Nobody read the fine print...

It seems that here in California, anyone who would like to see political shenanigans usually blamed on the republican party being committed by the democrats.  Shocking, I know.  But, unfortunately, nobody read the fine print when Prop 25 was passed in 2010, there was no "What if?" session done by those drafting the proposition.  Prop 25 suspends lawmakers pay if a budget is not passed on time.  However, while there is language regarding a balanced budget, there is no entry or section requiring that anyone competent in basic math actually check the figures.  So, as a consequence, despite the fact that last year someone (a democrat, even!) with a basic comprehension of math examined the budget and saw that sections of it were based on Phantom Revenue (also known as Unicorn Farts that shockingly never appeared) and said no, the inevitable happened.  The governor signed it.  And the Democrats sued.  And now have won.  This is my shocked face.

For those who are not familiar, this piece of legislation looked good on the surface.  However, there are always hallmarks that should be warning signs. 
1.  It was supported by the public employees unions.  Generally, if you don't like high taxes, anything being pushed by unions should be viewed with extreme trepidation.  And only touched with protective gloves.
2.  It was supported by the LA Times, the SJ Merc and the SF Chronicle.  I would check, double check and triple check everything recommended by this many major newspapers in California.  And then I would still likely not entirely believe it.  The term "Journalistic Integrity" is kept offsite at these publications, along with the fact checking department. 

So, we passed a piece of legislation that promised to ensure that balanced budgets were always here.  However, in addition to the lack of an independent math checking requirement, they failed to write in anything about who gets to determine if the budget was passed on time.  So it defaults to... the legislature... 

Imagine this, a second grade classroom:
Teacher - "Class, did you all do your homework?"
Class - "Yes Teacher."
No paperwork is forthcoming. 
Teacher - "Did you all do good enough to earn an A?"
Students - "Yes Teacher."
No paperwork is forthcoming.
Teacher - "Excellent, I'll mark that in my grade book.  Lets all go have ice cream."

This, my friends, is California politics.  Have some ice cream.