The League of Women Voters of California has thrown its support to an initiative designed to alleviate the legislative gridlock that has increasingly bogged down the state budget process.

The LWVC board of directors has voted to support the Budget Accountability Act, an initiative recently filed with the Attorney General that would require a 55% vote of the State Senate and Assembly to adopt a state budget and related tax legislation, rather than the two-thirds vote now needed. The League has long held positions calling for a majority vote on budget and finance issues, and we supported the recent ballot measure that successfully reduced the vote requirement on local school bond measures from two-thirds to 55%.

A two-thirds super majority requirement means that the vote of a legislator opposing a measure counts for twice as much as that of one voting yes. This has allowed a small minority to tie up the budget process for increasing periods. Members of the majority, on the other hand, have been able to avoid compromise by pointing to the minority's ability to stall the process. The two-thirds requirement has most often been used not to try to reach a broad consensus of the members, but simply for individual legislators to extract concessions for their own districts or for their special interests.

The Act also includes several other provisions that meet public demands for more accountability on the part of state government. These include:

• withhold salary and expenses from the Governor and legislators if the budget is not passed and signed by the Constitutional deadline
• require the legislature to stay in session and not act on other legislation until the budget is adopted, except in response to an emergency declared by the Governor.
• provide for a "rainy day" reserve fund of 5% to be established in good years to cushion the state from severe cuts in a bad economy.

The Act would also require the state ballot pamphlet (Voter Information Guide) that goes to voters at each election to contain a brief summary of how the state spends the money it receives. In response to public dismay at news reports that legislators were openly threatened and punished by party leaders if they did not toe the party line on budget issues, the Act calls for such actions to be the subject of investigation and possible censure by Legislative Ethics Committees.

The Attorney General will prepare a title and summary for the proposed initiative prior to the circulation of qualification petitions. The full text of the initiative is available in two parts at the Attorney General's Web site: Part A and Part B.