The real story

Why budget wasn't fixed by deadline

With all the variables known and all the key players having been negotiating for weeks, why wasn't the 2009-10 state budget fixed by the Tuesday deadline?

Why did the Legislature spend much of its final days before the deadline on “drills” — Sacramento parlance for pointless or symbolic votes ordered by leaders who know they are a waste of time?

With Treasurer Bill Lockyer warning that missing the deadline could cost taxpayers billions in the long term because of higher borrowing costs, why didn't Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, show any sense of urgency?

The answer to these key questions can be found in Proposition 98, the 1988 initiative guaranteeing public schools and community colleges about 40 percent of the state budget. Because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's complex plan included changes in the 2008-09 budget, it needed to pass by Tuesday, the end of the fiscal year. If it had passed by then, it would have reduced by $11 billion the money that Proposition 98 formulas obligated the state to provide K-14 schools in coming years.

Which meant anything resembling the governor's budget was never, ever going to be adopted by Tuesday, no matter what. The California Teachers Association wouldn't stand for it — and the CTA matters more to Bass and Steinberg than the public.

If you think this exaggerates teachers union influence, you haven't been paying attention. Consider Proposition 1B, the $9 billion school-funding bribe given to the CTA as its price for supporting the budget measures on the May 19 special election ballot. (Thankfully, it failed.) Or consider such oddities as a teachers union official being invited by state schools chief Jack O'Connell to answer policy questions for him during a teleconference with journalists.

We're not the Golden State. We're the CTA State. For worse and worse.



