There are many other unworthy contenders, but Senate Bill 858 may be the most pointlessly cynical legislative act of this still-young century.
It was drafted in the dead of night and hastily enacted as a budget “trailer bill” last year with no more than a cursory gesture toward public notice.
It stands as a prime example of how trailer bills, which are supposed to enact provisions of the state budget, are misused as stealthy vehicles for decrees that have little or nothing to do with the budget.
SB 858, among other things, places strict limits on local school districts’ financial reserves whenever the state places surplus revenue in a state school aid reserve.
That, unto itself, is bad public policy, discouraging local school boards from preparing for the state’s periodic economic recessions and the revenue losses they bring.
Moreover, in not only signing the bill but asking the Legislature to pass it, Gov. Jerry Brown violated two supposed principles that he’s repeatedly invoked – setting aside money in rainy-day reserves and “subsidiarity,”
