Gov. Brown’s Ballot Manipulation Breaks Faith With Voters
SACRAMENTO — This wasn’t the deal. Californians thought they were only allowing the Legislature to pass a budget on a majority vote. They wanted to unclog the capitol.
They didn’t intend it as a license for Gov. Jerry Brown to rig the election ballot to benefit his tax-increase proposal.
It seems like a non sequitur and unfathomable to link the two: budget passing and ballot rigging.
That takes chutzpah and arrogance.
A state appellate judge will decide whether it’s legal.
Many Californians were skeptical anyway in 2010, when they passed Proposition 25 to reduce the legislative vote requirement for a budget from two-thirds to a simple majority.
They really didn’t trust the Legislature. What if there was one-party rule in Sacramento — a Democratic governor and the inevitable Democratic Legislature? No party checks and balances. What if?
Well, we just saw.
You may remember how Prop. 25 was sold: California was suffering from budget gridlock. State vendors, healthcare providers and schools were being stiffed because of late budgets. State credit ratings were falling. Only two other states required a two-thirds vote for budget passage. It was a seller’s market for votes in the Capitol. Special interests were the brokers.
All true.
Prop. 25 has been a good thing. We’ve had two consecutive on-time budgets. No more summer-long Capitol squabbling, no more state-issued IOUs.
But recently Prop. 25 was shamefully abused by Democrats at the behest of Brown, who paradoxically rode to power four decades ago on a platform of political reform.
Bear with me, because this makes almost no sense.
