Anytime a ballot initiative is written and supported by the legislature and proposes to "cut" legislature pay if no balanced budget is reached, be skeptical.
Many of you may remember and likely voted for Proposition 25 back in 2010, which stated that if a balanced budget was not delivered on time, the legislature would not be paid. Alas, this was the hook to convince the general public to vote for it. The real meat of the proposition had to do with lowering the requirement to pass a budget from 2/3rds to a simple majority--in essence cutting out the already marginalized republicans.
In a classic case of bait-and-switch, a Superior Court Judge has ruled that it is up to the legislators themselves to determine whether the budget they passed was "balanced" or not. When the legislature passed a phony budget last year just in time to get paid, state controller John Chiang stepped in and determined that the budget was not balanced and therefore, legislators would not get paid. Chiang's actions were short-lived and now it appears the legislature can continue to pass unworkable budgets year after year. Proposition 25 sounded nice, but again, voters were sold a bill of goods.
