Old men are warning us about a war that has already started.
Across the
spectrum, people from Gov. Jerry Brown to Mr. Fox, proprietor of this web site,
say that if there is no budget deal, we will see a "war of all against all" in
this state.
Hasn’t that
war been going on for at least a generation?
In the
1970s, court decisions on school finance, Prop 13 and the post-Prop 13 bailout
of local governments centralized decisions about tax and spending in
Sacramento. That meant everyone was competing in the same place for the same
pie.
What
happened? Anyone who wanted their interest to survive hired lobbyists,
political consultants, and, in many cases, signature gatherers to carve out
their piece of the centralized pie. The "winners" in this war (since there are
no winners in war, these might be more accurately called "those who lost less")
– K-14 education, prisons — secured special deals that make it, at the very
least, harder to take their money away.
The losers – higher ed, social services – didn’t, in part because they
were too precious or too poor to fight.
And just as
each spring in Afghanistan brings a new Taliban offensive, each budget season
reliably sparks new battles in the war.
Brown’s
budget, as much as it’s been touted, will only extend the war. It provides both
cuts and temporary revenues over which to fight. Unfortunately, the peacemaking
gestures in his budget – and the way to peace is to decentralize power, so
decisions on taxation and spending are made in the local level – seem unlikely
to survive.
That’s
because today’s Sacramento is built upon this war. Much of the town – from the
politicians to political consultants to the press – makes a living from the
fights. Which is why peace won’t come to California from Sacramento deal making.
It will have to come from outside.
Probably in
the same way that General Sherman brought peace to the South.