May 6, 2009 7:35 pm US/Pacific
Calif. Senate Leader Aiming For Legislative Reform
SACRAMENTO (AP) ―
State Senate leader Darrell Steinberg promised Wednesday to seek legislative reforms after the May 19 special election, steps that potentially could include lowering the two-thirds vote threshold for tax increases.
"You should never waste a good crisis," he said, paraphrasing President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. "Shame on us if we don't take advantage of this historical time to reform."
The Legislature's plan to bridge a $42 billion budget deficit depends on voters approving five ballot measures during the May 19 special election.
Democrats hold the majority in both houses of the Legislature but said they had to put several key provisions on the ballot to persuade enough Republican lawmakers to go along with the budget deal. California requires a two-thirds vote to pass spending plans and tax increases, joining Rhode Island as the only states to do so.
His comments came 10 days after California Democratic Party delegates approved a resolution supporting an initiative on a future ballot to repeal the two-thirds majority vote.
Steinberg said giving the majority party unbridled power to raise taxes would not have solved the state's budget problems this year, nor is it the only reform needed.
"Even if we had the power, you can't raise taxes $40 billion," Steinberg said. "That wouldn't be right and that wouldn't be feasible."
Steinberg supports lowering the current two-thirds legislative vote requirement. He also might propose changes for local governments, which also are required to get approval from two-thirds of voters to raise most taxes. Under Proposition 39, approved in 2000, increases to school taxes require support from 55 percent of local voters.
Senate Democrats will consider a number of potential reforms this summer. They could include altering California's voter initiative process, supporting some recommendations from a commission that is examining California's tax structure and changing state budgeting to a two-year, rather than annual, process.
Steinberg, who assumed the Senate's top post last fall, said legislators must show they can produce solutions on water supply, renewable energy, education and other core issues before they can expect voters to overturn the two-thirds vote requirement, which would have to go to the ballot.
"We will have a chance at two-thirds (changes) when we produce more here for the people," Steinberg said.
California's two-thirds requirement to pass a budget dates to a 1933 initiative that combined the requirement with a spending cap. The cap was later dropped.
Voters extended the two-thirds requirement to tax increases with Proposition 13 in 1978. In 2004, they defeated Proposition 56, which would have reduced the number of legislators needed to pass the annual budget from two-thirds to 55 percent.
"It's no surprise that the two-thirds vote remains very popular with California voters because they recognize it as a check against unreasonable taxes and unreasonable spending," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "If he serves it up, we'll crush it. I think it's a complete waste of time."
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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