UPDATE 5:45PM | California Gov. Jerry Brown’s unprecedented move to veto a budget package crafted by his own party — one that was for the first time in years submitted on time thanks to the passage last fall of Proposition 25, which requires a simple majority vote to pass the state budget — is going down in history as the first budget veto since at least 1901, when the state began keeping records.
Brown called the budget he rejected unbalanced and full of gimmicks. During a stop in Los Angeles Thursday afternoon he blamed Republicans for Democrats’ use of “legally questionable maneuvers” to overcome a gap after GOP members refused to budge on tax and fee extensions, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It was only the second time in 25 years that the Legislature had passed a budget before the annual June 15 deadline. Previously, a two-thirds majority vote was required to approve the budget, which almost seemed to ensure the state would start the new fiscal year sans a spending plan.
The current fiscal year is set to end June 30.
State Controller John Chiang has yet to announce whether the wording of Prop. 25, which requires that lawmakers go without pay for every day past the deadline that a budget is not approved, applies to the current situation.
10:45am | Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown has reportedly just vetoed the budget package advanced by Democrats Wednesday.
The veto was announced via Twitter and a YouTube video, which can be viewed by clicking here or by scrolling to the bottom of this post. The full text of the veto message is posted above.
Wednesday was the deadline for the approval of a state budget for fiscal year 2011-12.
Besides various accounting manipulations, the package included bills that would end redevelopment, increase taxes and delay payments to schools.
Brown had previously stated that he would not sign a budget package that included such accounting maneuvers.
State legislators could fine themselves going without pay now that the state is yet again without a budget after one is legally required to have been approved.
Under a law that Californian’s approved last year, state legislators must go without pay if they do not provide the governor with a budget proposal by June 15 of each year. Democratic legislators say they met the requirement by sending the package to the governor yesterday, but the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the decision to pay or not pay will be made by State Controller John Chiang.
Brown will hold a news conference at his Los Angeles office today at noon.