August 22, 2007

Denham's list

Sen. Jeff Denham, targeted for a recall by Democrats because of his refusal to vote for the budget, proposes eight measures that he says would make a timely budget more likely. In a letter to the governor, Denham suggests getting an earlier start and withholding, permanently, the pay of legislators for as long as a budget is late. He also suggests expanding the conference committee and requiring a two-thirds vote in budget subcommittees to flesh out the points of conflict that later lead to stalemates. His list:

1) Put some real teeth into the Constitutional deadlines, such as requiring both the Senate and Assembly to remain in session around the clock beginning on June 15, if a budget has not been sent to the Governor;

2) Formalize a process for automatic emergency appropriations after July 1st (similar to what Senator Maddy authored in 1998 and what I offered on August 1st of this year) so that the needy don’t suffer during budget stalemates;

3) Cut the pay (with no chance of recovering it later) of all Legislators for every day a key deadline (such as June 15) is missed and only reinstate future pay once the budget is sent to the Governor;

4) Require the Legislative Analyst to be the determining official as to whether the Governor has “submitted a balanced budget” in January, and cut the pay of the Governor until he/she submits a budget that meets the requirement;

5) Strengthen the Budget Conference Committee system by increasing the membership to ten members (with five from each house with at least two minority party members from each house);

6) Require the minority party caucus in each house to formally choose their two conferees;

7) Change the vote threshold of the Budget Conference Committee to be that of 2/3 so that potential problems between parties are resolved in the committee process, rather than letting them fester until they become stalemates when they hit the Floor;

8) Start the Budget Conference Committee hearing process soon after the Governor submits the budget in January – items can be left open for final committee votes soon after the May Revise is submitted.

Posted by dweintraub on August 22, 2007 4:29 PM