2009 California Environmental Scorecard

Last year’s Scorecard noted that the legislative session was dominated by one issue: the state budget. This year, in an economic game of piling on, the state’s chronic budget deficits continued and were compounded by a historically weak economy that produced a California jobless rate above 12 percent. This fiscal and economic one-two punch, combined with erratic leadership from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a deeply polarized legislature, has brought the state to a breaking point.

In the only state that requires a two-thirds vote both to pass a budget and to raise taxes, budgetary sleight-of-hand and “robbing Peter to pay Paul” tactics have become cynical but accepted tools of the budget-writing trade. But at some point the tricks get all used up, the smoke clears and all that’s left is the mirror. California reached that point in 2009. The economic crisis added a genuine fear factor, which cast a pall over the entire 2009 legislative session.

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