Getting California Off The Revenue Rollercoaster
The people elected me to fix what was broken in Sacramento. Together, we have tackled the big issues, whether it is workers’ compensation, infrastructure, redistricting or the budget.
Now, we have a historic opportunity to reform another broken system and help unleash a new wave of prosperity across our state.
California’s tax system was created nearly 100 years ago, before the Great Depression. It is outdated and antiquated, and no longer works in our technology and information-based economy.
That’s why last October, I joined Democrat and Republican leaders to form a bipartisan Commission on the 21st Century Economy.
Composed of economic experts from all political stripes, its mission was to study California’s tax code and propose reforms to make the system more stable, more fair, more simple and more conducive to economic growth.
No Sympathy for State Union on Columbus Day
It’s Columbus Day morning and members of the SEIU Local 1000 have threatened not to come to work today. Whether they do or not, the mere threat is another poke in the eye of the typical California private sector worker, whether a private union member or not.
The public union members seem to have placed themselves above other workers in demands that they cannot be furloughed or laid off during a recession that has seen California unemployment reach more than 12%. There are rallies even today at Cal State Universities protesting public cuts while private workers suffer silently or scramble for new work.
Then of course there is the pension debacle. State and local governments are headed toward bankruptcy if the pension promises demanded by the public sector workers are not reformed. Imagine how the private sector worker feels, many of whom don’t have a pension or have difficulty contributing to one, when they will have to pay out of their own pockets to cover comfortable or even outrageous pensions for public workers who retire relatively early.
The George Retention
It appears California will have an election next year that turns on the big questions of constitutional change, the budget, and the problems of the initiative process.
Which election is that? Not the governor’s race, which is unlikely to produce a debate of real substance. Ballot initiative reforms? It’s far from clear that the constitutional convention or any of the things produced by California Forward will make the ballot.
No, the election most likely to focus on the big questions is the retention election for California Supreme Court Justice Ronald George.
California Supreme Court justices are appointed to the bench. But every 12 years, they have to face voters, who decide whether to retain them. A justice facing retention is usually advised to be cautious and keep his head down. But George seems to be courting opposition.
Governor Backs Off Veto Threat
Well, the governor didn’t get the water deal he wanted – at least not yet – but he decided to declare victory anyway and sign the bills on his desk by the midnight deadline.
Some of them, anyway. Although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally announced around 9:30 p.m. Sunday that he would “weigh all the bills on their merits,” plenty of them came up short on his scales. Of the 685 bills released by 3 a.m. this morning, the governor signed 456 and vetoed 229. That’s less than last year’s record rejection rate of 36 percent.
Although you’ll never hear it from Team Schwarzenegger, the threat to veto virtually every bill passed by the Legislature last month ultimately turned out to be little more than bluff and bluster. Or, to put it more delicately, a negotiating ploy. By the end of the evening, his loud demand for a complete, signed and sealed water deal had morphed into a vague statement that “we have made enough progress in our negotiations … while we still have a few remaining issues to work out.”
Field Poll suggests trouble ahead for Boxer
The latest Field Poll is out, and Senator Barbara Boxer has cause for great concern.
The word in Washington is already that Boxer, a 17-year incumbent, is among the most vulnerable Democrat Senators seeking re-election next year. Despite being a Democrat incumbent in a blue state that that voted strongly for Obama, Boxer consistently polls well below her colleague Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) and evokes much stronger negative responses from voters in polls than her fellow California senator.
After last week’s Field Poll, the state’s junior senator can be expected to step up her re-election efforts. She needs to.
Boxer is a three term incumbent, and well known to Californians. Yet she only earns the support of 51% of registered voters. Because incumbents are inherently better known among voters than challengers, the rule of thumb is that any incumbent who scores at or below 50% of likely voters has cause for concern.