TMCnet News
EDITORIAL: Calfornia lawmakers need to end Assembly secrecyAug 08, 2011 (Contra Costa Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- THE CALIFORNIA Assembly spends $138 million in tax money to operate its offices and committees. The funds are allocated by the Rules Committee, which is controlled by Speaker John Perez. He and the committee can dole out cash as they see fit and can use the power to shortchange members who've crossed them. But according to Perez, the taxpayers who pony up the money and voters who elect members of the Assembly have no right to see their representatives' current office budgets or spending histories. Legislative leaders' policy that lawmakers can't release their own calendars to the public, revealed earlier this year, is outrageous enough. But this takes the cake. It's not just a matter of principle, it's important information: If some offices provide poor constituent service, it may not be the lawmakers' fault but the speaker's. Media outlets that asked to see office budgets and changes for each Assembly member under the Legislative Open Records Act were told those records are not open. The Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times jointly filed suit Friday to challenge the Assembly's refusal to release the records. Perez claims they are exempt under a clause pertaining to preliminary drafts, notes or legislative memoranda, and correspondence to lawmakers' offices. That's ridiculous. A budget is a budget, not a preliminary draft, not a note from the local gadfly back home. It's taxpayers' money and taxpayers should be told who's getting it. Assembly Administrator Jon Waldie explained that budgets and spending projections can change and contain private information, such as the name of an employee on maternity leave. He said that "for us the budget record is a personnel document." Oh, please. Redact the names of pregnant staffers. Unless there's a baby boom in Sacramento we are unaware of, it shouldn't take long. The issue arose when Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada, had his budget cut by $67,000, shortly after he was the lone Democrat to vote against the state budget. Portantino says the speaker punished him for breaking with the party. Perez said Portantino was incapable or unwilling to balance his office budget and has been reckless with spending. If that were true, it would be the most powerful argument of all for releasing budget information. But in fact Portantino has finished the past three years under budget. Now he will be forced to furlough his staff for five weeks in the fall, and he's restricted from sending mail or ordering supplies. Sure, it punishes him. But it also punishes his constituents, and that is just plain wrong. It appears the ability to quietly threaten Assembly members with budget cuts is a way to keep them in line. It's the same sort of pettiness that has led Assembly leaders to force a rebellious lawmaker to move from a larger office into a tiny one. But we'd be happy to be proven wrong. All that would take is opening up all the Assembly office and committee budget documents to public scrutiny. The Legislative Open Record Act clearly should cover public access to budgets. Responsible lawmakers should demand it -- or propose an amendment for vocabulary-challenged speakers who think a budget doling out tax dollars is the same thing as some scribbled personal notes on the back of an envelope. To see more of the Contra Costa Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.contracostatimes.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |