How is California faring? Log onto U-Haul’s website and check quotes for one-way rentals. The higher the drop-off price, the more in demand that destination.
A truck rental from Santa Clarita, CA to Austin, TX is $4,830. From Austin to Santa Clarita the truck costs $1,337. Ranked dead last on U-Haul list desirable places to move, California’s policy makers treat taxpayers like an ATM and our spending shows it.
When I was elected to the State Assembly in 2012 the state spending plan for 2012-2013 was about $100 billion. The budget we recently adopted with over $308 billion dollars. That is an astronomical increase in spending by anyone’s metrics. Are you getting a better government for that money? I’d say no, but that is my opinion and fairly subjective. One thing that is not subjective is that the budget process has fundamentally changed, and not for the better, since I was first elected.
How it is supposed to work (and used to):
In January the governor introduces his spending plan and then revises it in May after taxes start coming in to reflect what is actually in the state’s coffers. During this time the Legislature is holding budget hearings and crafting its own spending plans.
In June both houses of the Legislature share their individual spending plans and then a conference committee is convened between legislators of both houses, both parties and the governor to iron out the differences. The public can weigh in, stakeholders share their thoughts and bureaucrats justify department spending. The agreed upon budget goes into print, is made available to the public and then voted on by the Legislature. Open and transparent right? That is how it was when I was elected.
But things have changed. How it works now:
Over the last decade fewer and fewer people are involved in the process. That so-called conference committee has been whittled down to the governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Senate Pro Tempore and a few high-ranking Legislators. They keep their cards so close to the vest that any notion of consensus or transparency has been completely lost.
This handful of people decide everything behind closed doors and leave minimal time for the public, stakeholders or even fellow legislators to digest multiple bills with complex spending details. In addition, pet policy ideas, that have often time failed in the committee process, are hidden in last minute supporting budget legislation. Lost is the transparency that underscores a democratic process.
No one expects to agree on everything in the state budget, but we should agree that transparency, accountability and consensus should be a major component of how we decide to spend our tax dollars.
Contributed by:
Senator Scott Wilk, 21st Senate District
Senate Republican Leader