State Budget Deadline

Re “Secretive Budget Practices Underline Need for Reform,” editorial, July 1: Pardon my confusion, but I always thought that there was a penalty when you break the law, particularly the Constitution. If the state of California has a constitutional mandate that there must be a budget by July 1, why have we started the fiscal year without one for the majority of years since this was enacted?

Several years ago the state issued warrants rather than checks because there was no legal authority to pay bills. Yet not one state legislator was penalized for this failing. The governor conducted business as usual while others around the state suffered.

Seems to me that if there is a law which requires our elected representatives to perform a duty, and they fail to perform that duty, they ought to be sanctioned. Maybe fining the individual members each day they delay might get the point across. They make a mockery of the law. Great examples they are for a lawful society.

BARRY SACKIN

Temecula

Somehow I’m not impressed by a Legislature unable to put a budget in place on time but able to find the time to pass legislation permitting breast-feeding in public (July 1)--which wasn’t against the law to begin with.

JAMES E. VINT

Redondo Beach