Jerry Brown 2: Something Old or Something New?
Jerry Brown is sworn is as governor today, 28 years after he left the office. The world has changed considerably since the young Jerry Brown was governor and undoubtedly Brown has changed as well over that time. Will Brown govern differently or rely on the old playbook from years ago?
Word is that the new governor plans to deal with a massive budget deficit by proposing deep cuts but also offering the voters an opportunity to continue temporary taxes that are set to expire. Cuts and tax increases are suggested as an immediate solution to the state’s deficit problem but the cuts/taxes mix is old school thinking.
Refashioning a 19th century government to 21st century realities is an opportunity the new governor should not pass up. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to restructure state government when he was elected but did not follow through. His best opportunity occurred at the beginning of his administration but he did not press that advantage.
The Working Families Tax Increase
So Gov. Jerry Brown has bought into the Working Families Tax Increase. That’s the name that ought to be given to the extension of the 2009 tax increase that Brown is making part of his 2011 budget solution. His problem is that voters have already given it a good look, and said “no.”
In May 2009, then Gov. Schwarzenegger and legislature asked the voters to save a tax increase just passed as part of a February budget deal by extending $8 billion in new taxes to 2013. Republicans demanded a sweetener for putting the tax on the ballot; a complex “rainy day” fund that would limit future state spending.
Although both parties bought off on this ballot measure, Proposition 1A on the May 19, 2009 special election ballot, the voters did not. It lost by 30 points and failed to carry a single county. So now the tax increase expires this June, and that is what Brown wants to restore.
So why call it a Working Families Tax Increase? Look at what it does; the measure increases the state’s car tax from .65 percent of a vehicle’s value to 1.15 percent. It raises the state’s sale tax by one cent, to an average of about nine percent statewide. And it raises each personal income tax bracket by .25 percent. These tax increases are highly regressive; they are not based on ability to pay, especially the sales tax hike, and they fall hardest on working families.
Schwarzenegger Did Good Things
Michael Hiltzik’s recent column dumps cold water on Governor Schwarzenegger’s administration primarily because the Governor properly refused to raise property taxes. The reality is that in the midst of immense challenges, Governor Schwarzenegger achieved good things. One of those was reforming California’s broken workers compensation system. For Hiltzik to say that Arnold’s historic reforms did not go far enough is like saying the San Francisco Giants won the World Series but they could have done better. I have worked with several previous Governors on workers comp reform and none came close to what Schwarzenegger was able to achieve.
The California Cheerleaders Are at it Again
Cross-posted at NewGeography.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and economist Stephen Levy published a piece in the Los Angeles Times that argues that California doesn’t really have any fundamental problems. In their piece, Lockyer and Levy don their rose-colored glasses and give us the same tired old excuses, twisted logic, and factual inaccuracies.
I’ll begin with the factual inaccuracies:
Lockyer and Levy claim that California is the state with the youngest population. That is just incorrect. The U.S. Census website has a map. California is not even the same color as that used to identify the lowest-aged states.
Will his failures save the state?
Originally published in the Los Angeles Times.
As he leaves office, Arnold Schwarzenegger is emphasizing his successes as governor. But it is his failures that need more public attention, because they may represent his greatest and most lasting contribution to California.
To understand this governorship, one must recognize a fundamental dichotomy. On matters in which Schwarzenegger had a healthy amount of control — orders he could execute with a pen, legislation that could pass with a simple majority of the Legislature, even ballot initiatives he could champion and pay for personally — the governor has much to brag about. He can point to landmark climate change legislation, bipartisan appointments made on merit, infrastructure bonds that represent a down payment on the rebuilding of California, workers’ compensation reform and voter-approved political reforms to the redistricting process and primary election rules.
But on fiscal and budgetary matters, Schwarzenegger suffered defeat after defeat. The state’s fiscal record after his seven years — California has the same budget deficit now as in 2003, with a much larger debt — has led commentators across the political spectrum to write him off as a failed governor. That conclusion has a factual basis — and is deeply wrong. And it obscures the most interesting and important lesson of his governorship. Put simply: The sheer number and surpassing scale of Schwarzenegger’s failures to fix the state budget constitute a grand and peculiar success, especially if Californians heed the lessons they provide.