A Good Week to Hate Sacramento

Written by Byron Williams

Wednesday, 17 February 2010

If you are someone who is cynical and apathetic about the way things run in Sacramento, the past week has given you additional fodder to justify your already hardened position.

We can find many culprits for the current climate of uber partisanship within the capitol, but the Assembly Democrat’s failure to confirm state Sen. Abel Maldonado as Lt. Governor has all the characteristics of being petty, snide, and peevish.

In a rare display in bipartisanship, the Senate passed Maldonado’s nomination. But some in the Assembly bemoaned his voting record in the Senate. Ironically, Maldonado is not exactly the darling of his fellow Republicans because he had the unmitigated gall to work with Democrats on a budget compromise.

We’re not curing cancer; we’re talking about lt. governor—the statewide constitutional office with the sexiest name and the fewest responsibilities.

But that was not a compelling factor as Sen. Gill Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) proved during the floor debate, “There is a time for us to be partisan. That is during an election.”

What election? Is Cedillo referring to the much anticipated lt. governor’s race? (Yawn) Why so much partisanship for an office that in the most likely scenario is where elected officials go to die.

Was there a concern that Maldonado as lt. governor could break the tie on key votes on UC Board of Regents, the CSU Board of Trustees, the Ocean Protection Council, or the California Emergency Council and the State Lands Commission?

We certainly don’t want a lt. governor to get in office and start voting for egregious cuts to the University of California or California State University systems. Good thing Democrats have been the sole occupants of the lt. governor’s seat since Mike Curb left office in 1982 serving on the vanguard, protecting higher education from deep cuts.

If Shakespeare wrote of the lt. governor’s office, he might describe it as a poor player who frets and struts his stuff across the stage and his heard from no more—an office full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Well, maybe not sound and fury.

It is almost impossible to comprehend the Assembly’s failure to approve Maldonado’s nomination when staring at them this week is a $20 billion deficit over the next 18 months, with approximately $6 billion that needs to be closed by June.

Democratic-led Senate is proposing, in addition to cuts in spending, to require independent contractors to withhold taxes as soon as they are paid. This idea would generate an estimated $1.5 billion.

But Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger considers this a tax increase—the sworn enemy of all Republicans hold dear. I understand how this proposal would not appeal to independent contractors, but how is it a tax increase?

As Senate President Pro-tem, Darrell Steinberg rightly queried, “If people don’t like it (withholding taxes for independent contractors), I would just ask this question: compared to what? Compared to another $1.5 billion in cuts to education, compared to another $1.5 billion of reductions to services to the elderly and disabled?”

Based on the Maldonado nomination, the Senate are the grown-ups in this scenario. But if recent history of Senate Republicans is any barometer, adolescence will once again overwhelm them and we can safely conclude the idea to have independent contractors withhold their taxes when they are paid is already D.O.A.

Assembly Democrats may have very good reasons, beyond what was stated during the floor debate, to deny Maldonado’s nomination. But when you’re caught in the throes of what appears to be intractable economic problems; where the creation of institutionalized deficits is the norm it just doesn’t look like a good use of the people’s time.

Both parties can tell a story that has the other side serving as the perpetrator, which led to the chronic dysfunction that has paralyzed the state. But both parties also seem more content to participate in their respective orgies of nonsense.

The lengths that both parties would rather rest in the false laurels of being right within their own party, at times belie anything that could remotely be considered in the best interest of the state.

The governor has already resubmitted Maldonado’s name for nomination to the Legislature. But if there is no bipartisan support to confirm someone for the state’s weakest constitutional office, it is difficult to imagine how any progress can be made on critical issues like the deficit.