64 days later

This week, we learned that the state is about to start holding off payments to city and county governments, and that in two or three weeks the state will start sending out IOUs. Last week, we learned that community-college students are unlikely to get their Cal Grants to pay their tuition.

Sound familiar? Welcome once again to post-vacation, budget gridlock. As of today (September 2), it’s 64 days and counting.

This is insane. It’s also a good time to remind you that there is a measure on the November ballot that would break this pattern. If approved, Proposition 25 will allow passage of a budget by a simple-majority vote, rather than the current two-thirds vote requirement that gives a minority faction the ability to hold the budget hostage.

Are you tired of budget gridlock? Prop. 25 will go a good ways toward ending it.