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Stop the Budget Madness
Even before the ink was dry on the month-old budget
package deal, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has estimated that
next year's budget is already $8 billion in the hole. In addition,
almost $6 billion worth of budget solutions this year is based on the
passage of three ballot initiatives on May 19, and passage is not at all
guaranteed. Two more ballot initiatives having to do with caps on
spending, the so-called rainy day fund, and disputes over the
calculation of Prop 98 revenues won't take effect in '09-'10, but will
have serious long term implications on future budgets. The state's
political and economic crisis will continue until the structural cause
of both is resolved.
Behind the economic crisis is the political crisis. The 2/3 vote
required to pass a budget and raise taxes places a political
stranglehold on the state. It allows for a mean-spirited, ideological,
conservative minority to derail the will of a more open-minded, moderate
majority. The "tyranny of the minority" is something the framers of the
U.S. Constitution warned us against, but which the state of California
has fallen prey to. This has caused the 8-month budget delay, the
house-of-cards it's built upon, and the holding of the state hostage by
one Republican whose vote was needed for the budget to be passed. We
cannot afford to let the 2/3 requirement stand, and we should support
every effort next year to get rid of it.
Why these secret proceedings?
California's Big Five also need to be taken to task for negotiating a
budget deal behind closed doors and keeping everyone in the dark. The
five of them, including two Democrats, isolated from their
constituencies, late at night, put together a deal that at midnight the
legislature voted on without having the necessary time to think through
it and do their "due diligence."
Democracy demands more transparency. We can certainly do better than
this. And if this happens again, those responsible should be held
accountable, either by voting them out of office or recalling them.
California faces a structural budget gap, and regressive taxes and
smoke-and-mirrors won't solve the problem. Even the governor recognizes
the fact that California has a revenue, not an expenditure, problem.
There simply is not enough money to provide the services needed for a
state as large as ours. The combination of significant budget cuts,
modest tax increases, and borrowing against future revenues is not the
right way to solve the problem, nor is it adequate. We need more
progressive taxation or else huge budget deficits will plague us for
years. So far, the only tax increases talked about are regressive, like
increasing the sales tax or by raising tuition at community colleges to
$40 a unit, as called for by the LAO. These are tax increases on the
poor and students.
"Taxes" is NOT a 4-letter word
We must take on the challenge to educate Californians on the need to
raise taxes on those who can most afford to pay them. The wealthiest
Californians must pay at a higher rate than they do now. Reinstating the
11% tax rate on the wealthiest, as it was in the 1980s, is a step in the
right direction and would raise billions of additional revenues. In
addition, we must revisit and modify Prop 13 so more property tax
dollars can be generated. Allowing residents and commercial property
owners who have lived in their homes or owned their property for 25 or
30 years to pay very low property taxes, even though their equity has
tripled or quadrupled, is unfair to both newer home owners and to the
state's future.
It is true that California is positioned to receive over $30 billion in
federal stimulus money. Of this amount, K-12 and higher education is
supposed to receive about $8 billion. This will help offset the deficit,
but we don't know exactly when we'll get the money or exactly what it
will be spent on. More importantly, it is a temporary "fix" at a time
when California has a permanent structural problem.
The CFT is engaging in extensive lobbying efforts along with the Faculty
Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) and Community
College League of California (CCLC) to make sure the ongoing deficit is
not solved off the backs of poor people and students. However, the
education needed around taxes has to be done by us as we talk to
friends, family members, colleagues, and neighbors in our communities
and civic organizations. I think we have the ability to tackle both the
political and economic challenges facing us, but the real question is
whether we have the will to do so. California's future depends on a YES
answer.
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