by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Karen Bass is making history as we speak.  She is currently being sworn in as the first Democratic female speaker in California history. Furthemore, she is the first African-American female to be Speaker in any of the 50 states and the federal government.

Good Luck Speaker Bass. And if you are really prepared to take on reforming our tax structure, we'll be in good hands for the next two years.

With so much worth protecting and so much that threatens our economic well-being, it is far past time to move beyond simply patching over budget problems to finding a real, creative -- and bipartisan -- way off the budget roller coaster we seem to be stuck on year after year after year.(LAT 5/13/08)

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

A new AP story came down the wire today about possible changes to the budget process.  As this fits well with the discussion on mbayrob's diary, I thought we should keep talking.  So, as the AP sees it, 5 things can happen:

1. Change to a simple majority vote
2. Use spending priorities which would automatically cut funds from lower priorities if necessary
3. Tighten deadlines elsewhere in the process.
4. Make 2/3 Rule apply elsewhere in the process.
5. Change the tax structure to allow more local control
6. Penalize tardiness using innovative penalties (sort of miscellany)

Obviously, I've made my opinion on this clear already: we need to return to democracy by returning to the majority vote requirement. Read the whole story for more details.  Also, we could combine some of these options.  Senator Perata has said he supports reforming the tax structure.  There are many reasonable options, but what is becoming abundantly clear is that the status quo is not one of them.