The 2011-12
budget plan introduced by Governor Brown on Monday includes major pieces of the
fiscal puzzle that at long last will hopefully bring fiscal balance back to California.

Unlike prior
budget plans purporting to close the state’s widening deficits, this one
actually proposes long-term structural changes to bring California out of its
fiscal hole. One big difference is the budget proposed by Governor Brown does
not rely on one-time spending reductions or gimmicks. It seeks to permanently
change the makeup and extent of state spending to balance revenues and
expenditures. It is important to recognize that the plan anticipates extending
temporary revenue increases to get important state services – such as education
and health and human services – through an economic condition that is
improving, but not quickly enough.

The California Conservation Corps (CCC) will be 35 years old
this year. It is going strong and in fact is poised to expand. Its experience
is most relevant to a debate in California workforce circles today: what are
the needed job skills in the emerging California economy, and how young
Californians can best achieve these skills.  

The Corps was founded by Jerry Brown in July 1976, who
described it as "a combination Jesuit seminary, Israeli kibbutz and Marine
Corps boot camp." It sought to bring together California youth of various
backgrounds, income levels and races. The youth would be placed in residential
settings, outside of urban areas, and put to work on conservation tasks that were
real work: fire containment, trail construction, stream restoration, tree
planting. In this work, the youth would contribute to the California community,
and also develop the skills to navigate in the job world and in life.

Los Angeles and the state of California have never faced a more serious challenge regarding our education system. With our flat global economy, the success of our students has never been more important. Dramatic improvements to our education system must be made.

Last century, the United States had the highest college enrollment rate in the world, but by 2008 our standing had fallen to No. 16. Here in California, for the first time in our history, the current generation is expected to be less educated than its predecessor. Major cutbacks signaled this week in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget add to the challenges local school officials face. This collection of issues calls for outstanding leadership. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education displayed that leadership this morning when it announced its decision to select John Deasy as the district’s next superintendent.

Cross-posted at RonKayeLA.

Gov. Jerry Brown set off howls across the state with his assault Monday on Community Redevelopment Agencies and Enterprise Zones — the instruments that have so long been abused by local politicians to enrich developers by robbing the public of good schools and quality services.

Our own Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Brown’s proposal to “completely eliminate the Redevelopment Zones and State Enterprise Zones is a non-starter.”

Added Christine Essel, CEO of CRA/LA: “Governor Brown is proposing to dismantle an economic tool that has a 60-year track record of success in creating jobs and stimulating economic activity across the state.”

That should be easy to test:

Are luxury hotels, luxury entertainment projects and luxury skyscrapers more valuable in economic and quality of life terms than cops on the streets and libraries that are open and programs in the parks for kids”

Does it help the working poor struggling for a better life in Boyle Heights to fill their neighborhood with housing for the city’s derelicts, mentally disturbed and hopelessly poor?

Understand how it works: The CRA takes over huge areas of the city and subsidizes development and then keeps the incremental increases in property taxes, often using eminent domain power to seize private property which it gives as a gift to private developers to build projects nobody wants except the people who profit from them.

"Hey, it’s Mic," growled the voice on the other end of the
phone.

"Who?" I replied, not recognizing
the voice or the 916 area code number.

"Don’t you read the papers?" came the voice.
"Mic. The Bronze Bear that sits outside the governor’s office. Remember, Arnold
bought me in Colorado back in ’09 and shipped me to the Capitol. Now I’m the
only transition story anyone cares about."

A transcript of our interview follows:

FOX & HOUNDS DAILY: Why you calling, Mic?

MIC: Every journalist in the state is writing about my
future, but they never ask me any questions, even though I’m standing right
there next to them in the hallway, whenever they stake out the governor’s
office. So I thought I’d reach out and give an interview. And I wanted to give
a scoop to a web site that loves animals enough to put a couple of friendly
species in its name.

"Without the trust of the people, politics degenerates into
mere spectacle and democracy declines, leaving demagoguery and cynicism to fill
the void."  Those words were uttered by
Governor Jerry Brown in his inaugural address on January 3^rd.  And while his comments were probably
primarily directed at the legislative process in Sacramento, they would also
have application in Los Angeles, where a career politician is trying to force
her will on the Port of Los Angeles, to the detriment of a project that is
critical to the future success of the Port. 

The issue in Los Angeles involves LA City Councilwoman
Janice Hahn, who is trying to force the Port of Los Angeles to accept a
proposal from Gambol Industries for construction of a ship building and repair
facility at the expense and detriment of existing tenants at the Port.  The controversy centers around the disposal
of dredge material at the site of two former dry dock slips in the location
Gambol wants for its proposed shipyard. 
The disposal site was permitted as part of a previously approved Main
Channel Deepening Project – a US Army Corps of Engineers project (to deepen the
main ship channel to 53 feet) which is nearing its final years of
completion.  The dredging project is
vital to the Port’s ability to handle the latest generation of container ships
and to fend off competition of East and Gulf Coast ports, which will escalate with
the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2014. 

Cross-posted at CalWatchdog.

In his Jan. 3 Inaugural Address, Gov. Jerry Brown promised us a respite from the “smoke and mirrors” budgets of recent years, especially those of ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. So the budget he unveiled Monday, for fiscal year 2011-12 beginning on July 1, uses mirrors and smoke.

The main parts of the budget are $12.5 billion in what he called “drastic cuts” and $12 billion in new taxes to end the projected budget deficit of about $26 billion. The new taxes essentially would extend the “temporary” tax increases Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two years ago; and which have not solved the state’s deficit problem.

Moreover, a recent study by three economists found that, over the past 37 years, nations around the globe reduced debt burdens only when spending cuts were on average 85 percent of a budget solution, with tax cuts only 15 percent. Andrew Biggs, Kevin Hassett and Matt Jensen wrote:

On average, the typical unsuccessful consolidation consisted of 53% tax increases and 47% spending cuts.

How much different is the Brown budget of yesterday from the Schwarzenegger budget in 2009, which raised temporary taxes and made big cuts? Yes, there is a plan for realignment. Yes, there is a move to undo redevelopment agencies. That’s Good. And, a proposal to do away with enterprise zones? Not so good.

But the two budgets are really not much different. Both contain deep spending cuts and so-called temporary taxes, but the big structural reforms on spending, taxes and pensions are missing.

The central issue of the Brown budget, like the Schwarzenegger budget, is taxes. Despite the $12.5 billion in cuts announced by Governor Brown, taxes were the key to the governor’s budget presentation. Questions about taxes dominated the governor’s briefing. Taxes appeared in nearly every early headline above news reports on the budget. While many Californians are directly affected by the budget cuts, every Californian is directly affected by the tax increases.

In his budget unveiling Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown was very much like the doctor I hope will sit with me at my bedside when the illness is terminal: gentle, funny and honest about the fact that I only have a short-time left.

Here’s the problem: Brown’s demeanor, not to mention his budget proposal, didn’t fit California – a young place with a long future ahead of it.

He talked convincingly about all the pain ahead of us – the cuts to every program, the tax increases needed to prevent things from being worse. And he then stopped right there – and never convincingly connected the budget cuts of today to a better future.

Jerry, California stands ready to take the pain. But how will the pain get us to a better place eventually?