SACRAMENTO-
Mark your calendars – June 14, both Assembly and Senate passed a balanced California state budget – all without pizza boxes on the Senate floor, without late night debates and without bleary-eyed press conferences at the bear statue in front of the Governor’s office.
It’s only the third time since 1986 that the legislature has passed a budget by or before the constitutional deadline of June 15.
The first reason is obvious. After years of cuts and an influx of cash from Proposition 30, the Golden State is in the black.
“We’ve got an economy that’s beginning to come back, our revenue picture is not as bleak as it was,” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance.
For the other reasons the budget is all buttoned by deadline, you have to think back to election day’s past. In November 2012, California voters put a supermajority in both houses, meaning Democrats have the votes to pass whatever they want despite total opposition from Republicans in the legislature.
“That is very significant because I have never believed a minority of the people’s representatives have the ability to delay for weeks and for months the most important bill we pass every year, the state budget,” said State Senator Darrell Steinberg, (D) – Sacramento.
Most importantly though, may be Proposition 25, passed by California voters in 2010. It changed the threshold to pass a budget from two-thirds of the legislature to a simple majority.
Then there’s the motivation no one wants to talk about, the other half of Prop. 25, which withholds legislator pay if there isn’t a balanced budget passed and on the governor’s desk by June 15.
“There’s something much more important than pay and that is pride. Pride in getting the people’s work done on time,” Steinberg said.
For a list of dates when California passed a budget, click here.