Turning the Art of Compromise into a Criminal Offense
Core elements of California’s budget problem were exposed in the political ploy by labor and environmental groups charging that Republican legislators are offering to trade votes in the budget talks.
The union and environmental groups sent a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown charging GOP legislators with offering to trade their budget votes for a loosening of labor and environmental laws. Leaders from the California Labor Federation, State Building and Construction Trades Council, Conservation League and Sierra Club say that changes in environmental and labor laws have nothing to do with the budget; therefore, trading a vote on the budget and/or taxes for labor and environmental reforms is illegal.
Revenue government collects from private sector activity has everything to do with the budget and the current budget crisis. Allowing business to grow will produce more revenue. Putting restrictions on business will limit revenue.
Cowards, Bullies and Bluffs
Hiram Johnson, the famous early 20th century California governor who was elected as a Republican only to ditch the party less than two years later for a new Progressive Party, was fond of saying this: “You can’t make a man a coward by pointing a pistol at his head. You can only prove him a coward.”
Johnson was defending the concept of a recall of elected officials and judges. (President Taft had spoken out against the idea of adding a recall provision to the California constitution, and Johnson had to defend the recall in the successful 1911 campaign to add direct democracy to the state constitution.
I’ve been thinking about Hiram’s comment as California politics melts down into a lava sea of bitter threats. Labor types are threatening to recall or end the political careers of Democrats they don’t like—and demanding criminal investigation of Republican lawmakers engaged in the usual political horse-trading. The Republican party has countered with threats to excommunicate lawmakers who even contemplate voting for tactics. And some talk show hosts (several of whom face declining ratings and relevance in this era) are demanding “heads on sticks” for lawmakers who vote for taxes.
State Spins Wheels on Mass Transit
If you ask David Fleming about L.A.’s infamous traffic congestion, he’ll tell you it is one of the most complained-about problems of doing business here. In fact, Fleming, who’s chairman of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, said when that organization last year surveyed its members, traffic was the No. 1 concern.
Heck, it’s a big issue for just about every one of the 10 million of us who live in Los Angeles County and who spend countless and needless hours inching our way along streets that seem more like moving parking lots.
So that’s why he was flummoxed last week about what’s been going on in Sacramento. State legislators are seriously toying with the idea of pinching off a funding source for L.A. County’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, the agency that runs buses and commuter trains.
It looks like the MTA could lose about 16 percent of its budget not only now but in the future, and that upsets Fleming, who also is a director on MTA’s board. (Believe it or not, the guy sits on 14 boards.)
How to solve a thorny tax problem
While debate rages in Washington, DC over the size and extent of the economic stimulus legislation, a similar discussion is taking place in Sacramento behind closed doors: If California receives five-, ten-, or twenty-billion dollars in federal stimulus aid, how should it be used?
The Administration supports using the stimulus funds to repay or offset any borrowing needed to balance the budget.
Legislative Democrats and interest groups want to use the stimulus money to offset program cuts.
But the most economically effective and fiscally responsible use of part of the stimulus funds would be to offset one of the most egregious tax increases from last year.