Not a Good Budget. Not a Smart Budget. But a Logical One
Looks like we’re getting a budget like we’ve had in the past. One put together containing more hopes and wishes than expressed by a class full of kindergarteners at Christmas. But it is actually a logical budget. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t say good. I didn’t say smart. But it is understandable how we got here.
This is an election year. The legislators were able to create a budget that didn’t raise taxes and place a wet blanket on the economy; nor did they eliminate welfare programs like CalWorks that keep people afloat in difficult times.
What they did was make a budget that hopes for a brighter future and generosity from Washington that they know will not come. Legislators hope the economy will recover and the money will suddenly appear. There is a danger in this strategy, of course. How many years in a row can this be done before the whole system falls apart?
Comment on the Budget Pension Reform
The 2nd tier benefits for new hires is an excellent move in the right
direction, and we hope this action will be copied by local agencies
throughout the state.
However, based on a new study released today, fiscal conditions are so
dire that we must also ask for more pension concessions from current
workers to avoid cuts in services, layoffs, and/or higher taxes.
Sacramento Sigalert: Paging Howard Beale!
Why is it that we Californians will watch a freeway chase of a car going nowhere fast? Fascinated with the police chase? Waiting for action, even a potential crash? Hoping for the ultimately real-time capture?
Oh for the same attention to Sacramento elected leaders in their "chase" of an illusive, timely, balanced state budget! But electeds’ glacial pace at solving legitimate problems of crisis proportion and budgetary inaction has become the "new normal"- and the equivalent of watching paint dry.
California’s economy is the largest of any state in the US, and is the eighth largest economy in the world. Is it not absolutely outrageous that elected leaders can’t seem to put a budget together in a timely fashion? Frankly, at this point almost any budget-including a "kick-the-can-down-the-street-until-the-next-governor" budget would be better than none. Beyond the partisan snipes and ideological warfare, this state’s millions of residents suffer while our legislators blithely attend to fundraising and upcoming election activity. Where is the constituent outrage?
Vote Yes on Prop 22 to Stop the State from Taking Local Funds
Robbing Peter to pay Paul has become budget politics-as-usual in
California. When state government faces major deficits, Sacramento
finds a way to siphon billions of dollars from local governments,
transit agencies and redevelopment funds in order to balance the state
budget. Prop. 22 would end the pirate raids and force Sacramento to
meet its own budget obligations rather than looting the locals.
Prop. 22 must seem like déjà vu to many Californians. In years past,
voters overwhelmingly approved initiatives that were meant to prevent
these raids. Unfortunately, those initiatives contained tiny loopholes
through which state lawmakers have managed to drive a Mack truck of
budget transfers.
Recent examples include Sacramento taking $85 million in funding
earmarked for L.A.’s Community Redevelopment Agency and more than $1
billion in transportation funding meant for MTA projects. Taking this
money away from local projects and using it to fill a perpetual state
budget deficit means a loss of jobs locally as infrastructure
improvements and commercial projects sit idle in the planning stages.