July 30, 2003

The California power elite first gave us an illegal tripling of the car tax -- now it looks like they're about to give us an unconstitutional budget:

The California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from “fixing” the deficit with long-term bonds-unless the bonds are approved by a statewide vote of the people, Pacific Legal Foundation warned today. PLF’s Board of Trustees this week gave the organization authority to file a lawsuit against any new state budget that violates the constitution’s debt-limitation provisions, in particular the voter-approval requirements.

According to news reports, the budget proposals of both parties include as much as $10.7 billion in special “deficit bonds” to be retired over five years or longer. However, Article XVI, section I of the state Constitution prohibits the state from entering into a “debt” of more than $300,000 unless voters give their OK in a statewide election.

“It’s time for a constitutional reality check,” said PLF attorney Harold Johnson. “The governor and key legislators are overlooking the electorate’s role in the process. Everyone-Democrat and Republican alike-is talking about deficit bonds, but no one is talking about scheduling a vote to let the people say yes or no to those bonds. But ignoring the constitutional requirements won’t make them disappear. If the final budget includes multi-year debt-financing, there must be a popular vote on the bonds-or the politicians are buying themselves a lawsuit.”

-- Pacific Legal Foundation Press Release

And why are they doing all this? In order to generate the immense pile of cash the legislature has committed to the rich and powerful special interests groups who essentially own the state legislature -- and the Governor.

And it was exactly this sort of situation the progressives of the last century had in mind when they reformed the state government with such measures as the recall.

Posted by Greg Ransom