Senator Steinberg, I realize that you are not inclined to listen to
the concerns of ordinary taxpayers so you will probably ignore this
message — hmmm, perhaps if we called ourselves a taxpayers “union”
that would get your attention. Also, if you do read this, it will
probably not be for several weeks as, immediately after the
California Senate voted on the budget amendments, you jetted off to
Hawaii.
In the political arena, citizens have come to expect a certain
amount of dissembling from their elected officials. But even
expecting a “normal” level of nonsense from politicians, there are
certain moments when we hear something so profoundly inane from
elected representatives that our jaws drop.
On Thursday, you addressed reporters in the hallway of the Capitol
to discuss the schedule of taking the vote on the negotiated budget
amendments. One of your observations, unprompted by any reporter’s
question, was as follows:
“In California, one of the things we need to fix is the fact that we
make these decisions with one hand tied behind our backs. The
two-thirds requirement does not allow [for] a real discussion about
revenue. And I think the people, from what I’ve been told, and what
I’ve been hearing over the last several days, when it comes to the
cuts side, we’re saying enough is enough. Whenever this is over,
with whatever time we are able to buy here, we are going to work to
fix what we know is broken about this system.”
So, Senator, you say the two-thirds vote has prevented a real
discussion about state revenue. Excuse us, but taxpayers clearly
remember you presiding over the State Senate back in February — if
you have already forgotten, you really do need a Hawaiian vacation
— when the California Legislature passed the largest tax increase
ever enacted by any statehouse in the history of America and it did
so with a two-thirds vote.
How is it, then, that you can say with a straight face that the
two-thirds vote is a barrier to revenue increases? The two-thirds
vote certainly hasn’t prevented California from being one of the
highest taxed state in America. If it has provided any protection at
all, it has merely prevented California’s economy from being
transformed by you and your special interest government employee
union backers into an American version of the North Korean
lifestyle.
Fortunately, the majority of Californians do not share your views on
the two-thirds vote. It remains overwhelmingly popular in poll after
poll. This support for the two-thirds vote is no doubt based, at
least in part, on the continued perception that Sacramento’s woes
are due to overspending and not lack of revenue.
About the same time that you were holding court before reporters on
Thursday, Rasmussen issued a poll of Californians showing that
seventy-eight percent (78%) say a bigger problem is the
unwillingness of politicians to control government spending rather
than voters’ unwillingness to pay enough in taxes. Only 13% say
voter reluctance to pay more taxes is a bigger problem.
Rather than focus on undermining one of the few protections that
California taxpayers enjoy so that you can increase taxes, perhaps
as soon as you return from Hawaii you ought to focus on the
long-neglected reforms this state so desperately needs. If you are
looking for instances of government waste, fraud and abuse in the
use of taxpayers’ dollars, this is the one area where California
already suffers an embarrassment of riches.