Opinion: Did the GOP fumble its chance for long-sought reforms?
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Gov. Jerry Brown just announced that he has called off talks with Republican lawmakers because they couldn’t decide what they wanted out of a budget deal. The problem evidently wasn’t the idea of limiting public employee pensions, capping spending or making the state’s regulatory process less burdensome -- ‘We made significant process on these reform issues,’ Brown contended -- but the GOP’s ‘ever-changing list of collateral demands.’
In particular, Brown faulted Republicans for opposing a proposal that would calculate the taxes owed by multistate businesses through a simplified formula rather than giving them the option of choosing the current formula or the simplified approach. The latter is less favorable to big national retailers but more favorable to businesses that have a lot of employees and investment in California.
‘Let me be clear: I support pension reform, regulatory reform and a spending cap, and offered specific and detailed proposals for each of these during our discussions,’ Brown said Tuesday. ‘While we made significant progress on these reform issues, the Republicans continued to insist on including demands that would materially undermine any semblance of a balanced budget. In fact, they sought to worsen the state’s problem by creating a $4-billion hole in the budget.’
Here’s a letter Brown sent Friday to Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga that expresses his frustration with the lengthy list of GOP demands.
Republicans complained that Democrats weren’t willing to agree to anything meaningful on their four core demands: pensions, a spending cap, regulatory reform and a shorter extension of the income, sales and vehicle tax rates that were due to drop this year (Brown wanted a five-year extension; the GOP called for 18 months). The Times’ editorial board suggested how the two sides could bridge the gap on these issues, but it appears to have been a bridge too far.
I don’t blame Republicans for trying to use their leverage over the budget to push through legislation they wouldn’t have the votes to achieve otherwise. And if they really would prefer to balance the budget by cutting twice as much as Brown has proposed, then there’s no point in giving an inch in the negotiations. But if they don’t want to double the reductions in spending, including at least $2 billion in further funding cuts to public schools, they seem to have overplayed their hand.
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--Jon Healey
