While we’re getting all-too accustomed to government debt and spending numbers in the billions it’s important to remember that millions still mean something. But speaking of billions, got them covered. The budget shortfall in the state is $41.6 billion. That’s $41,600,000,000, the largest shortfall in the country.
When looking at the state’s budget laws, it would seem strange that things could get so out of hand. provides several guiding boundaries to prevent out of control budgets and to contain any egregious fund appropriation before funds exist. From :
California is required to pass a “balanced budget.” California Code Section 13337.5 of state law prohibits the annual budget act from authorizing expenditures in excess of revenues. In 2004 the Constitution was amended to include language to specifically prevent the presentation of a budget bill that would appropriate from the General Fund more than that Fund would receive in revenues. California law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next. The State only budgets for expenditures, not revenues.
The California Constitution limits appropriations to the appropriations limit from the previous year, adjusted for inflation and the change in population. This is commonly called “budgeting for fiscal discipline,” and is a way to keep the growth of appropriations from outpacing the growth in revenues from year to year.
So what happened? How could a state with such clear laws on responsible budgeting get out of hand? Well, the law is flexible if you know how to bend it:
Unfortunately, the most recently passed budget relies heavily on accounting maneuvers, including moving tax receipts from one year to a next and borrowing $5 billion against future lottery earnings. The lottery borrowing requires the approval of voters in a ballot measure in a special election the Spring of 2009. If the lottery plan is defeated, midyear cuts and other measures to rein in spending are likely. [from the ]
The situation would be a lot less painful if had followed the budget law instead of worrying about shortfalls now that the state is in crisis. At this point, any solution will hurt. For example, has been fighting the state comptroller, trying to give . The governor’s administration went to court to try and force the comptroller to do this, but the judge sided with the comptroller. These cuts could translate to $455 a week, making the judge note that cuts would cause “undue harm” to the workers. But hasn’t the undue harm already been committed?
It’s time to rip off the bandaid. Thinking of spending cuts that won’t hurt people is inconceivable; legislators could have prevented this crisis by thinking about the consequences of their thoughtless use of public money. Now citizens will have to suffer for the lack of responsibility in their elects, those hired to look out California’s best interests.
June 28, 2010 by
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From to , local municipalities are facing crippling financial woes. This week will be the first city to terminate all public employee jobs, including the police department. On the brink of bankruptcy, the city is trying to regain ground by outsourcing all of its work.
Maywood has also not be very forthcoming with its financial data, having not posted any information since 2008. Overall, the city scored a “D” on Sunshine Review’s transparency checklist.
Then there is . The capital of Pennsylvania is just over $68 million in the hole, more than its annual budget. Harrisburg is not only asking creditors to forgive or restructure old debt, but is also considering cutting 537 public sector jobs.
However, unlike Maywood, Harrisburg has been very forthcoming with its , and earned a “C” transparency grade from Sunshine Review.
Looking at these two situations, one can see transparency is not enough. While many elements have contributed to the cities financial troubles, it could have been averted by vocal taxpayers. Yet, taxpayers had access to the data in Harrisburg, and many remained silent on the matter.
This is a clear example that while transparency is a tool citizens can use to hold their government accountable, but without active citizen watchdogs we’ll continue to see crisises like these. There remains a great need for local involvement by constituents. We can not be so focused on the federal level that we forget to look after our homes.
June 2, 2010 by
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Gov 2.0 isn’t just hip and trendy; it can lead to real change.
What is Gov 2.0? Any government initiative designed to better give citizens information through online innovation, whether that be a sleek website design or a revolutionary application that brings local government transparency to your phone.
The state of , with the help of the Center for Digital Government, will partner with Microsoft, Google and Programmable Web to run an apps contest this summer to seize the benefits of Gov 2.0.
comes with a refreshed Data.CA.gov, which contains over 100 million records in several different file types.
California wants to improve its data for citizens’ use. But as one article notes, such contests come with added benefits to states in rough financial shape:
The value of the software created is often worth more than the prize money distributed. Peter Corbett, the founder of iStrategy Labs, recently said Washington, D.C. estimated the value of the software created by the first Apps for Democracy competition to be in excess of $2.2 million. That contest gave out $20,000 in cash prizes.
That’s a great deal: $2.2 million for the price of 1/100 of that. But the deal is in actuality much greater. The projected price does not take into account several positive consequences. First, the fact that government is involving citizens in helping improve government-to-citizen communications does a great deal to increase the legitimacy of that government. Second, government watchdogs have their job made easier with these enhanced tools, which means they can do a more effective job of uncovering discrepancies, weeding out corruption, and finding honest mistakes. Lastly, having interesting and new ways to display data makes the data valuable in the first place. It’s great for governments to make their data available, but it’s all for nothing if citizens don’t understand it.
Government app contests is a growing trend. The hosted an contest, based on Washington’s data catalog, and was followed by Apps for America, which used datasets from . The Army has joined in the fun and plans on announcing winners of its contest in August. The World Bank also plans on bringing innovation to its new data catalog, data.worldbank.org.
As boring as this may sound, it is a great source of excitement. For example, this morning on , the big news on the #opengov hashtag list was the fact that the Department of Health and Human Resources unlocked its data. The Department is also welcoming and tracking suggestions for how to improve its (sleek) and the data available.
It’s good to see governments start caring about things like usability and innovation. They can be assured that we care back.
March 16, 2010 by
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I’ve about and how that information can be. A lot of taxpayer-funded lobbying is hidden, not reported, or not acknowledged as such.
A new research paper by the clears some of that obscurity up. focuses on California while also surveying other states and gives insight as to the general nature of taxpayer-funded lobbying. The paper looks at lobbying in California for 2007 and 2008.
One interesting thing that may be generalized to taxpayer-funded lobbying as a whole is the amount of adjustments the writers of the paper had to make in order to try and get an accurate figure for taxpayer-funded lobbying. For example, of the $30.9 million reported as spent by labor unions, $8.1 million can be properly classified as taxpayer-funded lobbying. And this pattern continues in sectors “Government”; “Public Employees”; and “Education.”
It study breaks down the amount spent on taxpayer-funded lobbying in a powerful way: one in every four dollars spent on lobbying in California was taxpayer money.
The study ends up concluding that there is a need for further research in taxpayer-funded lobbying. The authors recommend improved lobbying disclosure laws that are stricter and more transparent and making accessibility a focus of these laws. We couldn’t agree more.
September 15, 2008 by
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Great transparency article from on Sept 12th. (reprinted with permission)
You can see this article as well as Paul’s other columns at :
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You might think that there’s nothing a government won’t try. You’d be right. But I was near stupefied to learn that the state of California copyrights its laws. And it’s not alone.
The state tries to control — through copyright — how you can access its laws, where and how you store them, etc. The state makes available its building codes, plumbing standards and criminal laws online, but requires you to ask for permission to download them!
The state’s out to make money. It charges $1,556 for a digital version, more for a print-out, and makes nearly a million dollars a year selling what is legally ours.
Yes, what’s ours. We are a nation of laws, not of men, and we have the right to own and reprint our laws as much as we want. The purpose of copyright is to ensure private parties can maintain some control over their intellectual property. But the laws themselves are, in point of elementary political theory, the intellectual property of all. Not of state bureaus.
Thankfully, heroic Internet technician and mover and shaker believes in government transparency. And he, unlike Al Gore, really worked to help build the Internet.
On Labor Day Mr. Malamud published the whole California code online. .
Obviously, Malamud is spoiling for a fight. Good. He should win it. He has, after all, the law (if not the state) on his side.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
June 13, 2008 by
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Some quality transparency work is being done by state legislatures across the country. A couple of my recent favorites:
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The reports on legislation aimed at keeping taxpayers in the loop on how their cash is spent.
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I’m glad most newspapers are on our side.
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The Connecticut legislature approved a measure Thursday that would empower the state to revoke the pension of any elected official or state worker convicted of corruption. also tells us the bill will also:
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Since we try not to make the Perfect the enemy of the Good, we applaud the legislators that worked to give taxpayers some justice in public corruption cases. For states that have public officials on trial (SEE BELOW): Take Note.
June 8, 2008 by
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There are few abuses that boil my blood more than improper or fraudulent voter registration. Signing citizens up to cast their inaugural ballot is a sacred privilege that too many groups do not respect. Not only are these cesspools of corruption bilking deserving candidates out of winning elections, but they are also defrauding all voters, and even all citizens, out of a free and fair election system.
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The group “Voting Is Power” has a goal of signing up 70,000 new Democrat voters before November 2008.
The Times Picayune has the :
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rants about the ease voters in Kansas and Missouri have in duplicate voting. KS Gov. Sebelius recently vetoed a photo ID bill that would have addressed these concerns. Meadowlark also writes about this issue and .
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Sec of State Debra Bowen for voter reg fraud. Twelve people have been charged with the offense- nine have plead guilty.
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Eight ACORN reps plead guilty to .
More on this topic to come…