Print ArticleSACRAMENTO – Assembly Budget Committee held a hearing on Assembly Constitutional Amendment 19, a budget reform measure co-authored by Assemblyman John J. Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes). After hearing testimony from Budget Committee Vice Chairman Assemblyman Roger Niello and several members of the public, the Budget Committee voted 10-13 to reject the measure.
"This defeat marks an unwillingness by the Legislature to tackle the root of our perpetual budget problems, a lack of fiscal discipline," remarked Assemblyman Benoit. "Unless we set a strict standard on spending growth, California state government will continue this disastrous pattern of spending beyond our means and looking to taxpayers to bail the state out."
ACA 19 would have put a check on the growth of state spending during periods of booming revenues and, instead, tuck that money into savings to guarantee stable funding in times of economic slowdown. ACA 19 would have accomplished this by imposing a strict expenditure limit, restraining the annual rate of spending growth to the combined percentage change in the state´s population growth and inflation, as measured by the California Consumer Price Index. Any additional revenues would be diverted to a rainy day fund and to repay outstanding debt.
"California´s politicians have proven time and again that if you give them $1, they will spend $1.05," stated Assemblyman Benoit. "Without real structural change, it will be no time before we will find ourselves back in this same exact position. Today´s vote against real reform was a vote for the status quo, a vote that condemns our state to incessant fiscal crisis rather than leading our state toward lasting fiscal stability."
"This defeat marks an unwillingness by the Legislature to tackle the root of our perpetual budget problems, a lack of fiscal discipline," remarked Assemblyman Benoit. "Unless we set a strict standard on spending growth, California state government will continue this disastrous pattern of spending beyond our means and looking to taxpayers to bail the state out."
ACA 19 would have put a check on the growth of state spending during periods of booming revenues and, instead, tuck that money into savings to guarantee stable funding in times of economic slowdown. ACA 19 would have accomplished this by imposing a strict expenditure limit, restraining the annual rate of spending growth to the combined percentage change in the state´s population growth and inflation, as measured by the California Consumer Price Index. Any additional revenues would be diverted to a rainy day fund and to repay outstanding debt.
"California´s politicians have proven time and again that if you give them $1, they will spend $1.05," stated Assemblyman Benoit. "Without real structural change, it will be no time before we will find ourselves back in this same exact position. Today´s vote against real reform was a vote for the status quo, a vote that condemns our state to incessant fiscal crisis rather than leading our state toward lasting fiscal stability."
view author's RSS feed
