We were pleased to see the Sacramento Bee editorialize in opposition to Proposition 31 today.
Health Access California regretfully opposes Prop 31–we know better than most that our budget process and governance structure needs reform. But Prop 31 would in fact make the problems worse.
We’ve posted on our website our one-pager on why Prop 31 is bad for California’s health. Similar to the Bee’s list:
* Prop 31 allows the Governor to make unilateral cuts to any program not in the California Constitution or federal law. This could be without legislative oversight, or even hearings–to hear about the potential impacts and unintended consequences of a Governor’s cuts. Voters appropriately rejected this in Proposition 75 in 2005.
* Prop 31 institutes onerous “pay go” rules that would make it significant harder for the legislature to create new programs to meet emerging needs of
* Prop 31 allows local governments to pre-empt state laws, by setting up “Community Strategic Action Plans” that could avoid state standards whether on health, environment, labor or human services, by showing “substantial compliance” in other ways. Whatever the merits of those alternatives, this would making it much harder for California to achieve key state or national goals.
Finally, Prop 31 would enshrine all of its 8,000+ words (longer than the U.S. Constitution) into the California Constitution–unable to be changed without another vote of the people. Even the unobjectionable parts of Prop 31 (a two year budget cycle, for example) shouldn’t be in the Constitution, written in stone for a generation or more.
Health Access has a long and proud history of supporting reforms to the budget process. But Prop 31 would take us in the wrong direction.