California is in desperate need of budget reform

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Here's the sort of insanity we're dealing with:
The Senate Transportation Committee held a hearing not that long ago where Caltrans director Will Kempton explained that 276 infrastructure projects are going to be suspended tomorrow to save $3.7 billion dollars and prevent the state from defaulting on its loans. But as John Myers of KQED Capitol Notes explained, even stopping the projects costs money:
Kempton: will cost $199 million to shut projects down, $192 million to restart them.

That's $391 million that Republicans are costing the state of California by their intransigence - and that's just one example. When one totals up the cost of borrowing to keep the state afloat, we're well into the billions of dollars. And that money is, you guessed it, going to have to be repaid by taxpayers.

I don't exactly know what to do here. I support a repeal of Prop 13, I support a constitutional amendment/revision so that a budget can be passed by a simple majority instead of a 2/3 majority. I don't know how else to stop this kind of stupidity.

Comments

grishnash said…
Wasn't it a less severe version of this that caused the recall drive for Gray Davis in 2003? Not that it would help much, but is there a similar movement today, or are Republicans immune?
10:03 AM, February 17, 2009
Zachary Drake said…
Yes. Republicans do seem to be immune. But Arnold had backing from national Republicans for his recall effort. I don't think Obama's folks are as eager to meddle in CA gubernatorial politics as Bush's folks were.

But it's mainly Republican legislators who are the stumbling blocks here, not the governor.
10:06 AM, February 17, 2009
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