Partisan Cuts

In an effort to reduce state spending, Proposition 76 "grants the Governor substantial new authority to unilaterally reduce state spending during certain fiscal situations." This "new authority" allows the Governor to:

(1) declare a fiscal emergency based on his or her administration’s fiscal estimates, and
(2) unilaterally reduce spending when an agreement cannot be reached on how to address the emergency.

Once the Governor declares a fiscal emergency, the Legislature must be called into special session. From there, the Legislature is given little over than a month to write, vote on, and enact legislation for the purpose of resolving the fiscal emergency that the Governor called. If the legislature cannot enact a new law in time, then the Governor is given the authority to use his own judgement to reduce state spending.

What this all means is that Prop 76 gives an unprecedented amount of power to the Governor to spend or save as he will. In a perfect world, this would not be a problem, for the Governor would be a bi-partisan, all-knowing leader with fair judgement when it comes to finances. Of course, it's not a perfect world, and Prop 76 gives a single person too much subjective power over the state's wallet. California's declared fiscal emergencies and, consequentially, the financial areas that will receive cuts, will depend entirely on who the Governor and his party is at the time of the declaration.

In addition to that, the Governor is not held accountable to anyone for where he spends or cuts California's money. He's certainly not entitled to notify the Legislature, one of the people's only sources to advocate change through. His power overrides the Legislature, thus undermining California's system of checks and balances.

It is interesting to note that while some, such as the League of Women Voters of California hold a similar stance, others, such as Daniel Weintraub from the Sacramento Bee, warn that rejecting this proposition, with or without its implied constitutional amendments, means the inevitable: raised taxes.