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OPINION
California Legislature serves up leftovers in 2012
by Rebecca Burgoyne
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Legislators returned to the Sacramento Capitol Jan. 4, and lots of past issues remain on the table in an unusual election year. Change and uncertainty surround this year’s elections, with newly drawn legislative district lines causing some legislators to introduce themselves to a new set of voters. The new top-two election format means some legislators from the same party will face off on the general election ballot in November.
In an election year, legislators are more sensitive to how their actions and votes please or displease their constituents, and that brings uncertainty. They will vote with more of an eye to the voter—less willing to raise taxes or appear ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative—all with the hope of convincing voters that they are the man or woman for the job.
The budget, as it did last year, will consume much of the year. Although Gov. Jerry Brown has reduced the overall deficit, it is still expected to top $9 billion for the new fiscal year beginning in July. Brown will have a tough job convincing legislators to cut even deeper on the heels of last year’s painful cuts, but his preliminary 2012-13 budget reveals a need to continue to cut—and much deeper still should voters reject additional taxes on the November ballot.
Moreover, should legislators fail to demonstrate a “good-faith effort” in paring back spending from Sacramento, Brown’s desired $7 billion temporary tax initiative will have even less hope of passage. The success of Brown’s initiative also depends on convincing various interests to unite behind his proposal, delaying their own tax hikes to keep them off the November ballot. Currently, dozens of additional initiative proposals aimed at the November ballot could flood the ballot and confuse voters. Key controversial issues—among them pension reform, labor union power and the death penalty—may intensify policy debate among legislators.
Leftover issues from previously passed initiatives will resurface in the Legislature. A postponed pork-laden water bond, originally placed on the ballot in November 2010, is waiting to face voters on this year’s November ballot. With the current fiscal climate, the $11 billion price tag is probably still too high for voters, and legislators hope to trim it down.
Second, legislators must authorize bond sales to fund the bullet train proposal narrowly passed by voters in 2008. The proposal has been beset by controversy—cost estimates that have risen from $43 billion when passed to $98 billion today—and debates about route practicalities, completion estimates, compliance with the proposition and future funding sources. A December Field Poll found voters strongly favored a revote.
More gay rights bills
With openly homosexual Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, at the helm, a contingent of seven additional lesbian and homosexual legislators, and a legislative majority sympathetic to homosexual rights and worldview, nearly a dozen pro-homosexual bills were signed into law last year alone. That emphasis will continue this year.
On their first day back in the Capitol, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, gutted and amended a sports authority bill to require schools to permit students to participate in sex-segregated activities according to their chosen gender identity—not necessarily their biological one. Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, has also promised legislation to allow an estimated 3,000 California veterans, who were dishonorably discharged as homosexuals under the military’s now-abandoned Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, eligible for any state veteran benefits.
Sex abuse among the topics
In early January, legislators wasted no time introducing new bill proposals and hearing two-year bills, those bills held over from last year and which faced a Jan. 31 deadline to pass out of their houses of origin. On day one, nearly 200 bills were introduced—either as brand new bills or through the gut-and-amend process, a procedure in which legislators remove the language from a current bill and replace it with totally new wording, often on an entirely new subject. No fewer than four child-abuse reporting proposals—spawned by the Penn State football scandal—were among the bill introductions.
While it may be a new year, the issues and modus operandi of California legislators seem to be stuck in 2011. However, if they hope to gain favor with California voters—most of whom rate their performance as abysmal—they will have to mend their ways and accomplish some real change for California. If they continue to serve up leftovers and can’t come up with something new, they cannot hope that voters will vote for them in November.
Burgoyne is a research analyst with the California Family Council.
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