SACRAMENTO — The banner, which read "Crisis in Confidence," loomed large over the banquet hall's dais, a fitting slogan for the economic turmoil that continues to plague legislative leaders.
Senate Leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, was one of four panelists at a forum Tuesday discussing the kinds of reforms needed to reshape government into a working, trustworthy institution. But he had more pressing concerns on his mind: how to pull the state out of yet another potential fiscal disaster.
Just weeks after they approved a $103.4 billion general fund budget, lawmakers are now considering a special session to deal with lower-than-expected revenues — and the potential that the state could run out of cash by the end of the month.
Perata and the three other legislative leaders are scheduled to hold a Big 5 meeting today with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which could result in another round of political brinkmanship with a replay of the tensions over possible spending cuts, borrowing or tax increases that brought state government to a halt for nearly three months this summer.
"We are faced with, in California, exactly what the country— and what appears to be the world economy is faced with, and that is a very serious readjustment," said Perata, who agreed that a special session may be necessary. "And the only way you can get through that is to work together, break away from ideology. ... Doing nothing or digging in our heels Advertisementwill not satisfy the need."
Schwarzenegger has already said the state needs to borrow $7 billion to cover payments for vital services over the next several months. But getting that loan became exponentially more complicated as the credit market tightened up in the wake of the meltdown of the lending industry and as the federal government has had to respond with its own $700 billion bailout package.
The economic crisis — both nationally and in California — has intensified the crisis in confidence in political leaders, said Mark Baldassare, the president and CEO of Public Policy Institute of California, which hosted the forum near the Capitol.
"There's a general sense of distrust in government," Baldassare said. "Seventy-two percent of voters feel the federal government is run by big interests looking out for themselves. That's an important perception when you look at the (public's negative) reaction to the federal bailout."
Nearly as many voters — 67 percent — have the same feeling about state government, he said. The very proposals to cure the government of its ills have been rejected in the past decade by voters who don't trust what's being offered on the ballot.
"Why? To many voters, the ballot measures are good in concept," he said, but are tainted by the perception that they are driven by partisan interests.
A "potential rallying" point for voters is Proposition 11, the ballot measure to hand the power to draw political boundaries to an independent commission, Baldassare said, because it would take some power out of the hands of lawmakers. But many voters are wavering because they're not sure if one party is seeking a political advantage over another.
Perata has been the target of the Proposition 11 campaign — as the symbol of the failed system that brought about the 85-day budget stalemate. He pointed out that it doesn't help voters' confidence when ballot measure campaigns continue to batter lawmakers' images as a catchall appeal to their frustrations.
If there was a "single magic potion to drink," Perata said, to solving some of the voters' disenchantment, it would be to grant a simple majority vote on budgets — rather than the required two-thirds vote that has given minority party Republicans a strong say in budget discussions.
"You'd then hold people entrusted with that majority rule responsible," Perata said. "Absent that, we're fooling around the edges of the center of the problem."
Echoing Perata on eliminating the two-thirds requirement were Janis Hirohama, president of the California League of Women Voters, and Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a coalition of Bay Area businesses groups.
"There's no place for that," Wunderman said. "It holds up the process unnecessarily. And term limits is just killing us. You got a group that's finally up in experience and then you fire them and replace them with inexperienced people? If you did that in the private sector, you'd be out of business."
Duf Sundheim, the former chairman of the Republican Party, said he hasn't taken a position on whether the two-thirds requirement — which only two other states, Rhode Island and Arkansas, have — should be removed.
But Sundheim did say Republicans should drop their blanket ideological resistance to raising taxes.
"Republicans have gotten into this mantra of no new taxes," he said, "but there should be one more mantra that's more important than no new taxes, and that is we don't borrow money for current operating expenses. That's totally irresponsible.
"To the extent you need to balance the budget," he added, "you have to look at taxes before the borrowing."
0 comments:
Post a Comment