When voters passed a union-backed measure last year to reduce the legislative vote on the state budget from two-thirds to a simple majority – thereby eliminating Republican leverage – skeptics said it could foster legislative mischief. Proposition 25 applied not only to the budget but "trailer bills" that the Legislature deemed necessary to implement the budget. And all budget bills would take effect immediately with a governor's signature, making any challenge via referendum legally doubtful. That legislative loophole, this column and other analysts pointed out, would make it easy to push major pieces of policy legislation through the Capitol with...