Executive and Legislative Capitol Budgets
Rumor has it Governor Brown plans to cut his Governor’s Office budget by 25% which will no doubt put pressure on the Legislature to do the same, but the Legislative branch differs in many ways from the Executive.
If Governor Brown cuts his office budget, much of the work could be transferred to various agencies which operate under the governor’s control. The Legislature does not have the resources of the vast state bureaucracy with which to work.
Further, the Legislature has an oversight responsibility over the administration. While governors understandably chafe at Legislative oversight, it is a necessary function of our system of checks and balances. The Legislature would be completely unable to exercise its oversight role without the necessary resources to do so.
In addition, a substantial cut to the Legislative Analyst’s Office during this unprecedented fiscal crisis, would leave the LAO less able to advise the Legislature, thus hindering the Legislature's ability to work with Governor Brown as a full and equal partner in addressing the state’s fiscal needs. Cutting Legislative Counsel would handicap the Legislature in the same manner.
From an historical perspective, the Legislature already sustained a 50% cut, much larger than the supposed 25% being proposed by the governor for his operations. California voters enacted Proposition 140 in 1990 which, in addition to creating legislative term limits, capped legislative office spending. Office expenditures dropped nearly 40 percent in the following session. This cap on spending for legislative offices is still in place today. The legislature has also cut its spending by an additional 10 percent over the past couple of years. Thus, the size of legislative operations is effectively already only 50 percent what it would have been absent Proposition 140. The governor’s operations have not sustained similar reductions.
The combined budgets for the Legislature and the Governor’s Office are 1.4% of the budget problem we faced in 2010. Firing every staffer in the Capitol, eliminating all pay to legislators, turning off the lights and walking away would have brought us 1.4% closer to closing our budget gap in 2010. However, having an empty capitol would certainly impede our ability to represent the interests of ordinary Californians who do not have access to the horseshoe.
As we move into 2011 budget negotiations all options must be on the table. But it is going to take more than symbolic cuts to balance our budget and it is going to take all of our dedication to ensure we get it done responsibly and on time.
