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By Joe Canciamilla
For years California’s political leaders have been able to temporarily keep the State’s fiscal house of cards from collapsing. As someone who voted for and against a few of those budgets I know it took more than a few tricks to keep things afloat and to make a real solution more difficult to accomplish.
Is this going to be the year when true leadership prevails and our representative’s get down to the business of solving our financial problems?
Not a chance.
The Governor has again failed to propose a balanced budget and instead is relying on more borrowing.
Democrats just unveiled their budget and proposal for nearly 10 billion dollars in tax increases.
Republicans haven’t revealed their budget vision other than saying they want to cut but as usual, and fail to specify exactly what and how much they would cut.
All sides have and continue to miss a key element in the budget debate which is before discussing tax increases or cuts, shouldn’t we first be looking at our current spending and decide if it’s delivering tangible benefits?
While in the legislature, I proposed that the first year of each two year session be devoted to budget and budget oversight. It would have set aside time and resources to allow a comprehensive evaluation of programs, most of which have never faced legislative or even departmental scrutiny.
Unfortunately taking the time to accomplish this kind of evaluation is hard, tedious work requiring real effort, study and not a lot of press hype. As you can imagine, my proposal lasted just long enough for the ink on the bill to dry before landing in the legislative round file.
As it stands, only a small handful of leadership and staff spend any time on the budget and an even smaller number make the real decisions. When a deal is struck members are summoned into caucus and told how to vote without having a clue as to what the budget bills contain. The budget, rather than reflecting the values of the Governor or Legislature, is more representative of the power of special interest groups to carve out parts reflecting their narrow agendas.
It is easy to fall back on the old refrains of tax more or spend less. It’s much much harder to decide if it’s worth spending billions on one program vs. another, each one carrying its own constituency and potential supporters or opponents.
It is past time to take a comprehensive look at how our State runs its finances. But our very first step, just as you would with your own household, is to figure out where the money you’re already bringing in is going and whether it’s worth the expense.
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