Yevgeny Shrago
The world’s eighth-largest economy passed its budget on Wednesday. A year after setting the record for budget tardiness, California’s lawmakers took advantage of a voter initiative allowing budgets to pass with a simple majority and sent the budget to Governor Jerry Brown on time for the first time since 1986. A cynic might suggest that the threat of docked wages for legislators — which passed in the same voter initiative — was the real impetus for this minor miracle. But a real cynic would realize that unlike the many state employees whose livelihoods would be threatened by a late budget, California legislators don’t live paycheck to paycheck and wouldn’t feel the pinch of their tardiness for weeks.