May 21, 2009 5:04PM 

# No Balanced Budget, No Raise 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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Ben Goddard [writes in *The Hill*](http://thehill.com/ben-goddard/calif.s-omen-for-the-nation-2009-05-20.html) about the new taxpayer revolt in California this week. The political establishment put together a package of initiatives that it thought would fix the budget process there — but the people weren’t buying it. The only thing they passed was the measure to ban salary increases for legislators if they didn’t balance the budget.

There are [similar proposals](http://www.washingtonwatch.com/blog/2009/05/03/limiting-politicians-pay/) floating around Capitol Hill. If bills were subject to a popular vote, it seems like such a thing would be likely to pass.

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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