Dan Walters | Sacramento Bee | Mar. 24, 2010
As thousands of college students were protesting state spending cuts on higher education outside the Capitol this week, a few dozen middle-age men and women were ensconced in a Capitol hearing room, talking about how the admittedly dysfunctional budget process might be fixed.
Judging by their angry words, the students have little understanding of or appreciation for the immense, semi-permanent gap between state revenues and competing demands for spending on education, health, welfare, prisons, etc.
But the politicians and civic figures inside the building are equally befuddled on how California can bring some order to its chaotic fiscal situation.
A bipartisan, foundation-supported organization called California Forward has put forth a series of reforms it contends would make the process better but lacks the money to place them before voters directly.