Repeal the 2/3's Budget Rule - No More Budget Crises and Wasteful Special Elections!
by Zack Kaldveer, Communications Director,
Consumer Federation of California
April 30th, 2009
California is one of only three states that require a two-thirds vote in the legislature to pass a budget regardless of the depth of the crisis. This rule empowers a small cabal of lawmakers to hold the state budget hostage until their demands – no matter how unpopular - are included in any final agreement. Now California consumers will suffer the consequences.
Click here to sign our petition - Join the effort to repeal the 2/3's rule!
This year, as California's economy teetered on the brink of insolvency, a small minority of ultra-conservative legislators refused to support any rational budget agreement.
To keep our government, schools and health clinics running, the majority was forced to concede to minority demands: rollbacks of environmental and toxics regulations, supersized tax breaks for big corporations, regressive tax hikes that hit lower income consumers hardest, and drastic cuts in education, public safety, and healthcare.
This year's budget fiasco has created an outcry for governance reform. A movement is growing to re-assert the democratic principle of majority rule and end the tyranny of an out of touch minority.
The 2/3’s requirement offers the minority party in the Legislature a powerful bargaining chip. Republican Senator Abel Maldonado cashed that chip in this year because he represented the one – and last – vote needed to pass the budget and save the state from near total collapse.
In exchange for their handful of votes, Maldonado and his clique won a host of concessions, including the removal of a 12 cent per gallon gas tax increase; deep cuts in social services; tax cuts for multinational corporations; and the removal of a proposed severance fee on oil extracted from our state.
The oil severance fee would have produced $800 million a year in needed revenues. It would have been targeted at big oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Chevron. These companies reported approximately $95 billion in profits in 2008.
Instead, thanks to the 2/3’s rule, all California taxpayers will NOT share in the sacrifice. State workers were forced to take two unpaid days leave a month, construction projects were stopped, state money to pay for social services had dried up, and now working families face billions in higher sales tax and income tax rates. But the state’s most profitable big businesses get a $1.5 billion TAX CUT in perpetuity.
Consider the facts: the average working family of four will pay an additional $1100 a year in increased sales tax, personal income tax and vehicle license fees.The California Budget Project estimates the tax hikes will disproportionately hurt working-class earners. A couple with $40,000 in taxable income will see a 12.9 percent increase in taxes, while a couple making $750,000 would get a 2.9 percent increase.
As education, public safety, health, and transportation faced $15 billion in program cuts, big business received billions in temporary tax credits and permanent tax breaks that will reduce state revenues even more - potentially leading to even deeper program cuts in future budgets.
To restore budget sanity, fiscal responsibility, and tax fairness, the 2/3’s rule must be repealed. CFC has begun gathering names to gear up for an expected ballot measure fight next year to restore the principle of majority rule and take back control of our government. We hope you will join our effort by signing up today to help build a winning ballot measure campaign in 2010!
