It's time for straight talk on budget from the voters

Ballot box budgeting -- voters stepping in and calling the shots on spending and taxes, preempting their elected representatives -- has been the scourge of Sacramento. Initiatives that cut or raise taxes and set aside money caches for pet programs bind politicians in straitjackets and cripple their ability to set priorities.

That said, legislators currently are so spooked by voters and special interests, and polarized by political ideology, that they seem to be hopelessly heading once again into another summer stalemate of budget brawling.

The Legislature and governor have failed in 17 of the past 21 years to enact a state budget by the July 1 start of the fiscal year, creating havoc with school districts, local governments and private vendors. In seven of those years, the politicians quarreled into August or beyond.

So perhaps this year the lawmakers themselves should ask for public intervention. Extend the old budget, with some trims, through the November election and give voters a choice:

Raise taxes? Or take a machete to government -- fire teachers, balloon class sizes, lay off cops, slash healthcare for the decrepit and poor, close parks and release felons?

Capitol politicians could let their constituents decide the state's direction -- ask what they actually want and receive a direct answer.

There must be all kinds of reasons why this wouldn't be practical or even legal. But I've noticed over the years that the Capitol crowd can bend almost any rule if it wants.

Ordinarily, this would be too early in the budgeting process to be thinking so pessimistically. But the Capitol mood this spring is especially acidic. The situation is desperate -- a projected $15-billion deficit (roughly 15% of the general fund) after lawmakers already filled an $8-billion gap. The prospect for compromise looks bleak. No one seems to envision a path out of the legislators' quagmire -- one that can receive the necessary two-thirds majority vote, anyway.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried what he regarded as a middle approach last week in revising his proposed $144.4-billion budget ($102 billion of it general fund). He butchered social programs for the needy, but kept school funding basically level. He proposed increasing revenue by expanding the lottery and borrowing $5 billion immediately -- $15 billion over three years -- against future profits.