Full-Time Pay No Guarantee of Busy Legislature

Sacramento

Where is everybody? Where’s the Legislature? The governor? The Capitol’s practically deserted.

Didn’t the voters put these lawmakers on full-time pay 36 years ago?

The idea wasn’t just to jack up their salaries by nearly triple, which I always suspected, but to enable legislators to be more responsive to a constantly changing California. If this were a “full-time” Legislature, it could move at top speed in times of urgency.

Also -- so the pitch went -- lawmakers, with their greatly expanded staffs, wouldn’t need merely to await signals from the governor and implement his vision. They could act independently, using their own expertise.

Four decades later, legislative pay is up to $99,000. For leaders, it’s $113,850. Lawmakers also get $125 per diem, tax-free, seven days per week while in session.

Frankly, this bunch is no more responsive -- and it’s less independent -- than those old “part-time” legislatures. To be fair, term limits has caused a gradual deterioration of the institution. But that’s another column.

This column is about lethargic legislators moving at quarter-speed, waiting for the governor’s vision, while the state goes belly up.

What could be more urgent than staunching the bleeding of scarce tax dollars and finding enough revenue to, say, keep health clinics open, prisoners behind bars and disabled old people in nursing homes? School kids in manageable class sizes and college students in affordable universities?

“We’re very anxious,” says David Janssen, chief administrative officer for L.A. County. Already, he says, supervisors have cut $350 million in health services, closing 17 clinics. There’s still a $300-million shortfall. Hospitals in the Antelope Valley and Downey are threatened with closure.

Remember, 70% of the state’s general fund flows to local governments and schools.

Gov. Gray Davis has agreed to call a special legislative session on health care in January, concurrent with opening of the regular session. A special session allows expedited action.

Last week’s stunning announcement by nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill expedited everybody’s budget thinking, if not action.

Hill announced that the $99-billion, presumably balanced state budget Davis signed just 10 weeks earlier now is projected to run $6.1 billion in the red.

At this rate, she continued, the budget for the next fiscal year will be $21.1 billion short -- for projected general fund spending of $85 billion.

That follows this year’s original $23.6-billion shortfall, which was papered over largely with gimmicks.

Clearly, Hill noted, spending is badly out of kilter with revenues. She projected double-digit deficits far into the future even after the economy turns around.

The sooner this is resolved, the less pain for politicians and the public.

Definitely got to do something, the politicians agree. Maybe as soon as January or February, say ruling Democrats.

But why wait? “The governor ought to call us back into special session and we ought to start dealing with this immediately,” says Senate GOP Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga.

OK, it’s bad timing. The election was only two weeks ago and the winners are tired. Besides, this is a lame-duck Legislature -- in recess since Aug. 31 -- and the state Constitution forbids it from passing a bill after Nov. 15. The Constitution does not, however, forbid committees from delving and leaders from negotiating.

The new Legislature convenes Dec. 2 for a brief swearing-in ceremony. The lawmakers ought to be locked down and not allowed to leave until Christmas. They’re being paid. Get crackin’.

Davis has chatted on the phone with legislative leaders and invited them to meet with him this week to discuss options.

Here are my suggestions:

* Boost the vehicle license fee back to where it was before Davis took office. That generates $3.8 billion. Democrats can do it on a majority vote. A no-brainer.

* Schools are being paid $1.9 billion more than they’re entitled, Hill discovered. Grab back the money.

* Every couple with taxable income above $75,450 now pays the same 9.3% tax rate. Boost it to 10% at $260,000 and 11% at $520,000, as advocated by Senate Leader John Burton (D-San Francisco). Raises $3.3 billion. But this requires a two-thirds vote and Republicans balk.

* Medi-Cal recipients now update their eligibility annually. Require it quarterly, weed out fraud and save $150 million, Republicans contend. Fine. Do it.

* Get bold. Apply the sales tax to services -- like auto repairs, sports events, computer support. Engineering and lawyering. Political consulting. Maybe lower the tax rate and still raise billions.

This fiscal mess needs the attention of a full-time Legislature. Now.