Brown’s ‘Scapegoat’ Remark is Telling
Attorney General and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown brushed aside concerns over public employee pay and benefits as a major cause of California’s troubles at a UC Santa Barbara political event.
As described in Calbuzz on Tuesday, Brown answered a question about government employee furloughs by charging that Republicans use the public employees as "scapegoats" for the state’s fiscal problems when the real problem is caused by Wall Street people who Brown conveniently tied to Republicans.
Brown’s defense of the public employee pensions and benefits is a telling message on an important issue concerning the state deficit. Brown, who signed into law collective bargaining when he was governor three decades ago giving the public unions more power, appears ready to defend the groups that are now supporting his candidacy.
Memo to Jerry, Meg and Steve: Still want to be Governor?
Here is the Legislative Analyst’s estimate of future structural budget deficits in the unlikely event that the Legislature adopts all the Governor’s May Revision proposals:
Brown’s Campaign Manager Lobbies Brown
Relax. This is an old story.
I’ve begun wading through boxes and boxes of papers from Jerry Brown’s first governorship, which are housed in a library at USC. I made a request last summer for access and complained publicly when I didn’t get an answer. Brown, who like all former governors can restrict access to his papers for at least 50 years after he leaves office, granted me access in February, though some issues with the library’s schedule for processing papers had delayed actual access for a couple months.
I’ve been through about 20 boxes out of hundreds. But there have been several small, fun finds, including a telegram sent to Brown at 5:13 p.m. on June 13, 1978, a week after the passage of Prop 13. The writer worries about whether tuition could be imposed at Cal State campuses as a result of Prop 13.
Two Views On The L.A. City Budget
The
following two articles provide differing views on the Los Angeles city
budget.
Dogs, Cats, Gang-bangers — and the City Hall Follies
By Ron Kaye
This is what we’ve come to: Four million people provide an average of
$1,700 each to City Hall for police, fire, paved streets and sidewalks,
parks and libraries and other basic services but all they care about is
dogs, cats and gang-bangers.
Welcome to the City Hall Follies — a burlesque that lasted 11 hours on
Monday and amounted to petty bickering and maneuvering to add another
$5 in fines for illegal parking so they can provide more jobs to
hoodlums and keep a closed-to-the-public warehouse with 167 unwanted
pets functioning.