California's budget mess
| By Robert Cruickshank, Courage Campaign - Feb 17, 2009 11:00:53 AM PT |
| Also listed in: Courage Campaign Staff |
Today the Courage Campaign sent out an action alert to our members asking them to call Republican Senator Abel Maldonado and telling him to vote for the budget. His number is (916) 651-4015.
That raises the question, of course, of whether this budget deal is a good deal. It is not. It has numerous flaws - it relies on too many cuts to services and too much borrowing. The tax increases, while overdue, don't always make sense. Shouldn't a gas tax increase fund more public transportation, not less? Why a sales tax over taxes on the wealthy and oil companies?
Unfortunately, 30 years of conservative misrule has brought California to a point where we have two bad choices - a bad budget deal, or financial collapse. The longer California goes without a budget, the more workers that will be laid off, the more debt the state will rack up, and the deeper into a severe recession we will slide. Before we can fix the state, we have to stop the bleeding.
Today 20,000 public workers got pink slips because the state does not have the money to pay them. Tomorrow 38,000 workers will be laid off when 276 infrastructure projects are shut down because of the budget delay. At this point our choice is between more of this, and a flawed budget deal.
We have come to this point because of conservative ideology. In 1978 conservatives pushed through a radical fix to the property tax problem, ensuring that California would eventually run out of money to pay for its core services - health care, schools, buses. That day of reckoning was postponed through gimmick after gimmick, whether it was borrowing or the long credit bubble promoted by Alan Greenspan and the Republicans. But eventually, it would catch up with us.
Even worse, in 1978 Proposition 13 extended the 2/3rds rule for passing a budget to all taxes, both state and local. Even when 60% of voters want to pass a tax increase to pay for schools, that's not enough. And so California slowly bled money, as the structural revenue shortfall grew year after year.
What Republicans have effectively done is sentence California to 30 years of slowly decaying finances - and when the inevitable crisis comes, have given themselves a veto over the solution.
This situation is intolerable. The 2/3rds rule is a primary reason why the current budget deal is so flawed. Without it we could pressure Democrats to pass a much fairer budget instead of having to try and force Republicans to do the right thing (which as you know is not exactly easy).
The true solution to the budget mess isn't the deal currently up for vote, although it will stop the worst from happening. The only way we can fix California and provide economic recovery is to change the way the state is governed. We need to eliminate the 2/3rds rule and call a Constitutional Convention to return power to the people.
Below is the full text of the email we sent to our members regarding Senator Abel Maldonado's obstructionism.
Your phone call tonight or tomorrow -- and the calls of your friends and family -- can save California from a financial catastrophe.
It's all over the national news: California needs just one more vote in the state Senate to finally pass a budget that will address our massive $41 billion deficit. Just as Republicans tried to block President Barack Obama's stimulus package, California Republicans are trying to block the only solution, flawed though it is, that can keep the state from collapse.
That one vote is Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado. The state Senate will be in session indefinitely, locked in the Capitol through the night or until a budget passes.
Please call Senator Maldonado's office right now and tell him to vote "Yes" on the budget:
State Senator Abel Maldonado: (916) 651-4015
Then report the results of your call here:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/SaveCalifornia
California's government is fundamentally broken. We need to fix it. But first, we have to surmount this budget deficit crisis, and that means approving this budget.
This budget is far from ideal -- it relies on too many cuts and too much borrowing. And it does nothing to fix the system. But it's the only thing standing between us and a systemic collapse of California.
Republicans want the state government to fail completely. They are willing to "drown government in the bathtub," as Republican master strategist Grover Norquist demanded under the Bush Administration. It's time we stood up and stopped Norquist and his conservative shock troops.
Abel Maldonado is my state senator. I did not vote for him, and I wish we didn't have to turn to him in this moment of crisis. Because the state constitution requires a 2/3rds vote to pass a budget -- one of only three states in the country that does so -- we have no other choice. Republican delays have already led to 20,000 public workers being laid off today. 38,000 more people will be laid off tomorrow. Health care services and schools are in immediate danger of losing funding.
We, who live in Maldonado's district, have been burning up the phone lines all day trying to get him to stop obstructing and vote yes. Now we need your help, no matter where you live in California.
At this pivotal moment in California's history, we ALL live in Abel Maldonado's "district." Please call (916) 651-4015 and ask Senator Maldonado to save California by passing this budget. Then report the results of your call here:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/SaveCalifornia
Thank you for taking action to save California.
Robert Cruickshank
Public Policy Director
That raises the question, of course, of whether this budget deal is a good deal. It is not. It has numerous flaws - it relies on too many cuts to services and too much borrowing. The tax increases, while overdue, don't always make sense. Shouldn't a gas tax increase fund more public transportation, not less? Why a sales tax over taxes on the wealthy and oil companies?
Unfortunately, 30 years of conservative misrule has brought California to a point where we have two bad choices - a bad budget deal, or financial collapse. The longer California goes without a budget, the more workers that will be laid off, the more debt the state will rack up, and the deeper into a severe recession we will slide. Before we can fix the state, we have to stop the bleeding.
Today 20,000 public workers got pink slips because the state does not have the money to pay them. Tomorrow 38,000 workers will be laid off when 276 infrastructure projects are shut down because of the budget delay. At this point our choice is between more of this, and a flawed budget deal.
We have come to this point because of conservative ideology. In 1978 conservatives pushed through a radical fix to the property tax problem, ensuring that California would eventually run out of money to pay for its core services - health care, schools, buses. That day of reckoning was postponed through gimmick after gimmick, whether it was borrowing or the long credit bubble promoted by Alan Greenspan and the Republicans. But eventually, it would catch up with us.
Even worse, in 1978 Proposition 13 extended the 2/3rds rule for passing a budget to all taxes, both state and local. Even when 60% of voters want to pass a tax increase to pay for schools, that's not enough. And so California slowly bled money, as the structural revenue shortfall grew year after year.
What Republicans have effectively done is sentence California to 30 years of slowly decaying finances - and when the inevitable crisis comes, have given themselves a veto over the solution.
This situation is intolerable. The 2/3rds rule is a primary reason why the current budget deal is so flawed. Without it we could pressure Democrats to pass a much fairer budget instead of having to try and force Republicans to do the right thing (which as you know is not exactly easy).
The true solution to the budget mess isn't the deal currently up for vote, although it will stop the worst from happening. The only way we can fix California and provide economic recovery is to change the way the state is governed. We need to eliminate the 2/3rds rule and call a Constitutional Convention to return power to the people.
Below is the full text of the email we sent to our members regarding Senator Abel Maldonado's obstructionism.
Your phone call tonight or tomorrow -- and the calls of your friends and family -- can save California from a financial catastrophe.
It's all over the national news: California needs just one more vote in the state Senate to finally pass a budget that will address our massive $41 billion deficit. Just as Republicans tried to block President Barack Obama's stimulus package, California Republicans are trying to block the only solution, flawed though it is, that can keep the state from collapse.
That one vote is Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado. The state Senate will be in session indefinitely, locked in the Capitol through the night or until a budget passes.
Please call Senator Maldonado's office right now and tell him to vote "Yes" on the budget:
State Senator Abel Maldonado: (916) 651-4015
Then report the results of your call here:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/SaveCalifornia
California's government is fundamentally broken. We need to fix it. But first, we have to surmount this budget deficit crisis, and that means approving this budget.
This budget is far from ideal -- it relies on too many cuts and too much borrowing. And it does nothing to fix the system. But it's the only thing standing between us and a systemic collapse of California.
Republicans want the state government to fail completely. They are willing to "drown government in the bathtub," as Republican master strategist Grover Norquist demanded under the Bush Administration. It's time we stood up and stopped Norquist and his conservative shock troops.
Abel Maldonado is my state senator. I did not vote for him, and I wish we didn't have to turn to him in this moment of crisis. Because the state constitution requires a 2/3rds vote to pass a budget -- one of only three states in the country that does so -- we have no other choice. Republican delays have already led to 20,000 public workers being laid off today. 38,000 more people will be laid off tomorrow. Health care services and schools are in immediate danger of losing funding.
We, who live in Maldonado's district, have been burning up the phone lines all day trying to get him to stop obstructing and vote yes. Now we need your help, no matter where you live in California.
At this pivotal moment in California's history, we ALL live in Abel Maldonado's "district." Please call (916) 651-4015 and ask Senator Maldonado to save California by passing this budget. Then report the results of your call here:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/SaveCalifornia
Thank you for taking action to save California.
Robert Cruickshank
Public Policy Director
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