Not long ago, I wrote about the somewhat remarkable conduct of the Assembly’s ruling Democrat majority in denying Republicans the right to caucus during floor deliberations. But incredibly, they topped that discourtesy just a few days later in a “debate” over the state budget. This time, Republicans were not denied just the right to meet among ourselves. Rather, we – and every one of the millions of constituents we represent – were denied the right even to participate in any meaningful way in the budget discussion.
No subject is of more importance and interest around the state right now than the California budget. Indeed, I would bet that, at least before Arnold’s latest scandal, no single topic has been more covered in the press than the budget. So you would expect that the Assembly’s very first full Budget Committee meeting after the May revisions showed $6.6 billion in unanticipated revenue and immediately before the June 15 constitutional deadline to pass a budget would be a very open and deliberative meeting with considerable, robust debate between the committee members. You would be wrong.
Shortly after the committee convened, right in the middle of an important line of questioning of a witness from the governor’s Department of Finance by Republican Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, the committee chairman interrupted Ms. Harkey and just took the vote. That’s right, the Democratic committee chairman interrupted a Republican to take the very vote we were there to discuss before we had that discussion, heard all of the testimony, had all of our questions answered, or had even vetted all of the issues! On the single most important issue of the day, Democrats would not even afforded the GOP the right to meaningfully question the governor’s representative.
Now, what was the reason for this stunning behavior? The chairman explained that Democratic members of the committee had to catch flights out of town. They obviously didn’t want to miss those flights just listening to Republicans question the governor’s office about all the flaws in his plan. They didn’t want to miss their flights wasting time in some silly committee meeting (which, of course, the Democrats themselves had scheduled), when their votes weren’t going to change, regardless of what they might learn.
Sacramento has many times been figuratively likened to something out of Alice in Wonderland. But this was not figurative. It was literally out of Alice. The Queen of Hearts ordered execution first and then trial. Here, the governor’s budget proposal was on trial: We took the vote first, and then allowed Republicans to put it on trial, discuss it, debate it, question it . . . . But it was all for show. Democrats were already on their way to the airport.