Seeking Divine Intervention on the Budget in California

Today's New York Times puts a new twist on state legislative budget battles in "Big Budget Gap? Call in the Big Guy":

A day after California lawmakers missed the June 15 deadline to have a budget in place, leaders representing 10 faiths sought “divine wisdom” on Wednesday, offered prayers and demanded that God occupy a seat at the budget negotiating table, joining the so-called Big 5: the governor and the four ranking Senate and Assembly leaders.

“We are calling for a Big 6,” said Sara Nichols of the Center for Spiritual Awareness, a former lobbyist and minister-in-training with the nondenominational religious community that organized the event. “We wanted to bless them and say, ‘They can do it.’ ”

It just may take a while; last year, the budget came in a month overdue, and the year before that, the budget was delivered a record-setting 85 days late, and the year before that — well, suffice to say it is more newsworthy when the $83 billion budget is on time.

This year, the fiscal misery befits Job: a $19 billion deficit, legislative gridlock that has defied even a governor with an action-hero past, that same governor mightily resisting the lame-duck mantle, and an election year that makes compromise — increasingly a four-letter word — harder still. All this while the state comptroller warns that it gets harder to pay bills the more the state pushes past the July 1 start of the fiscal year, just two weeks away.

Comments

[rich mckone]

There are simple steps to cut the California deficit but the politicians would have to be willing to offend the correctional employee unions. About $400 million would be saved if the State contracted with counties for parole supervision. With courts dealing with technical violations, the parole violation rate would return to the national average of 20%. Oregon and Minnesota have successfully contracted with counties for parole supervision since the 1970s. The reduced technical violation rates would save about $2.7 billion in construction costs for 9,150 prison beds. Also, using correctional contract beds to hold technical parole violators at the county level would save billions. Each contract bed saves $30,000 in prison operating costs. It is not complicated!