Lost in the coverage of the Republicans’ Congressional gains on
November 2 was the fact that the party won some 675 state
legislative seats across the country, its best showing since
1928.
Along with several newly elected governors, the GOP
snatched 20 legislative houses from the Democrats. Going into the
every-ten-year redistricting cycle next year, they will fully
control the process in 13 states with a total of 165 House of
Representatives districts, while Democrats will control only four
with 40 districts.
A favorable redistricting climate may yield more
Republican seats down the road. Meanwhile, however, many of these
states are facing dire budget problems and the new power of the
Republicans means they will have to make choices that cause
politicians to wince: slash spending or raise
taxes.
Two fully “blue” states, California and New York, probably
face the most serious fiscal difficulties. In California, for
example, the Republicans won not a single statewide constitutional
office and actually lost one legislative seat from their minority
delegations. Nevertheless, there are rays of hope coming through
that dark cloud.
For four decades, the Democrats have controlled the
California legislature. Back when Jerry Brown was first governor in
the late 1970s, he signed an executive order permitting state
employee unions to engage in collective bargaining. Thus began an
era of growing clout for these unions and they are now the state’s
most powerful special interest. Many Democrat lawmakers owe their
electoral success to the deep pockets of these unions. The result
has been very generous pension plans and comfy salary increases for
the union workers. The cost of these form a major part of the
state’s precarious financial position.
Over the years, the only thing the Republican minority
could do was to play boy-with-his-finger-in-dike over passage of
the annual state budget. The constitution required a two-thirds
vote of both houses for passage. Republicans had just enough
members to hold up budgets to prevent balancing by way of new taxes
in a state with already high ones.
This changed with the November election. A successful
ballot initiative measure replaced the two-thirds vote with a
simple majority. At first glance, it looked as if Democrats, who
are especially averse to reducing costs, could envision quick
passage of the next budget by means of new taxes and accounting
gimmicks.
Yet here is the silver lining in the cloud that looked so
dark for fiscal conservatives:
Although the budget may now be passed by a simple majority
vote, Proposition 26 — also successful — still requires a
two-thirds vote on any new taxes that are
involved.
In a state where, for years, too many demands have been
chasing too few dollars, the legislative majority has found it
tempting to say “yes” to all of the demands. Two ways the state has
managed to pay for this has been to withhold or snatch back county
and city funds, on the one hand, and calling new taxes “user fees,”
on the other. No more, Proposition 22 — another successful ballot
measure — prevents the state from snatching local funds. And,
under Prop. 26, taxes may no longer be disguised as “user
fees.”
With iron-clad majorities in both houses of the
legislature and all the elected statewide offices, the Democrats
now have full responsibility for balancing the budget — and on
time (or their pay is docked). Is this the bucket of cold water the
once Golden State’s legislature has needed? It could be and if it
succeeds it may be a harbinger for other spendthrift
states.
