As California prepares to unveil its 2021-22 state budget, questions persist about how much transparency has been involved in the process and to what degree it has bypassed input from the public and other lawmakers.
A number of budget trailer bills – measures approved without the benefit of full committee hearings or public comment – are expected to be included before the package goes before Gov. Gavin Newsom.
When budget trailer bills started, following Proposition 25, there were typically one or two, Lance Christensen, chief operations officer at the California Policy Center, told the Northern California Record. But it’s estimated that at least a dozen of them were added in the 24 hours from Sunday to Monday, prior to state legislators voting on the budget.
“What kind of robust, open-book, accountable and transparent conversations are happening around this – I would say none,” Christensen said. “These have already been decided upon by [Democratic] leadership and the governor's office.”
Christensen noted that even if the bills have elements that some Californians support, it’s not good public policy to push through so many measures at the last minute.
“The legislature is supposed to represent their constituency, that’s the whole point of the legislature,” said Christensen, who also was chief of staff to former state Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa.
The timeframe could be related to the upcoming gubernatorial recall election.
“The sooner they get this done and taken care of, the faster they can now downplay impacts for the recall,” Christensen said.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has noted that the state’s spending is still above revenue estimates.
“This manifests in operating deficits that persist through the outlook horizon (2024‑25),” legislative analyst Gabriel Petek wrote. “Adopting a budget with this combination of assumptions is inadvisable in our view.”
The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported concerns about the federal government potentially curtailing funding given the state’s current financial surplus.
That money would be better spent on paying down debt and fire mitigation ahead of what’s expected to be another record-setting season, Christensen said.
“Why are they not taking that and being really aggressive on addressing the wildfire issues?” Christensen said.
A recent CapRadio and NPR investigation found Newsom’s wildfire prevention efforts have been overstated.
Christensen emphasized that in a state with 40 million residents, the budget policy needs to be in the hands of more than a few lawmakers.
A recent American Legislative Council (ALEC) report notes that California’s unfunded pension debt is nearly $1 trillion.
“There's not been a real robust debate about what should happen with the budget going forward,” Christensen said. “And instead of taking a thoughtful approach to fundamentally reducing expenses and ongoing unfunded liabilities, it’s going to fall on future generations. Not just the next couple years, as the LAO has rightly pointed out, but years down the road when budgets continue to fluctuate.”