2003-04 State Budget Final Vote
Senator Tom McClintock
Date: July 27, 2003
Publication Type: Press Release
This measure was approved by the California State Senate by a vote of 27 – 10 and sent to the Assembly. Senator McClintock voted no.
Three years ago, when the 2000 budget passed the legislature with overwhelming majorities, I warned that “If lawmakers don’t take a strong stand now to control spending, they are setting California up for very harsh choices and hard times just around the corner.”
Two years ago, when the 2001 budget was taken up in the Senate, I warned the continued absence of structural reforms in the budget would ratify policies that were bankrupting our finances.
Last year, when the 2002 budget was taken up in the Senate, I warned that the budget set in motion events that would require the next legislature to “address a continuing hemorrhage of red ink whit fewer options and a weakened economy.”
And today I tell you this: the budget now before us is a rotting porch just waiting to collapse.
It rests on two decayed pillars that cannot stand: the illegal tripling of the car tax and the illegal borrowing of billions of dollars for ongoing expenses without a vote of the people.
According to the office of the legislative counsel, the governor does not have the authority to raise this tax.
This action is now being challenged in court. And mark my words: the state will be ordered to refund this money – plus interest. If you pass a budget that spends this money –you have just blown a multi-billion dollar hole in future budgets.
The second rotting pillar of this porch is the borrowing of $13 billion for ongoing state obligations, in direct violation of Article 16 of the state constitution. It doesn’t matter what general fund revenue streams you dedicate to its repayment – it is a general obligation of this state and general obligation debt cannot be used for ongoing expenses and it must be submitted to the people.
And we have already been placed on notice that this action will be challenged in court. And it too will collapse.
I set only two requirements for my vote on this budget: it must be balanced and it must not require tax increases.
As to the first: I count some $13 billion of deficit spending – including the Davis deficit bond, the pension bond and the $1 billion raid on our highway funds. It is not balanced.
And as to the second: however you care to explain it or justify it, this budget is based on over $5 billion of new taxes -- $4 billion in car taxes, a half billion in manufacturer’s taxes, and a half billion in other taxes masquerading as fees. That’s an average of $575 of new taxes on every family in this state. It DOES require tax increases.
I believe Senator Brulte when he says that this is the best budget that he feels he could negotiate given the current membership of the legislature and the current structure of our service delivery systems.
But here’s the problem. The current structure of our service delivery systems is completely shot. You have to change those systems.
We can bridge that gap – but we have to be willing – right now – to close obsolete offices, eliminate agencies that have overlapping jurisdictions, decentralize service systems and restore local control over those systems. We have to allow state government to do what every household and business does everyday – shop around for the best service at the lowest price. We can no longer delay prevailing wage reform, welfare reform, medi-cal reform, workers compensation reform.
And every time that I – and others – have made these proposals we’ve been told– year in and year out – that there’s no time and we’ll talk about them next year.
I realize that we are taking some steps forward by finally moving ahead with BRAC and are at least talking about some structural reforms. But I’ve heard promises of bureaucratic reform before and they all go away once the budget is passed.
This might be the best the legislature can do. But it is nowhere close to the best that can be done and that needs to be done.
Mark my words: this budget solves nothing. It sets in motion still bigger deficits to come. The day that it is signed will be the first day of the budget crisis of 2004.
http://republican.sen.ca.gov/web/mcclintock/article_print.asp?PID=251Prescient.