[img]7|left|||no_popup[/img]The legislature has finally done it – passed a budget. (http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-budget25-2009jul25,0,7575547.story) And yet as far as victories go, this one feels rather Pyrrhic – a lot of people are going to suffer from all the cuts, especially since they weren’t softened by some tax increases to make up for lost revenue. While two controversial provisions just asking for lawsuits – oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and some aspects of robbing the municipal Peters to pay the state Paul – were defeated, there are rumblings of other lawsuits and state worker strikes in protest of the furloughs. In other words, it’s not over yet. But assuming that the issue is relatively closed and the crisis has passed, the question is: What now?

Fixing a dysfunctional government is, of course, at the top of the list of things to do to avoid this sort of budgetary quagmire in the future. Whatever the merits of the deal reached, approval of the budget isn’t really a triumph for anyone because it doesn’t fix the core problem. Fundamental proposals include removing the 2/3 majority voting requirements and reforming California’s proposition system. But is reforming the proposition system enough? Maybe it’s time to go back to the drawing board, repeal all budget- and tax-related propositions, including 13 and 98, and craft a new budget and tax structure that is sensibly adapted to the needs of today’s California population. Don’t get me wrong; I think Prop. 13’s limitations on property taxes are very beneficial. After all, if taxes are based on market value and a home’s market value explodes far beyond the original purchase price, the scenario of homeowners being priced out of their own homes isn’t far-fetched. So the key to throwing the bathwater out is to make sure the baby isn’t also flushed out. The moral is: We shouldn’t let the fear of flushing away the little tyke stop us from cleaning up when we need to.

Questions to Ponder

Oh, I know, the task is daunting, and starting from scratch would mean a messy ideological debate on how to rebuild the state. How perverse is it, however, that it’s easier to put band-aids on the band-aids instead of scrapping the whole thing and starting fresh? Perhaps a California-wide project, carried out over a few years, could solicit opinions and data from across the state and culminate in a summit in which the best ideas are put together. Whatever plan is created wouldn’t need to be implemented in a single, system-shocking swoop but in a phased manner. The questions for the project would be:

What should the California budget look like?

How should taxes be structured to be fair and progressive to both individuals and businesses?

What other avenues are open to generating and/or saving funds, e.g. legalizing and taxing marijuana and reducing the number of non-violent offenders housed in prisons?

What incentives and punishments should be put in place to persuade lawmakers to enact budgets in a timely manner…and without major deficit spending?

For all that it is a Herculean task, I’m not sure how many more times California can go through these ridiculous protracted budget negotiations, flirt with total meltdown, and squeak by at the last minute. It’s not enough to whip politicians into getting the job done – they’ll get the job done but with results of questionable quality. A willingness to scorch the earth, so to speak, may help. Just as politicians who don’t perform should be voted out of office, a system that doesn’t work should be scrapped and re-designed.

Frédérik Sisa invites you to visit www.inkandashes.net.