With time and money running out for California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency Monday and called legislators into a new special session that won’t end until they agree on a way to trim the state’s $11.2 billion budget deficit.
Seems like every time there’s a new story about this, the size of the deficit has gotten larger and the situation even more dire. There have been tremendous shortfalls in revenue and CalsPERS, the public pension fund, has lost huge amounts and by law, pensions must be funded at 100%. But no one knows where the money will come from.
Before they pass a budget, they should get something on the next ballot (if that’s the appropriate mechanism) to abolish this ridiculous and undemocratic 2/3 requirement to pass the budget. Then they should move on to the budget. If they don’t do the former first, they never will.