I was blown away by this Cal Watchdog post about California Senate President Darrell Steinberg's proposal to "restructure" in order to close the multibillion dollar deficits in the state's budget. The plan is just so ludicrous that I can't believe they thought we might actually think this was a good idea.

Is this just a mole game with the state budget, or will “restructuring” work? Had the written budget solution plan not used the word “shift” before every listed state service, perhaps real budgeting might have occurred.

Instead, Steinberg’s plan calls for:

• Shifting state juvenile parole services to counties;
• Shifting low-level criminal offenders to counties;
• Shifting drug Medi-Cal programs to counties;
• Shifting offender treatment programs to counties;
• Shifting drug court to counties;
• Shifting CalWORKS child care to counties, while increasing the county share of CalWORKS grants, services and administration.

When a program shift is not enough, “realigning” services is. While the Adult Protective Services and aging services are being shifted to counties, two of the aging programs will be “realigned” to counties as well. The aging department is slated to be “eliminated” however, it appears as if the programs are all being shifted or realigned to the county, or being taken over by the Health and Human Services agency.

And while the plan includes eliminating the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, the plan is to transfer “remaining functions” to the health care services department and add one oversight position to the agency. This seems to make the elimination a moot point. Eliminating a department on the state level, and increasing it on the county level is a mole game.

The real issue is that Steinberg is proposing to shift a great deal of the state’s financial burden to the counties, and then plans to pass legislation that will allow the counties to raise taxes without a two-thirds vote. He called it “raising revenue,” but the end goal is the same. Raising revenue is Democrat-speak for tax increases in the public sector. In the private sector, to raise revenue is defined as selling something of value.

So the plan is to shift all of the expenses to the counties and then give them the ability to raise taxes without the two-thirds vote required by Proposition 13. Senator Steinberg didn't even offer what the total "savings" would be. It seems obvious, this plan isn't about savings, it is about getting the counties to take the heat for raising taxes and letting the legislature to be able to claim innocence. This is some of the craziest back door dealing that I've seen discussed in public in quite a while. Congrats Senator. You've officially reached a new low. Well played.