Issue Position: Balance the State Budget in a Fiscally-Responsible Manner

Issue Position

With the State experiencing chronic deficits, including recent projections of a $16 billion deficit, I support the Governor's plan on the November ballot to draw more revenues into the budget. However, while vitally important, the plan does not address the boom-bust revenue cycles experienced in recent decades. The state budgeting process needs procedural and structural reform. I support a two-year budget cycle, performance-based budgeting, and a "pay-as-you-go" approach (so when taxes are cut, or spending increases, the source of funds to offset those changes is identified) to bring more transparency and restore the public trust in California's budgeting process. We must also institute, when times are good and a surplus is restored, a mandatory rainy-day fund so we may better ride out the bad times (like recent budget cycles). I will also work to ensure that any additional cuts made do not fall upon those most vulnerable in our society. I believe we should close unnecessary or ineffective tax loopholes while reforming the tax code and regulations to incentivize business expansion in the state. I also support reviewing and considering a broadening of our sales tax base to reflect our changing economy. We must eventually reinstitute the majority vote budget in full, for both expenditures AND revenues, so democracy and accountability may be restored in the budgeting process.

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