Californias Late Budget Blame it on the Legislature essays

California's Late Budget Blame it on the Legislature essays Given the fury with which many oppose the existence of a state governor who was once (perhaps still, depending on whom one talks to), more muscle than brains, one might imagine that it would be easy to blame the dreadful tardiness of California's budget on the buffoonery of the man at the top. Be that as it may, the record of the Legislature makes such a Yes, Governor Schwarzenegger does present a promising target for pundits and regular folks alikeperhaps in some ways justifiedhowever as a fall guy for the state's budget problems, the terminator simply does not fit the perp-profile. Instead, one has but to shift one's focus toward one of the only state legislatures in this great union that takes a nearly impossible bipartisan cooperation to approve a state budget. You see, whereas a full forty seven other states pass budgets with a majority vote of the Legislature, California is one of just three hopelessly misguided states to require its legislature to approve the budget by a two-thirds vote of both houses. The problem with this is a simple matter of minority rulethat is in the California Legislature, it takes only one-third of its legislators to dig in their special-interest- heavy heels to hold up the entire process. All one has to do to appreciate the magnitude of the Legislature's role in the current budget crisis is to note its history of performance during the last twenty-eight years. During that time, the Legislature missed its budget deadline a full twenty-two times. The simple truth is that the current state of the Legislature is not only responsible for the current budget catastrophe, but it is only too likely to be the cause of the next one. If the Governor is to blame in the minds of those who have yet to separate him from his movie roles, it is only in his inability to terminate t ...