EDITORIAL LEGISLATIVE QUITTERS THE STATE'S LEADERS BAIL EARLY ON THE BUDGET.BY the time 7 o'clock rolled around Monday evening in Sacramento, California's legislators were ready to call it quits quits adj. On even terms with by payment or requital: I am finally quits with the loan. [Middle English, probably alteration (influenced by Medieval Latin , and so they did. Quits on the budget. Quits on the state's credit rating. Quits on responsible leadership. Quits on fulfilling the California Constitution's requirement that a budget be adopted by midnight on June 30. Embarrassingly, the elected officials headed home five hours before the deadline - a deadline they have shamefully missed 17 times in 25 years. They didn't even pretend to be serious about coming up with a fix for the state's $38.2 billion deficit and wrangle until the last possible minute. They had better things to do, such as hanging out at one of Sacramento's popular political watering holes. One legislator LEGISLATOR. One who makes laws. 2. In order to make good laws, it is necessary to understand those which are in force; the legislator ought therefore, to be thoroughly imbued with a knowledge of the laws of his country, their advantages and defects; to , Sen. Wes Chesbro, D-Santa Rosa, shamefully held a scheduled fund-raiser. Meanwhile, the state's busted bust·ed adj. 1. Slang a. Smashed or broken: busted glass; a busted rib. b. Out of order; inoperable: a busted vending machine. 2. budget - the product of Sacramento's failed leadership - remains busted, and its situation gets ever worse. California is all but broke, operating on borrowed cash. Without a budget, it will stop paying its bills to vendors and making payments to community college and child-care programs for the state's poorest residents. Not surprisingly, California's credit rating has gone into the tank. The state already has the nation's lowest bond rating, and bond-rating houses have put it on a credit watch for a possible further downgrade Downgrade A negative change in the rating of a security. Notes: For example, an analyst may downgrade a stock from strong buy to buy, or a bond rating agency may downgrade a bond from AAA to AA. - to junk-bond status. That's what happens when you live on credit cards and refuse to pay your bills on time. So now we all suffer the consequences of the failure of Democrats and Republicans alike to fulfill their duties as elected officials. Should the state's bond rating get downgraded again, the interest rates on future bond issues will go through the roof. Since the single point Republicans and Democrats seem to agree on is to finance the state's debt through additional borrowing, the prospect of higher interest rates is very bad news. It means that even more of the state's limited resources will go into financing past mistakes rather than paying for current needs. So when legislators called it quits early Monday, they weren't just ignoring the state Constitution they have sworn to uphold. They were also guaranteeing that millions, if not billions, more of the public's tax dollars will be wasted on interest without benefit to the people. Every day the Legislature fails to get its budget ready is a day closer to a decimated credit rating. Continued failure is unacceptable. The state's legislators are itching itching or pruritus Stimulation of nerve endings in the skin, usually incited by histamine, that evokes a desire to scratch. It is often transient and easily relieved. Pathological itching with skin changes usually signals dermatologic disease. to get home for the Fourth of July Fourth of July, Independence Day, or July Fourth, U.S. holiday, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Celebration of it began during the American Revolution. weekend, but they should get no such relief. Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson Herb J. Wesson, Jr. is a California politician. He currently serves as a Los Angeles City Councilman. He represents the 10th district. He served in the State Assembly representing the 47th district from 1998 until 2004. and the Senate president pro tem president pro tem n. pl. presidents pro tem Informal A president pro tempore. , John Burton John Burton is the name of:
In fact, legislators ought to be locked inside their Assembly and Senate chambers until they deliver a budget once and for all. Enough with the politics. Enough with the excuses. Enough with the inflexibility and the idleness. Californians need real leaders, leaders who won't quit on them again. |
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