President Obama's stimulus bill provides long overdue federal funds to communities facing hard times, but San Francisco will lose virtually all its money from Washington to Sacramento. The City will receive an extra $92 million in federal money this year, but the state has already cut $62 million from what it gave last year. And with Governor Schwarzenegger pushing a "cuts-only" budget to address the state's shortfall, things are only likely to get worse. Mayor Newsom's proposed budget set aside $25 million to plan for future state cuts, but it could be more like $200 million. Nearly all federal gains to the Human Services Agency have already been cancelled out by state losses, without counting Arnold's new proposal to eliminate Cal-Works (which would cut another $100 million out of that department.) Sacramento could decimate the City's Health Department, and it has already killed public transportation funding. Not only does this mean that advocates must fight for every cent in the City budget, but it forces us to pay close attention to what's happening in the State Capitol.
(Good as always to hear from our Lt. Governor. - promoted by Julia Rosen)
My job and your government's job are to protect your job today and tomorrow. California's legislators are left little choice but to swallow hard and accept a very bad budget deal put together in secret without any public hearings and public input, all contrary to the open meeting laws of the state. The tragedy of this budget is that it robs our ability to advance our values and expand our economy by insuring a well-educated workforce. The budget does not allow us to provide adequate resources for the least among us. The budget does not allow transportation, water, and sanitation systems to keep up with population growth. Sadly this budget will force us to abandon robust research programs that will create tomorrow's wealth.
The governor wants to be known as the green governor, the education governor, the reform governor, yet he has utterly failed to lead a budget process that in the remotest way advances any of these goals. There is no real reform of education, prisons, or the state funded healthcare programs in this budget. Yet it is in real reform that efficiencies and increased effectiveness is found and fair cuts can be made. A significant change is in labor contracts that are unilaterally altered, setting aside a long and honorable negotiation process between labor and management. Where is the effort in this budget to advance the green economy?
Unfortunately the budget that is to be voted on in the days ahead does nothing to position California for a quick return to a healthy and growing economy. In fact the budget hastens the starvation of our educational programs at every level, thereby directly and in many case irreversibly damaging millions of our children. The budget accelerates the financial decline of the University of California and the largest university in America, the California State University. California needs teachers, engineers, nurses, doctors, and every other job skill. This budget gets a D in meeting the educational needs of tomorrow's workforce.
The best way to fight a bad idea is to propose a better alternative, and the SEIU California State Council has delivered. Today they proposed their own budget solution which would raise $14 billion in new revenue and seek $15 billion in federal assistance. Some details:
SEIU's budget proposal includes a limited expansion of the state's Vehicle License Fee (VLF), which would protect middle-class families by exempting the first $20,000 in vehicle value; restoration of the upper income tax brackets enacted by Governors Reagan and Wilson, adoption of Governor Schwarzenegger's oil severance and alcohol tax proposals and the Governor's proposal to broaden the sales tax to include discretionary services such as entertainment.
SEIU's proposed federal stimulus package would get our people back to work now and invest in long-term economic success for California families by:
• Increasing the federal match for California healthcare dollars
• Kick-starting hospital retrofits and local government infrastructure projects
• Funding federal special education obligations
• Investing in workforce development and a competitive resurgence by restoring worker training and opening more seats in our public colleges and universities.
This is exactly the kind of budget solution that a state facing a severe recession needs. Republicans are hell-bent on implementing Herbert Hoover's reckless policies of austerity and deflation, wanting to destroy government services and throw tens of thousands of people out of work.
SEIU's more progressive plan recognizes that California can't do it alone - that as in the 1930s, federal assistance is necessary to help the states stabilize and grow the economy. Health care and education in particular are vital to preserve during these hard times.
I call this a "realistic" budget partly because it makes perfect sense - but also because some in the media are too quick to dismiss this plan. Witness Kevin Yamamura at the Capitol Alert:
The unions' dream budget
With lawmakers at an impasse over the state budget, the SEIU State Council, which represents state workers, took it upon itself to propose its own dream plan Tuesday.
And we mean dream in the politest of terms, as in it might happen in a parallel universe where Democrats don't need any Republican votes and federal dollars pour from the sky.
Here we see how the media acts to reinforce center-right ideologies - a perfectly sensible plan is derided as a "dream" but the Republicans' insane plan to close the deficit by cuts alone and throw the state into a Depression gets treated as if it's somehow serious policy.
Democrats and progressives would do well to support this plan, or something close to it, as the only hope of fixing the budget deficit without destroying our public services and making our economic crisis far worse.
