Evans proposes state budget constitutional amendment

<p>Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, is proposing a dramatic shake-up for Sacramento politics by eliminating the two-thirds vote required adopt a budget and raise taxes.</p><p>Her measure, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 18, would allow the Legislature to pass a budget and related tax measures by a simple majority — but the taxes still would need statewide voter approval.</p><p>“The voters would have the last word,” Evans, a former Santa Rosa councilwoman who now chairs the Assembly Budget Committee, said Friday.</p><p>Critics say voters are likely to view removal of the two-thirds majority as a back-door effort to raise taxes. But Evans said her proposed amendment may resonate with voters who “know how dysfunctional” the budget process has become.</p><p>California has passed a budget on time only 15 times in the last 40 years. The budget ran a record 85 days late last year, and almost immediately needed revision to offset a $42 billion deficit. </p><p>Now, that $94 billion spending plan is deemed to be $8 billion in the red.</p><p>Throughout the budget ordeal, Democrats faulted Republicans for “holding the budget hostage” by refusing to contribute the votes the Democratic majority needs to meet the two-thirds requirement.</p><p>“This is not a template for effective government,” Evans said. “It is a formula for paralysis.”</p><p>Passing budgets by a majority vote would expedite the process, she said. And if voters don’t like the results they can “hold the Legislature accountable at the ballot box.”</p><p>Evans said she hopes to get her amendment on the ballot this year. If lawmakers won’t approve it, the alternative is to mount a statewide petition drive to put it on the ballot, Evans said.</p>