Will the 2011 Budget include tax increases?
The election of Jerry Brown brings to the policy mix his commitment to submit tax increases to a public vote. The passage of Proposition 25 gives to the Democratic majority in the Legislature, and Governor Brown, the ability to shape the next state budget to meet their vision and priorities, without the need to seek votes from the Republican minority.
If the Governor or his legislative allies want to achieve their budget goals in part with new taxes, how could they do it?
First, voter approval could only be obtained by calling a statewide special election, which itself is certainly not unusual. California voters have participated in three special elections between 2003 and 2009. Some observers believe that the most likely date would be May 17, which coincides with the Los Angeles mayoral election. This date is convenient because it lands just shy of a month before the beginning of the fiscal year, by which time the Legislature must approve a budget or forfeit their pay.
Did Whitman’s Bad Campaign Really Matter?
Tony Quinn was right on target in his criticism of the Meg Whitman campaign, which will go down in history as one of the laziest and most arrogant of all time. With all that money, you would think they would come up with messages that amounted to more than content-free pabulum about better schools, leaner government and balanced budgets. They managed to use Governor Schwarzenegger’s rhetoric without the substance of his proposals to address these challenges. Why, with all there was to say about Jerry Brown’s first two terms as Governor, did they put up such smarmy, unconvincing attack ads that lacked a kernel of truth? I guess the consultants are crying all the way to the bank, but the most creative thing to come out of the Whitman camp were Mike Murphy’s protestations that the race was a dead heat at the end.
Murphy’s boom fog was rivaled only by Garry South’s non-stop criticism of the Brown campaign for months on end at full volume. South kept predicting gloom and doom because the Brown campaign didn’t fight back with TV in May and June and waged a barely visible campaign during the summer doldrums. According to South, Brown was digging a hole he couldn’t climb out of. Never mind that Jerry Brown had spent 40 years being conspicuous to California voters, often to his detriment. No introduction was necessary and when you are facing an unlimited war chest, it makes sense to hold your fire until you can see the whites of their eyes.
The Smackdown Of The Creative Class
Cross posted at NewGeography.com.
Two years ago I hailed Barack Obama’s election as “the triumph of the creative class.” On election day everything reversed, as middle-class Americans smacked down their putative new ruling class of highly educated urbanistas and college town denizens.
More than anything, this election marked a shift in American class dynamics. In 2008 President Obama managed to win enough middle-class, suburban voters to win an impressive victory. This year, those same voters deserted, rejecting policies more geared to the “creative class” than mainstream America.
A term coined by urban guru Richard Florida, “the creative class” also covers what David Brooks more cunningly calls “bourgeois bohemians”–socially liberal, well-educated, predominately white, upper middle-class voters. They are clustered largely in expensive urban centers, along the coasts, around universities and high-tech regions. To this base, Obama can add the welfare dependents, virtually all African-Americans, and the well-organized legions of public employees.
L.A. Homes In on Businesses
The unemployment rate in the city of Los Angeles is 13.7 percent. If you’re jobless in a job-scarce era, there is a classic way to escape your predicament: start your own business. Even if you sell ice cream from a cart or take in sewing, you can make it in America.
But maybe not if you’re in Los Angeles. That was the message from a study released last week from the Institute for Justice. It laid bare a city that discourages small-business startups and chokes its entrepreneurs in red tape so absurd you’d think the rules and regulations were written by Samuel Beckett.
For example, a video that accompanies the report said if you want to start a simple shop that sells used books, “You’ll need a permit from the police to operate. You’ll have to be fingerprinted. Anyone who sells you books may need to be fingerprinted, too. For every book you buy, you’ll have to stamp it with an individualized number that corresponds to the bill of sale that identifies the book and who it came from. Police get to inspect those bills of sale and – hold on – you’ll also have to hold books for at least 30 days before you sell them. Just in case the police have any questions.”