Budget Smoke Arrives Early
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has figured out a way to jumpstart the budget debate by pumping out the fiscal smoke and setting up the financial mirrors at the beginning of the process instead of at the end.
As state law requires, the governor produced a balanced budget last Friday. But to make those numbers work, Schwarzenegger and his financial team were forced to work more magic than the faculty of Hogwarts School.
Let’s take the big stuff first. After the governor added in some new revenue and subtracted some cuts, the budget was still out of balance.
But if you just figure that the federal government owes the state some $6.9 billion –and will actually pay it – then abracadabra, the budget’s in balance.
Brown Now Wears a Bulls-Eye
Well, it’s Jerry Brown versus no one in the Democratic primary, but the yellow shirt he’s wearing for the ride to November has a bull’s-eye on it.
When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom dropped out of the governor’s race Friday, he not only cleared the field for the attorney general, but also gave everyone on the GOP side seven extra months of free shots at Brown.
Sure, Republicans Tom Campbell, Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman will spend much of their time slapping each other around in an effort to convince GOP voters they have what it takes to run the state – and that their opponents don’t.
But while a non-stop intra-party mud fight tends to annoy voters and earnest discussions of public policy may bore them, a nasty attack on the other party’s likely nominee is a sure way to fire up the faithful.
Lawsuits Add to State Budget Woes
Another day, another lawsuit and another potential hole in California’s already leaky budget.
It’s looking ever less likely that the budget numbers will hold up until June 30, the end of the fiscal year. That means legislators are looking at a potential repeat of this year’s long and ugly budget revision battle, with even fewer choices available.
This time it’s the California Redevelopment Association that’s taking aim at the state’s spending plan. In a suit filed Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court, the group is arguing that the state’s attempt to grab more than $2 billion from local redevelopment agencies to help balance California’s budget is unconstitutional.
If a judge agrees, the state is going to have to find $1.7 billion this year and another $350 million in 2010-11 to replace that redevelopment cash. And given California’s shrinking revenue numbers, that extra money isn’t likely to be there.
No Hurry for Leaders to Debate
Break out another chicken suit. The campaign silly season has moved over to include the Democrats.
No sooner had Attorney General Jerry Brown announced he was opening an account to collect money for a likely run for governor than San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, the other guy in the Democratic primary, was out with a plan for 11 debates, one in each of the state’s media markets – Hello, Eureka – starting, well, right now.
“Now that there are two candidates for governor, we owe the Democratic voters of California an opportunity to compare our visions and platforms side-by-side,’’ Newsom said in a press release.
Nice idea. Nice try. Never happen.
Civility!
"Your mind is on vacation and your
mouth is working overtime." – Mose Allison.
What possesses one member of
Congress at a joint session, while listening to a prime time Presidential
address, to suddenly yell out: "You’re a liar!" – words that were quickly eaten by his own post-address
apology and Obama’s prompt next-morning acceptance of same.
When it happened, the TV camera was
fixed on the President at the lecturn, with Speaker Pelosi sitting behind, on
the viewer’s right, and VP Biden, also sitting behind, on the left. Pelosi looked like she had been punched
in the stomach if you play back a video recording of the speech, but wisely did
not call order or single out the single Congressman who let his mouth
obliterate his reason on national TV.
How did we get here?
LAUSD Faces A Parent Revolution
Next week, the school board of the LA Unified School District will be voting on one of the most transformative proposals to ever come before it. The Public School Choice Resolution, authored by Yolie Flores-Aguilar, would allow outside operators- community non-profits, charter operators, and others- to submit proposals to run LAUSD schools. The competition between outside organizations and the District would ensure that every community got the best possible school, and incentivize the District to finally learn how to run great schools. Open for proposals would be the 50 new schools currently being built by the District, as well as existing schools which have already been designated by the Federal Government as failing.
This resolution has been endorsed by the LA Times, the Daily News, and LA Opinion, along with dozens of community leaders and organizations. It has the potential to harness proven and successful school models, and bring badly needed innovation to the 700,000 student LAUSD system. Unfortunately, many entrenched interests who benefit financially from the status quo have been fighting tooth and nail to stop this resolution.
‘Schedule’ Gets Blame for New Budget Delay
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislative leaders were “unable to coordinate their schedules” for a meeting Sunday evening that could have ended the state’s budget crisis.
The possibility of a fix for a fiscal calamity that has chopped state services and left California paying its bills with IOUs may be important, but apparently not important enough to force some of the state’s leaders to deal with some inconvenience or even, God forbid, take an earlier plane flight to Sacramento.
The meeting was supposed to be the icing on the long-awaited cake, a chance for Republicans and Democrats to join the governor in finally signing off on a deal to close the state’s $26.3 billion budget gap.
Instead, on Sunday afternoon the governor abruptly postponed the slated “Big Five” session, with Schwarzenegger’s aides saying that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass was in her Southern California district and would not be able to return to Sacramento until at least 8 p.m.
The State of California Owes Me Money
INVOICE
From: Joe Mathews
To: State Controller
CC: The Legislature, the Governor
Re: Unpaid Wages And Back Pay
Please consider this my bill for $7786 in unpaid wages and back pay for my work as a California lawmaker.
Yes, I know we have a highly professional, full-time legislature, but those guys keep kicking the toughest decisions about laws and constitutional amendments to me. They can’t even pass a budget these days without putting six measures on the ballot and calling a special election. And big interest groups and rich guys keep throwing things on the ballot for me to decide too.
How Is “Compromise” a Win if Main Street Shuts Down?
It has become increasingly evident to Capitol insiders, pundits and others that the Governor and Legislature may be close to reaching a budget “compromise” in the coming days.
As the leading representative group for California small businesses, we must ask: “What, in fact, is the true meaning of ‘compromise’ if it shutters the few remaining mom-and-pop businesses already on life support and sends the last batch of working Californians to the unemployment line?”
When it comes to identifying small business as a “priority issue”, many of our elected leaders surely make a valiant effort to “talk the talk” during campaign season, but a select few truly “walk the walk” when it comes to making important, sustainable decisions that will protect the very men, women and families that sent them to Sacramento in the first place.
How Public Policy Can Help Restore State’s Fiscal Health
With the California economy contracting and the state budget deficit increasing, the Governor has appropriately called for swift and decisive action. Our policy leaders must carefully examine which program reductions and which revenue-raising proposals hurt our economic recovery, and what new measures will stimulate productivity, employment and the creation of wealth for all Californians.
The California Chamber of Commerce has recently commented on some of the proposed tax increases, but our state’s fiscal health will never improve without a strong economy.
While the recession is global in reach, state public policy can make material improvements for California and, importantly, have an impact on how swiftly and strongly we will recover from this slowdown.