Budget Battle and the Ballot
Is Mac Taylor on to something? The Legislative Analyst suggested yesterday that if the legislature and the governor can’t solve the budget problem, hand the mess off to the voters and let them clear it up. Taylor proposed an April special election to deal not only with the measures all ready qualified for voter approval but also to put some budget and tax questions on the ballot as well.
Last year’s budget resolution – if you can call it that without laughing – included provisions on borrowing against future lottery profits and creating a rainy day fund, which need voter approval.
In addition, Taylor suggested some of the budget and revenue items discussed by the legislature such as the recent tax increase proposals and redirecting money from previously passed initiatives also be put up for voter approval.
When you consider that four initiatives* would be altered under Taylor’s plan to help the general fund you realize that the voters are already making budget decisions.
Only One Way Out Of California’s Mess: The People
It has become obvious that Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders of both parties simply won’t be able to reach a compromise that comes anywhere close to closing California’s rapidly growing budget deficit, now estimated at some $40 billion over two years. The state government is running low on cash. Within weeks, it may have to start paying people in IOUs.
Democrats simply won’t agree to enough cuts. Republicans won’t agree to tax increases, and they can block that because of the state’s requirement for a two-thirds vote. The Democrats’ convoluted (if politically smart) attempt to do an end run around two thirds and raise taxes by majority vote isn’t going anywhere; even if it’s revived and signed into law, it’s all but certain to get struck down in the courts or overturned by referendum. The governor you ask? Schwarzenegger has little credibility with lawmakers of either party. When it comes to big deals, he simply can’t close.
We can’t find anyone from California to fix computers? Seriously?
The Bee reported yesterday that the state has terminated its 2006 contract, with a going rate of $69 million, for the modernization of the state’s payroll and personnel computers. $25 million of the contract was already fulfilled at the time of termination.
It’s clearly a good thing to see the state hold a vendor accountable for not doing their job properly. The part that gets me is the company in question, BearingPoint, is based in Virginia. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for interstate commerce and saving money by going to a low bid, but could we seriously not find one company in California, the technology capitol of the world, to handle modernizing our state’s aging computer systems?
The performance of the Virginia firm was clearly deficient given the recent ‘computer troubles‘ we’ve seen from payroll and personnel, but performance aside, the state should not be sending $69 million out of the California economy when that same investment can be made within our own state, particularly within these troubling economic times.
Expand Our Firefighting Options
Higher taxes are not the answer to fight brush fires in San Diego County – we need to spend more of our existing funds protecting the public.
But just spending more money on public safety is not the only answer. Far from it.
Indeed, calls for spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually to expand the county professional firefighting forces to battle the next major wind-whipped brush fire – an event that happens once every 3 to 8 years – is madness. As it now stands, professional firefighters spend only 3-4% of their average shift actually fighting fires.
What will the hundreds of additional firefighters be doing 24/7, 365 days a year between those rare, huge brush fires? Besides getting paid, that is.