What Took So Long to Get a Budget? Blame Everyone

SACRAMENTO

Inept. Irresponsible. Inexcusable.

Stubborn. Shameless.

Chaotic. Cowardly.

This certainly does not exhaust the list of apt pejoratives for our Legislature and governor. Let’s just say the elected representatives failed miserably in performing what annually is their most important task: enacting a timely state budget.

Timely, so that school districts, county hospitals, food vendors and service centers for the disabled, for example, don’t have to spend their summer agonizing about when--and how much--they’ll be reimbursed. Or worrying about how to plan because the state Capitol is numbed in gridlock.

Vacillating.

Arrogant.

Pathetic.

Finally, 62 days into the state’s fiscal year--and 77 days after the Legislature’s constitutional deadline--the Assembly anticlimactically passed a $98-billion state budget Saturday night. The Senate passed a budget June 29 and went on vacation for a month.

It’s the 13th time in 16 years that a budget has not been enacted until after the start of the new fiscal year, July 1.

Whose fault is this? Practically everybody’s.

Minority Republicans whined all summer that the Democratic governor refused to negotiate with them. They were right.

One theory is that covering a $24-billion budget shortfall would be so ugly that Gov. Gray Davis decided to stay out of the picture as long as possible.

He also wanted to avoid the cheap shots of Republicans during an election year. He didn’t, of course.

Another theory is that Davis--unlike predecessor Pete Wilson--really isn’t versed in budget details and might embarrass himself. He might also give away the store to Republicans, aides reportedly felt.

Yet another: If Davis reinstated the old “Big 5” meetings with the two party leaders from each house, he’d have to spend quality time with volatile, salty Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), his nemesis.

There’s probably some truth to all these conjectures.

“As for [my being] missing in action, the media puts too much emphasis on meetings,” Davis told reporters Sunday. He did, after all, propose one budget in January and revise it in May, offering tax increases and spending cuts. And billions in budget-balancing fund transfers and borrowing gimmicks.

Granted, a governor should not have to baby-sit a Legislature. A Legislature should be capable of writing and passing bills, even budgets. It’s the governor’s job to sign or veto them.

But in the real world of term limits, with legislative neophytes licensed as leaders, a little hand-holding by the chief executive usually is prudent and productive.

Moreover, when the governor is invited to intrude into the legislative process, this is his priceless opportunity to fill a power vacuum created by term limits. What Pat Brown or Ronald Reagan wouldn’t have given for such openings!

Besides, what matters most in any Capitol is to matter--to be relevant, to be in the game. Davis never gave Republicans that opportunity. Neither did Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) until the end.

Remember the Assembly lineup: Democrats 50, Republicans 30. Budget votes needed: 54.

Republicans don’t know what they want, Democrats whimpered for months. They have no end-game.

It’s true, the GOP mantra quickly got tiresome and trite: “We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.” The Republicans’ problem was that they refused to follow up their rhetoric with enough proposed spending cuts to balance the budget.

But the reason Democrats could not understand what the GOP wanted is because they never listened. What the Republicans wanted were face-saving outs. Wesson finally wised up.

The single biggest contributor to budget gridlock was the Republican fear of voting for a tax increase. It wasn’t so much ideological as political: They were deathly afraid of getting beaten in some future GOP primary.

Won’t vote for a tax increase? Fine. Increase tax revenues by $2.4 billion and call it “revenue enhancements.” Bingo: Four GOP votes.

Insist on “restructuring” state spending to avoid future deficits. Fine. Then create a commission “to address structural budget problems.”

Need the vote of Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge)? Place on the 2004 ballot his proposal to divert more general-fund money into building projects.

Legislators won’t make the last $750 million in spending cuts? Fine. Shovel off the dirty work to Davis. Call the cuts “unallocated.”

Somebody please explain why these innovative solutions could not have been dreamed up two months ago.

Right now, the most pleasing word that describes the Legislature is “adjourned.”