It looks like a familiar set-up. In a YouTube video titled “Governor Jerry Brown Checks in with The People of California,” the screen flashes an animated version of the official state seal before cutting to the governor seated at his desk. As California’s chief executive starts enumerating the Golden State’s many problems, the viewer half-expects him to stop mid-sentence, lean over the desk and announce, “And LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!”
Unfortunately, this isn’t satire. It’s another episode of the budget tragicomedy playing out in the state’s capitol. In the clip, posted to the video-sharing site on Monday, March 21, Brown levels with voters: “We’ve been kicking the can down the road. You’ve been treated with evasions, gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, and it’s time to balance our books.”
Brown goes on to ask viewers to support a special election in which Californians could vote to extend a two-year tax increase enacted under Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2009. Brown is counting on the tax extension to cover the $15 budget shortfall that remains after he signed $11 billion in painful cuts into law last week. The alternative, he says in the clip, would mean “some drastic alterations in the very fabric of our public service”—in other words, even deeper cuts.
Aides say the YouTube pitch was the brainchild of the Brown himself and was filmed with one shot, sans script, in his office on Sunday, March 20. Democrats could certainly use a boost from a viral video; a new poll from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that support for the ballot measure on the wane. In January, 66 percent of likely voters said they thought a special election was a good idea; that number had dropped to 51 percent last week.
The direct appeal to voters signals the severity of Brown’s predicament, as Republicans have refused to sign on to his meet-you-halfway, cut-some-and-tax-some approach. Late on Friday, GOP leaders released a seven-page list of demands, among them changes to teacher tenure rules, reductions to public pensions, the elimination of certain environmental regulations and a cap on public spending—none of which Democrats are likely to accept.
“I think this takes us clearly to a point where we will quickly have to decide whether or not to pursue solutions that do not require Republican votes,” Assembly Speaker John Perez told reporters after reviewing the document.
That leaves two options for the Democrats. They can bypass their GOP colleagues by collecting voter signatures to get the referendum on the ballot, though they probably won’t be able to do it in time to hold the election in June, when the taxes are set to expire. (That would mean asking voters in November to reinstate taxes that have already expired—much tougher than just extending them.)
Or they could change the election laws. State code requires an election measure be adopted by the legislature 131 days before going before the voters—a deadline that has already passed. Democrats could waive that law or write a new one and pass it by majority. But it wouldn’t be simple, says Shannan Velayas with the California Secretary of State’s office. “They would need to do that to a lot of other laws that are on the books that relate to carrying out an election as well.”
Timing is important, Velayas notes, because a huge effort goes into producing an election. Each of the ballot measures must be summarized, then translated into six languages. Fiscal impacts, arguments and rebuttals—all must be gathered and sent to the Secretary of State to be printed in time for the first ballots to be mailed 60 days before the election.
The hastiest election in state history—in May 2009—was called 88 days before it was held. June 7 is 70 days away. Once again, we’re off to the races.
