There was only one sour note when Democrat Darrell Steinberg, the state Senate’s boss, bounced Republican Tom Berryhill from his post as chairman of the Senate Food and Agriculture Committee last week for telling reporters that the state budget “is really not our (Republicans’) problem.”

It should have been Republican Bob Dutton, the Senate minority leader, who slapped Berryhill upside the head.

The absolute last thing California Republicans need right now is to be seen as the party that really doesn’t care about the budget, the politicians who are perfectly content to sit back and just say no to whatever the Democrats come up with.

Picture Rome, Nero and a fiddle.

Ever since he was elected in November, Gov. Jerry Brown has been warning Californians that the only way out of the state’s financial mess is for everyone to pull together.

You’ve heard of government programs before. The U.N.’s “Oil for Food” Program, to name one government-subsidized program for the truly needy.

Does a Legislator qualify as a truly needy soul?

There is one program operating right here in California that I call “Cars for Legislators” which, despite criticism, is still guzzling up hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds every year. Governor Brown was right last week to take away the cell phones of non-essential State workers in order to save the state $20 Million; Governor Brown ought to put the brakes on cars for Legislators as well.

The SacBee’s Patrick McGreevy reported over the weekend that “newly-elected Luis Alejo, a Democrat, is taking delivery of a 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid, worth $37,269.” And the Democrats aren’t alone. Tim Donnelly, one of the Assembly’s most conservative new members – and a Tea Party darling at that – just took delivery of a brand-spankin’ new Ford Edge. (Don’t even get me started on Cathleen Galgiani’s new Ford Mustang — the visual there is just too much.)

Jerry Brown is being applauded for bringing honesty to the California budget process. True, compared to his predecessor, his blunt talk is refreshing. (He abstains from using the word “fantastic” in every sentence). Also, he hasn’t minced words in describing the scope of the problem. But let’s deconstruct whether he has been entirely honest in his handling of the budget as well as the plan itself.

First, to the extent he was saying, “we had no idea it was this bad,” the reality is, yes he did. Everyone did. For years fiscal conservatives have warned about the impending disaster both in terms of overspending and the extraordinary level of debt being racked up by state, much of it consisting accounting maneuvers for the purpose of kicking the budget can down the road.

Second, during the campaign, he pointedly said that “everything is on the table.” But that’s not quite true either. His budget plan lacks any real reforms. Where is the pension reform? What will be done to blunt the power of the unions? What about more efficient ways to deliver public services? For example, why does California continue to spend twice the national average to incarcerate one prisoner for a year? The real answer to this is that he has refrained from putting anything “on the table” likely to anger the unions – the very interests that financed his campaign. (Sure, the unions will cry crocodile tears over the cuts, but there is nothing here that threatens their power).

In commemoration of the Martin Luther King holiday, below is printed King’s "I Have a Dream" address as delivered August 28, 1963 in Washington, D.C.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Can Proposition 25 be used to place a tax increase on the June special election ballot? Joel Fox argues today (January 13) that it cannot. I think it can and should.

Proposition 25 allows the budget to be passed by a majority vote of the legislature. It does not change the requirement of a two thirds vote to increase taxes. Placing the question of increasing taxes before the voters is different; the voters not the legislature will be increasing taxes.

Gov. Brown is unwilling to cut the budget by $20 billion plus, the kind of cuts that are necessary to balance the budget without a tax increase. Instead he has a number of questionable cuts (like Medical that may depend on a favorable Supreme Court ruling) and Schwarzenegger-style funding shifts (like transferring First Five money and Proposition 63 money to the general fund).

And none of this will work without about $12 billion in additional revenues that Brown can only get by extending the 2009 car tax, sales tax and income tax increases. And that requires a vote of the people.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association hosted a taxpayers’ summit yesterday in Sacramento and, along with other state and local taxpayer groups, presented a united front against the proposed tax increases and extensions in Governor Brown’s budget.

Anticipating a well-funded campaign by public sector unions in support of the tax increases, HJTA president Jon Coupal argued that a vocal and concentrated effort could still defeat the taxes. Pointing out that the last six tax increase measures on the state ballot were defeated, Coupal said supporters of the tax measures could outspend opponents by ten to one and still lose. Public employee unions are expected to contribute millions of dollars to pass the tax increases, if they qualify for the ballot.

Before there is an election campaign over taxes, the legislature must put the tax measures on the ballot. State Republican Party official and publisher of the FlashReport website, Jon Fleischman, indicated that his survey of the Republican legislators showed no support to move the tax measures forward. He noted that all Republican legislators who voted for the tax increase in 2009 were no longer in the Capitol.

During his inaugural address, Gov.
Jerry Brown urged legislators to leave their political comfort zones, unite as
Californians, honestly assess our budget deficits and make the tough decisions
required for the long-term good of California.

There is no better issue to
demonstrate a welcome bipartisan resolve than reforming California’s state and
local public employee pension systems.

With projected state and local
unfunded retirement benefit liabilities as much as $700 billion, state leaders
cannot make a serious impact on our fiscal health without substantial,
fundamental change in these far too generous benefits.

With still more than two years left on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s term, the race to replace him is beginning to pick up. One indication is a dinner event I attended this week organized by well-known Los Angeles publicist, Michael Levine, founder of Levine Communications Office to introduce LA City Controller Wendy Greuel to an eclectic but interested followers of the local political scene.

The current controller and one time city councilwoman from the San Fernando Valley is considering a run for the mayor’s post and has been encouraged to run by many associates.

Greuel was peppered with questions throughout the evening on issues of city policy and politics from the movie producers, radio reporters, restaurant owner, chef, business executives, attorney and others who made up the twenty attendees.

Governor Jerry Brown has stated that he wants his tax extension proposals to be placed on a special election ballot by a bipartisan effort. However, Brown and others have hinted that if Republicans don’t go along there may be other ways to put the tax increases before the people with a simple majority vote.

In his column yesterday, the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters suggested two ways the majority vote method might be accomplished. One way would be to amend previously passed statutory initiatives. Loren Kaye has expounded on this possibility a number of times on this site.

The second approach would rely on the recently passed Proposition 25, which allows a budget to be passed with a majority vote along with permitting budget implementing legislation to be passed with a majority vote.