Encouraging night for California

The state inches away from its dysfunctional ways with the passage of Proposition 25, which allows budget-related legislation to pass on a majority vote rather than the current two-thirds. This will become a huge help for Gov.-elect Jerry Brown as he and the legislature try to avoid the partisan wrangling of recent years that held up the budget process for months. Most recently, it was 100 days after the start of the fiscal year that lawmakers finally agreed to a budget. The measure includes an enticing carrot: Lawmakers will lose pay for every day the budget is late. From the SF Chronicle:

Supporters cast the most high-profile measure, the majority budget Prop. 25, as a necessary fix to the dysfunctional governance of the state, though they didn't promise it would fix everything. Opponents expressed concerns that Prop. 25 could make it easier for the Legislature to raise taxes, though a Sacramento appeals court ruled it would not. "This will change the entire dynamics of the state capital," said Kenneth Burt, the political director for the California Federation of Teachers, a key backer of the measure. "No longer will the few have the power to hold up the budget."