California lawmakers keep breaking records.
Earlier this month, the Legislature surpassed the mark for state budget futility.
Now Californians have given their legislators the worst rating in recorded state history.
A Field Poll released Thursday showed only 15 percent of registered voters give the 120 lawmakers passing marks, while 73 percent disapprove of their job performance.
"This is the lowest job (approval) rating recorded for anybody from any institution," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the 62-year-old Field Poll. "No one has ever gotten this low. Even Richard Nixon."
The record budget standoff – now 74 days into the fiscal year – clearly has contributed to the Legislature's slide in the eyes of the public, DiCamillo said. Eighty-two percent say the budget impasse is a "very serious" problem, up from 68 percent in July.
Republicans are pushing a plan of mostly cuts and borrowing to close the $15.2 billion deficit, while Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are backing plans that include cuts and tax increases. No plan has come close to receiving the needed bipartisan, two-thirds vote necessary for approval.
Poll respondents disagreed over which specific approach to take, although more than 60 percent – including a majority of tax-averse Republicans – backed one of the plans that includes tax increases.
There was little disagreement, however, on the question of the Legislature's performance.
Overwhelming disapproval covered the board – Democrats, Republicans, nonpartisans, men, women, Northern Californians, Southern Californians, homeowners, renters, voters over 50, voters under 30, voters of all races.
"When I worked, if I had done this poor of a job, I would have been fired or had charges brought up against me," said Sacramento's Richard Fuller, a retired engineer for the state Department of Transportation contacted by pollsters, and a registered Republican. "I don't like an increase in the sales tax or any tax, but we are in debt, and I think everybody should have to pay for it."
The previous low approval mark for lawmakers came in July 2003, according to the Field Poll, when 19 percent gave them passing grades. That poll also came during a prolonged budget battle, but the Legislature ultimately resolved its differences on July 29.
"We've seen this before, but they're just so intractable right now," said poll respondent Shirley Link, a Democrat from Sacramento. "This is getting to the point of being inexcusable and unfathomable."
Assembly Speaker Karen Bass blamed the state's 75-year-old requirement for a two-thirds vote to pass a budget as "a built-in impediment to getting the things done that we should." She also slammed the Republican governor for (making) "us the scapegoat for his inability to get votes from legislators of his own party."
"I understand the frustration out there," Bass said in a statement. "I'm frustrated too."
Frustration with lawmakers is unlikely to fuel a huge throw-the-bums-out mentality at the polls on Nov. 4, however, with the vast majority of incumbents comfortably nestled in districts dominated by voters of their own party.
Link said she would consider voting against one of her legislators, Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, but added that "I'd be a little hesitant, because I do like him."
Nonetheless, DiCamillo said, the rock-bottom ratings provide a fertile electorate "for all kinds of reform" of the Legislature at the ballot box.
Jim Wunderman, president of the San Francisco-based Bay Area Council, a business group, recently called for a constitutional convention to overhaul the state's budgeting and tax systems, among other things.
Changes to the budgeting process would come none too soon for Lacian Henderson, a retired paralegal from Roseville and a registered independent.
"Maybe the budget is (debated) in the wrong place," she sighed Thursday. "The Legislature is obviously not savvy enough to do this on their own. And that's not a Republican or Democratic comment. That's about all of them."
Call Bee Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Smith, (916) 321-5249.
