Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Page 7
AFFAIRS OF STATE (Column)
Lawmakers Squandering Precious Time and Money
By DAVID KLINE
The state government is in its worst financial situation ever. The budget is about $30 billion out of balance, the state’s credit rating has been downgraded, and the money problems are compounding every day.
So our highly paid state lawmakers have put everything else on the back burner, and are focused exclusively on balancing the budget to protect taxpayers and preserve programs for the indigent, right?
Nope.
Things in the Legislature are moving along just as they did in the surplus years. Just like every other year, lawmakers are dragging their feet on the budget and refusing to take serious action until it gets close to the July 1 start of the next fiscal year.
Instead of introducing a budget bill and a dozen or so trailer bills to address what should be their only concern this year, lawmakers are debating thousands of superfluous bills that will be utterly meaningless if the state government can’t pay its employees and vendors.
California’s 40 state senators have introduced 1,091 bills so far this session. The 80 Assembly members have introduced 1,753 bills. On top of that, lawmakers have proposed 23 constitutional amendments and 97 non-binding resolutions.
Some of the bills address legitimate concerns of California residents, but most are completely unnecessary, especially in our current economic state.
For example, legislation has been introduced to create a special San Francisco 49ers license plate (SB 49), to create a license plate jointly honoring Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. (AB 62), to name an official “state tall ship” (AB 965) and to ban pet shops from possessing or selling unweaned birds (AB 202).
Other bills would put the state in charge of regulating car washes, with all the attendant red tape, paperwork and new fees (AB 1688); allow people to sue for up to $4,000 in pain-and-suffering damages if someone’s negligence kills their dog or cat (SB 225); require licensing and regulation of animal nutritionists (AB 329); and state the Legislature’s intent to spend money on new materials to teach “California labor history” in the public schools (AB 1177).
The proposals—all of which can be read online at www.leginfo.ca.gov—also would make it a punishable offense to smoke in your own apartment or condo if neighbors complain about drifting smoke (AB 210); require that all new swimming pools be equipped with motion-sensing alarms (AB 24); and require state tourism officials to promote sites in ethnic minority communities (AB 287).
Additional bills seek to ban public schools from using Indian-related team names (AB 858); make it a crime for a veterinarian to declaw a cat (AB 395); and require every service station in the state to have a public restroom (AB 830).
Some of the most ridiculous proposals involve school cuisine. Lawmakers, many of whom are overweight from bad eating habits, believe they know best when it comes to what youngsters should and shouldn’t eat on campus. So they have proposed legislation to ban the sale of carbonated beverages on school grounds (SB 677); require that school vending machines “contain at least as many dispensing slots for health beverages as unhealthy beverages” (SB 678); and require any vending machine on state property “to satisfy the requirement that at least 50 percent of the food and beverages offered ... meets accepted nutritional guidelines” (SB 74).
The lawmakers need a reminder that if they don’t get serious about stanching the fiscal bleeding and balancing the budget, the schools won’t be able to buy books and pay teachers, let alone police students’ caloric intake.
Then again, if California’s lawmakers knew how to focus on responsible budgeting instead of squandering time and money on social engineering and micromanaging, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
2003, Capitol News Service
Copyright 2003, Metropolitan News Company