When launching Govern For California in 2011, I thought that obtaining political power in the Legislature would be sufficient to reform California. Our strategy worked pretty well when Jerry Brown was governor because Brown was pretty tough on spending and he protected public school families. But that changed under Gavin Newsom, who is a big spender and indifferent to public school families. Still, I thought the Legislature might be a counterforce for good. But even the election of a new and well-meaning Assembly Speaker in 2022 made little difference. That’s because of a combination known to few Californians: Trailer Bills + Proposition 25.
Trailer Bills are legislation attached to budgets that become law immediately upon passage and with less scrutiny than normal bills. Proposition 25 was a constitutional amendment that voters passed in 2010 to allow state budgets to be passed by simple-majority rather than super-majority votes. Governors manipulate legislators by tying those powers together. For example, if a legislator is desperate for the budget to include money for a local project in his district, the governor can force the legislator to vote for a Budget Trailer bill that includes a policy the legislator might otherwise oppose.
Since the Legislature has been stripped of its effective counterforce role, we are now forced to rely on the Executive Branch for beneficial change. This is another reason you should be paying rapt attention to this year’s election of a new governor. The question you should be asking yourself is ‘which of Xavier Becerra, Chad Bianco, Steve Hilton, Matt Mahan, Katie Porter, Tom Steyer, Tony Thurmond, Antonio Villaraigosa and Betty Yee would be the best and most benevolent King of California?’.
