Shock waves from California’s May 19 special election have
produced The Stuck Pig phenomenon and the Quiet as Church Mice
phenomenon. The first affects all the constituencies that now
realize that threatened budget cuts are about to become real. The
second describes the legislators of the Democratic majority in
Sacramento, struck dumb by the voters’ 2-to-1 rejection of five
ballot measures intended to balance the state’s budget.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger went up and down the state before
the election, warning that the sky would fall if the five
measures didn’t pass. They didn’t and the sky is now falling. As
many as 200 of 279 state parks may close. Social service programs
will be scaled back. Several thousand state workers may be
terminated and the rest subject to salary cuts and furloughs. The
University of California, long used to setting high salary and
perk standards for itself, may be reined in.
The reaction of affected constituencies has been to howl like
stuck pigs. “It’s just insane,” said a Sierra Club officer of the
state park closures. “We’re getting eviscerated,” said a county
health director about the cuts in social services programs.
Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the legislative majority, so used to
trumpeting its spending programs in order to please particular
constituencies (especially public employee unions, collectively
the state’s largest, most powerful special interest), has been
stunned into silence. The voters handed them their heads by
drubbing the ballot measures. This stew consisted of “temporary”
tax increases, borrowing against future lottery revenue and
shifting dedicated funds here and there. A sixth measure,
prohibiting salary raises of elected officials in deficit years,
passed by 70 percent.
The governor understood what the voters were saying. He
immediately withdrew a request for a federal loan of $5 billion,
saying that the order of the day was “Cuts, cuts, cuts.”
Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein echoed this when she said
that spending cuts were the only way to solve the $24 billion
budget shortfall.
In time the howling of the stuck pigs will abate and the
legislators will find their voices, but the sharp cuts will only
solve the problem for the fiscal year that begins July 1, leaving
in place the basic problem, which is that for years too many
demands have been chasing too few dollars.
California relies heavily on income tax revenues and its rates
are among the nation’s highest. There are inevitable boom and
bust cycles. The boom revenues have been too tempting to the
legislators, so they’ve haven’t saved to cover the busts.
The initiative process has added to the fiscal burden. Once
considered a good example of democracy in action, in recent years
it has been heavily overused. People with pet causes and fat
wallets gather enough signatures to put on the ballot measures
that are often ill-considered. They often lock in budgets for the
pet causes, giving the legislature even less flexibility in
allotting the state’s general fund.
The state is saddled with overly-generous contracts for state
workers and, as demands for programs have been met with program
expansion, the work force has expanded. The legislative majority
has benefited from campaign contributions from the public
employee unions. No wonder its members have been so silent. They
hate to say “no” to their benefactors.
The legislature has been gerrymandered so incumbents of both
parties are rendered nearly challenge-proof. There is a glimmer
of hope here. In 2008, voters approved a new redistricting
method, taking it away from the legislature and putting it in the
hands of a non-partisan citizen commission. This will take effect
after the 2010 census.
Meanwhile, the only thing that has kept the spendthrift
legislative majority from ratcheting up taxes to feed its habit
has been the intransigence of the minority to vote for such
budgets. The state constitution requires a two-thirds vote for
budget passage.
California’s structural problems could be corrected by a
constitutional convention, the first since 1879. Some civic
groups are calling for one. To work, however, it must have a
narrow agenda and a truly disinterested membership.
In 1850 the new state adopted as its motto, “Eureka.” That’s
Greek for “I have found it.” Early pioneers thought they had,
indeed, found Eden. Latter-day Californians thought Eden would
never end and that money would always be found to continue its
pleasures. Today, however, there is no more “Eureka.”
(Mr. Hannaford was assistant to the governor and
director of public affairs in the governor’s office when Ronald
Reagan was governor of California.)
