Taxes were RAISED in this Budget
At a Los Angeles press conference this morning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pleaded with the press to write a complete story about the budget stand-off.
Challenged by a reporter’s question on why he wouldn’t raise taxes during this budget crisis while his Republican predecessors going back to Ronald Reagan raised taxes, the Governor seemed surprised. With a short laugh, Schwarzenegger reminded the reporter that California had raised taxes a record amount, $12.5 billion, just four months ago.
The Governor went on to lecture the reporters at the conference on the importance of presenting a complete story in their papers or broadcasts — Tell the tax increase side of the story when they report on the budget cuts.
While there were budget cuts in the February budget plan along with the tax increases, many of those “cuts” were for projected budget increases, not actual cuts as measured against the previous year’s spending.
The campaign to oppose the Governor’s budget plan asks for a common sense approach of budget cuts and tax increases — then forgets to mention the record tax increases from just four months ago.
Anger, Not Compromise, Now Rules Budget Fight
The Legislature is slated to shut down for a month-long recess on July 17, but given the slim chance for a quick agreement on the budget, legislators shouldn’t buy any non-refundable tickets.
As the state controller began Tuesday to print out the first batch of IOUs that will replace the cash money many state vendors, clients and taxpayers normally would receive, the governor and legislators reprised the old kindergarten game of “I didn’t do it, he did it.”
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened the game with a morning news conference in the Capitol, where he complained that the Legislature has spent the past four weeks with “an endless amount of hearings and debates, finger pointing and assigning blame,” instead of fixing the budget.
The governor then proceeded to finger point and assign blame, saying that legislators – meaning Democratic legislators — won’t support reforms to root out fraud in huge government programs like In-Home Support Services, are committed to protecting special interests and are refusing to make the same sacrifices they’re asking of other California residents.
Pete Wilson for Governor Again?
Would Pete Wilson run for governor against Jerry Brown if term limits did not deny that opportunity? “Hell, yes,” the former California governor said firmly, when asked that question by Fox and Hounds Daily contributor Joe Mathews before an audience earlier in the week. Wilson is the only Republican to defeat Brown in a statewide contest when both ran for the United States Senate in 1982.
Wilson attended a Zocalo Public Square event moderated by Mathews at Santa Monica’s RAND Corporation on Monday. During the one-hour discussion, Wilson relived the difficult early days of his governorship, which are eerily similar to California’s current circumstances.
Dealing with a budget deficit that equaled about one-third of the entire budget, Wilson agreed to equally cut spending and raise taxes, although he said he warned Democratic leaders the taxes would not bring in the revenue expected from the tax increase. For three budget years following the tax increase, Wilson said, the revenue was lower than the previous year.
Wilson argued the only thing worse than raising taxes was deficit spending, which he refused to do, claiming such an action leads to utter irresponsibility.
California’s New Homegrown Majority
Here’s a link to a recent report from USC researchers on the demographics of California. The headline is that California’s population is becoming more settled and homegrown. Today, more than 70 percent of Californians ages 15 to 24 were born and raised here. In 1990, barely half of that group — 53 percent — were born and raised here.
The report’s authors, including Dowell Myers, write that such figures suggest a new narrative for the stat — the “surprising transformation” of California from a “migration magnet” to a “more self-contained society that depends on its present members.” This new narrative suggests a different approach in policy — the new generation of homegrown Californians wants greater public services and is willing pay more in taxes.
We need more of a debate about this transformation. As a Californian, I’m not sure a more stable, homegrown state population is a welcome development. What makes California special is that it’s always been a destination for people from around the world and around the country — America’s America. Do we want to adapt this transformation that the USC study outlines, or should we attempt to reverse it?
Fictional Defense on Film
Normally, when someone writes an editorial or a letter to the editor that is critical of the Los Angeles Business Journal in some way or disagrees with me personally, we publish it without response from us. Reasonable people can disagree, after all, and everyone should have their say.
But this one, I can’t let pass.
The director of the new documentary “Bananas!” scolded me in a letter to the editor we published last week in the Business Journal. He said it was “irresponsible journalism” for the paper to publish, in the June 8 issue, an article on Page 1 headlined “The Big Slip-Up.”
His main complaint was that we hadn’t seen his movie, so we should not have written an article that made “conclusions as to its contents.” As a result, he said the reporter who produced the article, Alexa Hyland, and I “failed to conduct appropriate objective research.” He used words such as “outrage” and “offended.”