Constitutional Refresher Course Needed for Messrs Steinberg and Lockyer
The Sacramento Bee recently reported that both Senate President Pro Tem Darryl Steinberg (an attorney) and Treasurer Bill Lockyer (an attorney) are suggesting that the Legislature will cut funding for certain government services and programs to citizens in GOP districts if the legislator representing said districts refuse to budge on tax increases to close the budget deficit.
Steinberg is reported to have said: “You don’t want to pay for government, well then, you get less of it.” Further, he is quoted as saying: “When it comes to kids or the vulnerable, I wouldn’t want to make distinctions between who lives in a Democratic district and who lives in a Republican district, but when it comes to sort of basic services, convenience services that affect adults … I have an open mind.”
The Bee reported that the Treasurer shares the same view, stating that Lockyer “has suggested that an all-cuts state budget should focus on the districts of lawmakers who oppose putting $11 billion in tax extensions before voters.”
Hasta La Vista, Austerity
So much
for austerity.
In his
first billion-dollar giveaway that places Union bosses ahead of struggling
taxpayers, Governor Jerry Brown shows in deed that it’s business as usual at
the Capitol these days.
On
Monday, the Senate is scheduled to vote on Senate Bill (SB) 151 – the quickest
giveaway of taxpayer dollars to a political ally that I can remember in recent
history.
In a
deal between Governor Jerry Brown and the prison guards’ Union in California
last week, Brown agreed to a contract that removes the limit of vacation days
and other days off that prison guards can "cash in" on when they retire – all
at their highest rate of pay. We’re talking big money here. Nearly a billion
dollars. Now, I know that prison guards work hard. In fact, I’ve been on a tour
to one of their facilities with a candidate, and I appreciate their keeping us
safe despite a skirmish in the yard. But come on. Under the current system,
prison guards are already entitled to eight weeks of vacation annually. I know
of no other employee (hard worker or not) who has that much time off, outside
of maybe France.
California… Can You Hear Me Now?
Apparently you can’t. So far this year the Assembly Judiciary Committee has blown bills containing legal reform out of the water like sitting ducks. I’m not sure what it will take for the Legislature to embrace legal reform, but the evidence that lawsuit abuse is costing California jobs is mounting.
This past Sunday in The Sacramento Bee, Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants headquartered in Carpenteria wrote anop-ed about what California has to do to add jobs and make this state prosper once again. He laid out the question of whether California is a smart place to expand your business considering the tax, regulatory and legal climates or if it is smarter to just head to Texas. If you have not read it, you should. It should be required reading, especially for our Legislators on the Judiciary Committee.
What was more surprising is that he said in the 10 years he has been a CEO, he has never received a call from one of California’s Governors. It seems like the only time he spoke to a Governor was when Governor Perry of Texas called him to thank him for expanding the number of restaurants in his state. The Governor also asked what it would take to move CKE’s headquarters to Texas.
What Have We Done?
Autism Awareness Month is coming to a close. Despite all of the “angels” that are out there in the world who are seeking answers to the why and how of autism or who educate children and adults with autism, I am left with a sense of foreboding. Perhaps it is a reflection of my own mortality viewed through the prism of my daughter who is autistic and who is now a young adult.
My daughter is part of the initial and growing wave of rapidly aging individuals diagnosed with autism. She lives in a state and a society which is completely unprepared, and perhaps incapable, of dealing with her needs. I wake up in the night, wondering what her life will be like when my wife and I are gone. It is at those moments that fear creeps in.