With a ballooning state budget deficit, Governor Brown’s decision to end budget negotiations is delaying California’s economic recovery.
With governors across the nation rightsizing their state governments by reducing spending and taxes, California continues to keep its foot on the accelerator.
By failing to control excessive spending, implement structural reform including 2-year budget, spending caps, pension reform, and civil service reform, along with eliminating and consolidating agencies, departments and the state’s 339 boards and commissions, the Governor continues our state’s multi-billion dollar deficit denying job creation and vital resources for every school district, city and county.
California spends about $45,000 per year on each prison inmate — the highest among the 10 most populous states whose average is just over $27,000. The LA Times reported that a partially-paralyzed, 57-year-old prisoner shackled to his bed in a Sacramento-area hospital requires the presence of two prison guards and a supervisor — costing California taxpayers about $800,000 a year.
The media show is over — it is time to act. The Governor must break the shackles of the old "tax and spend" mentality and tackle the state’s budget crisis head-on.