No balanced budget, no paycheck. That was the message from State Controller John Chiang to California lawmakers.
The Controller said he’ll permanently withhold legislators’ salaries and per diem starting June 16th if they haven’t approved a balanced budget by then.
Things are different this year because of voter-approved proposition 25, which says lawmakers permanently forfeit their pay if they don’t pass a budget by June 15th. It gets tricky though, because lawmakers actually passed a budget bill in March. Problem is, it’s not quite balanced.
Controller John Chiang said that’s not good enough to satisfy proposition 25. He says he will enforce the voters' demand. In the past lawmakers have temporarily forfeited their salaries when the budget was late but they received that pay later.
