pamphlet, Klink said the court opinion is not published and holds no binding effect on the legislature.
However, Mitchell disagreed with the claim that Proposition 25 would raise taxes.
“Appropriations are not taxes,” he said. “I suppose their argument was that Prop. 25 would allow spending to be authorized and funds appropriated beyond tax revenues, and that would eventually force a tax increase.”
But if the proposition passes and the Legislature enacts a tax increase without a two-thirds vote, someone would undoubtedly challenge that action in court, Mitchell said, leaving the provision under further legal scrutiny.