Republican Lawsuit Over Legislative Counsel’s Budget Dismissed

A Superior Court judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit that claimed that lawmakers manipulated the budget of the Legislature’s legal adviser to avoid the voter-approved cuts of Proposition 140.

Judge James T. Ford said the Republican-backed lawsuit prompted concerns about involving the judiciary in the internal operations of the legislative branch of government. That is a potential breach of the separation of powers, he said.

“This poses grave risks for the government of the state,” Ford said.

Backers of the lawsuit immediately announced that they would appeal the decision.

Two years ago, the Pacific Legal Foundation filed the suit on behalf of former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, accusing the Democrat-controlled Legislature of illegally removing the budget of the legislative counsel’s office from the spending limits imposed by Proposition 140.

That initiative, authored by Schabarum and approved in 1990, cut lawmakers’ budgets, eliminated their retirement fund and limited their terms of office. The Legislature, with 120 members and about 1,700 workers, cut its $176-million annual budget to $114 million, a $62-million reduction.

But Schabarum said lawmakers improperly protected the legislative counsel’s budget--about $50 million--from the provisions of the initiative. The lawsuit asked that the office’s budget be included when computing the Proposition 140 cuts.