Use Two Growth Factors to Cap State Spending

In “Braking Budget Roller Coaster” (Commentary, Jan. 16), Peter Navarro critiqued Assemblyman John Campbell’s proposal to limit state spending to the combination of inflation and population growth. He stated, “Unlike the ‘slash and shrink’ proposals of conservatives like Republican Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks, Campbell’s would allow state government to grow within defined limits.” Navarro is seriously misinformed. I introduced the same growth formula as Assemblyman Campbell’s last session as Senate Constitutional Amendment 16 and am doing so again this year as head of the Senate Republican task force on spending caps.

There is nothing novel about this growth limit. It was originally adopted by the voters in 1979 as Proposition 4 and served the state well until it was radically altered in 1990. That radical change added personal income to the growth formula, pushing the current constitutional limit so high that it is meaningless. Sen. Tom McClintock

R-Thousand Oaks