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By PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Regardless of Gov. Jerry Brown’s veto, state Sen. Noreen Evans said Thursday that lawmakers have met their obligation to pass a budget and deserve to be paid.
The Santa Rosa Democrat said Proposition 25 requires only that a spending plan be approved by June 15. It doesn’t address what the budget should contain or conclude it has to be acceptable to the governor.
She was among four North Coast legislators to respond to the governor’s historic act, including Assemblymen Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, and Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.
Evans questioned the authority of state Controller John Chiang, who said he would analyze the budget to see if lawmakers fulfilled their voter-mandated responsibilities.
“I don’t think he has the authority to inject himself into the budget process,” said Evans, a lawyer and former Santa Rosa city councilwoman. “He’s essentially making himself the 121st legislator. I don’t think that’s what voters wanted when they passed Prop. 25.”
The measure was proposed as a way to get a state budget adopted on time. It changed the two-thirds requirement for passage to a simple majority and made lawmakers and their staffs forfeit their pay if the budget was late.
Lawmakers get $95,291 per year in salary and $142 per day in living and travel expenses. Their next paychecks are expected June 30.
They passed the budget Wednesday and Brown vetoed it Thursday, citing accounting gimmicks.
In issuing the veto, Brown said lawmakers relied on “legally questionable maneuvers, costly borrowing and unrealistic savings.”
He said he would defer to Chiang on the question of lawmaker pay. Chiang, who in the run-up to budget approval insisted the spending plan be balanced, said he would examine final budget bills and determine whether legislators will get paid.
Evans’ North Coast peers were split.
Allen also said legislators did their job, delivering the best budget possible under the circumstances.
For the past six months, the governor has been unable to convince four Republicans to support an alternative — a fall referendum on higher sales, vehicle and income taxes.
“It’s the best we could do with the tools given to us,” Allen said. “We’re working very hard. We do deserve to get paid.”
Both Huffman and Leno said they were not concerned about giving up their salaries; passing a balanced budget was the important thing.
Huffman conceded the Legislature had used “time-honored but shameful budgeting gimmicks” of years past but he was doubtful of the governor’s ability to do better.
“If the governor has a strategy to deliver the Republicans, I’m in. I’m just skeptical there is any interest from them.”
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The people DESERVE a completely new, and PART-TIME Legislature. Yet we don’t get it. The comical election, which I’ll call the “fix”, keeps these greedy leeches in the Legislature collecting per diems, car allowances, and other perks, while unemployment is rampant, spending is out of control, hospitals are overrun, schools are broke…but at least they keep their jobs.
The blame lies squarely on those who voted for them.
However much anyone dislikes the new regime, that is, a majority passes a budget, two-thirds is needed to raise taxes, that’s what the voters chose to do.
A budget results from reconciling revenue with expenditures. That Democrats don’t like the results is a dose of reality most adults have to face from time to time. The law doesn’t require Republicans to support tax increases to prevent Democrats from passing a sham budget.
While it’s true the legislature has become accustom to employing Enron-style accounting gimmicks to pass a budget each year, that is no reason for Chiang not to–finally–apply the law to legislators.
Today, Chiang is the most popular politician in California.
Sorry to say but all of our recent budgets (when we had them at all) relied on these accounting gimmicks and the assumption of the availability of borrowable funds that had not been requested at the time the budget was passed. This is just how CA gets a budget every year.
Though CA is fairly completely controlled by democrats at the state leg. level, they do not have the 2/3 majority that it takes to raise taxes or fees. Therefore, they can pass a budget that looks like every other budget we’ve had in recent times with zero republican support (which is how it happened) or they can try to get Republicans to vote with them on a budget that is actually balanced because they have included the sources of revenue necessary for the balancing act in question. Republicans refused to even allow you, the citizens of the state, to vote on tax increases in order to make the budget balanced. They simply refused.
CA, as is often the case, acts as its own little microcosm of the nation at large (not that the nation is necessarily like us but that we are like the nation). Throughout the nation, and here in CA, republican legislators have made a concerted effort over the past, say, 20 years at least to systematically starve the government and the economy until cuts get so hard that the only option left is to privatize every social and government service that is provided by the state. This is not a liberal fantasy nightmare or a “oh my god corporations are evil” argument. Its the easily recognizable plot of a story that’s gone on for far too long. If republicans, or conservative dems for that matter, refuse to uphold their oath to the citizens and the constitution in the form of austerity cuts and economic insolvency, they should be ousted from power altogether as traitors to the country.
To get back to this case specifically, democrats had enough votes to pass a budget by majority, not super-majority, so it could not include any new taxes or fees. They passed one and the gov vetoed it. “Balanced” means nothing in actual political or legal terms but it was passed by CA voters because our system of ballot propositions is inherently flawed. They passed a budget that, on paper with fancy accounting tricks, was as “balanced” as ever. Pay them for their work or they may not continue working. You all make comparisons with the private sector all the time, but would anyone in the private sector be expected to work after their employer told them they wouldn’t be paid. More than that, if your employer told you that you would not be payed for the two weeks that you just worked you would take him to court. We have things called labor laws for a reason.
Y’all make me sick with your same old, tired, rhetoric. And you think that liberals are one-liners? Take a read at your own comments. Its all about, government big enough to provide services for poor? NO! WAAA. ILLEGALS? NO BAD EVIL JOBS NOT-FROM-HERE WAAA. TAXES? NO…
I think you get the point without me going on further. Just admit you get all your rhetoric from FAUX News (and not that great comedian from Red Eye) and we can all stop listening to you.
Steve Humphrey- you are funny. The rightwing had control since Bush (and even before Bush) of the economy and their policy of spend, borrow, and deregulate is what has brought this country to it’s knees. Oh right, it’s only we lowly American people who are on our knees, the rich are doing phenomenonly well, thank you middleclass. Class warfare of the rich against the poor and middleclass all started during the Bush regime.
You need a lesson in reality. We are in this mess because of deregulation, gambling on Wallstreet with the people’s money, tax breaks and subsidies for the rich that we couldn’t afford (and tax breaks for the rest of us as well as small as it was for me compared to what the rich got-that we couldn’t afford).
And it all continues, now with the help of the Supreme Court allowing big corporations to buy our elections throughout this country. And you whine about socialism.
The Republicans talk out both sides of their mouth. Yell about socialist government while implementing changes that affect our personal lives and giving the store away to big corp at the expense of the working people (and on borrowed money).
Obama inherited this mess from Bush. Bush created it with the help from Congress. Tax cuts for the rich, tax subsidies and loopholes, 2 UNFUNDED WARS, deregulation, gambling with our hard earned money and the health and welfare of the American People. That’s the Republicans legacy. 8 years of quick destruction of this country’s economy and the robbing of the health and welfare of the middleclass (gotta give Reagan much credit for that one too).
I see no socialism. What I see, that this country has become, is a Plutocracy. Look it up. Be enlightened.
Evans and Allen are two tax and spend politicians. Get rid of them both!
Prop 25 virtually eliminated any influence any party other than Democrats have on passing a budget. The ball is squarely in the court of the Democrats. They wanted control and they got it! Now there is one group and one group only that is responsible for passing a budget. With all that power, one would think it would be easy to pass a budget on time. There are ZERO excuses for not passing a budget on time…ZERO! Evans & Allen should be taking responsibility rather than pointing fingers.
No budget, no pay. The voters have spoken.
A budget is a budget. Pay ‘em.
I think that if they can’t pass a budget or DO THEIR JOB, they shouldn’t get paid.
When they don’t pass a budget, the people, like vendors and such, don’t get paid, so why should these lazy money hungry fools get paid.
Let’s hand it to Jerry Brown for spurning the duplicitous incompetence of these phony lawmakers. When the Governor, who is the head of their own party, rejects their pipedreams they might wisely reconsider their work. But no, they seem to think they’re still on the ole’ gravy train. Will reality ever sink in for these guys?
Morgan name one enivironmental org. that creates a revenue for the state
environmental groups take public money ( tax payers ) and file law suits more tax payers money and when passed diminish revenue
Morgan
This is about the budget and I was pointing out the lost revenue the State so desperately needs, how is it that Oregon can work on less taxes then California? Why did Texas have the biggest gains in employment?
I have heard your comment for 28 years, winter run off moves millions of cubic feet of material every year. Environmentalist and DFG have introduced non-natives species of fish, amphibians and birds to California and its water ways without knowing the full impact to native species. Non-native species Brook Trout, Lake Trout, Atlantic Salmon, Kokanee Salmon, Striped Bass, Brown Trout. i will give you a couple of guess’s which eats salmon eggs. I can go on with even more facts. We dredgers would rather work then get welfare, we are sitting on the sidelines peacefully and presenting facts and waiting for an outcome.
unlike you or your buds that spike trees too prevent logging, place bombs at pharmaceutical plants because they test on animals or burn down housing development
Waht is clear is when Evans and Allen work they generally cause more harm to the public in general than good!
How many illegals are driving around without licenses or insurance because Allen took money from wineries that depend on illegals more than on citizens.
How many businesses of size have closed or left the state due to high tax rates and fees supported by Evans?
The budget these two incompetants signed on to was a sham and they know it, but honesty and morality are not and have never been their forte!
@Bill Morgan
Oh Mr. Bill, I knew if I read this blog I would see a swing at Bush. You might do yourself a favor and search the internet for countless testimonies from President Bush and his administration warning of the demise of the housing and banking industry if congress (controlled by your party) continued down the road of socialist idiology. Your buddies Barney Frank and Chris Dodd refused to listen and here we are. Frankly I think most Americans lives were better under the Bush regime. It’s all there…just read it and swallow hard.
Frank, you think you are entitled to suction dredge for gold in state rivers and streams regardless of the damage you cause to wildlife? Guess what? Oregon is sick of y’all going up there so they are going to ban it too.
First, I am a moderate Democrat and am disgusted with the Republicans here and elsewhere for their sham outrage regarding spending and taxes after eight years of driving the country to the brink under GW Bush. But this is the second time Ms. Evans has whined about pay or benefits. The last time was about car allowances, now she and her colleagues cynically pass a bad piece of legislation for no other reason than to collect a paycheck. Personally, I would be damned happy to collect Ms. Evan’s paycheck even for half-a-year. Shame on her and her cohorts and the demagoguery of their Republican counterparts. Thank God we have a real adult in Gov. Brown.
“He’s essentially making himself the 121st legislator. I don’t think that’s what voters wanted when they passed Prop. 25.”
Maybe so, Senator Evans, but neither did they want the sham budget you passed. The spirit of the law clearly envisions a meaningful budget, not just some mindless drivel. Get back to work.
Evans and Allen did their jobs. The result, many don’t like the result. It is what it is as they say.
Liberals live in a land of make believe where all you do is vote as your union masters wish, worry about the wicked witch of the east, the governor and tell everyone it was hard, but we did our part to save California.
Is any of this true? No, but that is the headline from Sacramento, the land of OZ.
Meanwhile back at the ranch the spending, debt and the downward spiral of a once great and grand state continue to go on and with no adult in charge the frat house party goes on and on.
A one party state is never a good idea especially one that believes in all power to the politican and bureaucrat. Who is losing here, we the citizens trying to pay the bills and live our lives.
The intent of the bill was not to pass a budget with a partisan vote that effectively does nothing as to balancing income vs expenses. Rather, Ms. Evans, Mr. Huffman, and Mr. Allen- we want you to do your job and pass a balanced budget based upon realistic state income and honest state expenditures. Not that tough. If it is-get out.
Poor Noreen. Somebody might be crying a river for her. But it’s not me.
Franky, if I was the one writing Prop 25 I would have done the “no budget / no pay” but also would have kept the 2/3 majority to pass. Then our elected representatives(?) would be forced to get along and do their jobs or Never be paid.
As it is, the Dems have a controlling majority; they can do anything they want. But even with full control they still can’t come up with an acceptable budget! They fail all by themselves and blame the Repubs for the failure!
Noreen, here is a tip to help you get started: Cut the payroll of every state employee 15%. None of this “furlough” junk, the taxpayers are expecting fulltime services, not part time employees. Don’t give me any of that “we have to be competitive” crap. Nobody is going to quit the gravy-train, not even you. Make the cuts permanent, non-retroactive.
I don’t want to see anyone loose their home over this, or (heaven forbid) have to cut back on their Starbucks double-latte budget. So let the employee decide what to forfiet to keep their job: Take home pay (mortgage) or benefits (retirement).
While they may not be prohibited under the express wording of Proposition 25, in that they delivered a budget to Gov. Brown by close of business on June 15th, they most certainly didn’t earn their pay. They used accounting gimmicks and wishful fortune telling tactics to create a totally worthless budget. They know it and have admitted as much. They should be ashamed to collect their salary under those circumstances. I’m so sick of people blaming a minority of Republican representatives for this mess. The democratic controlled politics got just about every proposition passed that they put forth claiming it would get us a balanced budget in a timely manner. Well, it hasn’t, and blaming a minority of the people in Sacramento, who are doing exactly what they’ve indicated they would do from the beginning, shows just why this state is in this situation, narrow vision and voters who keep voting in the same people regardless of their record/conduct. So, keep voting for Ms. Evans and Mr. Allen and all the rest and we will keep getting this shameful work product that affects all of us, but this is one vote the status quo won’t be getting.
Don’t like the pay and requirements of your cushy job? Quit. No one will miss you.
Give me a break! This was a sham from the start just so the Democrats would not miss a paycheck. If the Republicans were in on this scam they deserve our scorn as well.
Dear Noreen Evans
I am appalled you would be concerned with your pay when so many of your constituents have been out of work for months
I am disappointed that you would vote against revenue to the tune of more than 100 million dollars
Small towns depend on seasonal income, yet you approved a five year extension on SB670 affectively closing down many businesses/manufacture and income for many of your constituents
I rely on this to supplement my income, without this form of income I will have to give up my home and shut down my business
I will become a US citizen this year and I will vote
Do they have to be paid based on technicalities, don’t know. Should they be paid based on their performance and the intent of Prop. 25, heck no! Ms. Evans DO YOUR JOB!
Another poke at Evans and Allen for your Tea Partiers to go into a feeding frenzy and increase your hits. How Lame is this? Meanwhile your paper continues to ignore the scandal of the Santa Rosa “Pro Business Majority buying the Police And Fire endorsement with THEIR budget machinations…and by making us pay more for parking. Where are the repeated articles and comments on this?
Fact is the Democrats did what the law required and they deserve their pay. The people who have refused to work or to even allow US to vote on whether we want tax extensions are the Republicans.
They have done nothing but fold arms and say “No” to everyting? How can you reason or work with people like that? They are the ones who should not get paychecks!
Brown gets a grade of A. Evans and Allen can get no grade other than F.
The cynicism of Evans and Allen in believing that passing a sham budget meets their legal obligation under Prop 25 will be hard to top.
Are the voters paying attention?