AM Alert: What's the dealio?

SacBee: Capitol Alert ^ | 2/12/9 | Shane Goldmacher

[SmithL]

Legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not release details of the tentative budget pact they've struck, though that didn't stop details from leaking out.

The 30,000-foot view: $15.8 billion in cuts, $14.3 billion in tax increases, $10.9 billion in borrowing. And if California gets $10 billion in federal stimulus money, cuts drop by $1.2 billion, borrowing by $5.5 billion and tax increases by $1.8 billion.

Delving deeper the plan: Gives K-12 education $5 billion less than it was otherwise entitled.

Eliminates two paid holidays for state workers, with the final number of furlough days per month through June 2010 still subject to negotiation.

Cuts UC and CSU by 10 percent.

Eliminates cost-of-living increases for recipients of CAL-Works and SSI-SSP.

Cuts the corrections department's medical budget by 10 percent.

Eliminates funding for local public transit agencies.

On the tax side, the plan increases sales tax by 1 cent on the dollar, vehicle license fees from current 0.65 percent of vehicle value to 1.15 percent, and gasoline taxes by 12 cents a gallon with proceeds to pay off transportation bonds. Income taxpayers would pay a 2.5 percent surcharge on tax liability - 5 percent if federal stimulus comes in under $10 billion. Reduces tax credit for dependents from $309 to $99.

Taxes would be increased for two years, and an additional one to three years if the spending restriction measure is approved on the ballot.

Other new "revenues" include taking from voter-approved taxes for mental health and early childhood programs.

The whole thing would have to go before voters in a whopping five-measure package: borrowing from the lottery, changing Proposition 98, approving the spending cap, and taking funds from Proposition 10 (tobacco tax for early childhood programs) and Proposition 63 (tax on millionaires for mental-health programs).

[Right Cal Gal]

So California proposes to now tax its citizens almost $1 per gallon for gasoline (sales tax + gas tax).

Where’s the cuts to social services to illegal aliens? And WHY do the @#$%^ schools need so much money when the lottery was supposed to be a big money bonanza for the schools.

Well, all you libtard/progressive/moonbats that keep electing other libtard/progressive/moonbats to the legislatrue should be proud. Also all the idiots who voted AH-NOLD in as recall replacement governor instead of a real budget man, Tom McClintock (ooooo! McClintock hates abortion! He’ll make women prisoners of babymaking!).

Get out your wallets, folks, because while we’re at it - every TRANSIT agency in California is about to hit your pocketbook as well.

[Dan(9698)]

My brother has lived in California for 50 years.

He is leaving and going to Georgia.

[Oldpuppymax]

California should put Maxine Waters in charge of the budget. All income would be sent directly to Sacramento where Maxine would decide how much to lend back to the people. That’s what she favors in Washington, so why not make the western People’s Republic a test case!

[Right Cal Gal]

As soon as the housing market eases up a bit and I can sell the old homestead, I’m outa there as well. I’m thinking Idaho or Carolina - but they’re both getting full of liberals.

[cookcounty]

"Where’s the cuts to social services to illegal aliens?"

That's priority #1 in the liberal mind. In their twisted minds, they all feel guilty for not being Mexican, so they want to buy them off.

[DoughtyOne]

So California proposes to now tax its citizens almost $1 per gallon for gasoline (sales tax + gas tax).  Not good!

Where’s the cuts to social services to illegal aliens?  I'd sure like to know.

And WHY do the @#$%^ schools need so much money when the lottery was supposed to be a big money bonanza for the schools.  The lottery is worth tens of millions per year, when the bloated school budget is tens of billions.  The lottery money is a drop in the bucket.

Well, all you libtard/progressive/moonbats that keep electing other libtard/progressive/moonbats to the legislatrue should be proud.  Agreed.

Also all the idiots who voted AH-NOLD in as recall replacement governor instead of a real budget man, Tom McClintock (ooooo! McClintock hates abortion! He’ll make women prisoners of babymaking!).  This is where we part ways.  Do you think our state would have been better off with Bustamante as Governor?  Scwarzenegger is probably the worst governor we've ever had, but that's only because Bustamante wasn't voted in.  If you think Scwarzenegger is bad (and I happen to also), you would have been suicidal over the rule of Cruz Bustamante.  He would have had a Legislature that would have rubber stamped his every wish, and he would have rubber stamping ever wish of theirs.  I've added additional comments below on this topic, because I'm sick of seeing people demagogue this issue.

Get out your wallets, folks, because while we’re at it - every TRANSIT agency in California is about to hit your pocketbook as well.  Yes they are.  And I'm quite interested how they came up with that $15 billion in cuts figure.  My guess is they are counting cuts in increases over the next couple of years, that will undoubtedly still be enacted, if the past is any indicator.

I was pinged to another thread yesterday, where folks were expressing this same views regarding the 2003 Recall election you did here.  I responded to them in a similar manner.

We all know the history that brought us to this political environment in California, but there are some things that need to be addressed.  I'm going to remind folks what was taking place in 2003, and voice some of my personal opinions about what took place back then, and about what is taking place today.

As Conservatives in California, we are all very unhappy with what has happened in our state since around the year 2000.  Gray Davis was elected to be the Governor of California subsequent to Pete Wilson's second term.  For a period of time it appeared we would get the normal down side from another Democrat, but that was not to be the case.  California's budget was to be blown out of control.  Just prior to the 2002 elections, it became clear that Davis and the Legislature were incapable of managing this state's budget.  We were upside down by some fifteen billion dollars.  At the time it looked like the problem was going to be larger than that.  By early 2003 literally months after Davis had been elected to a second term, a recall effort was initated.  That effort resulted in an off year election to recall Governor Davis and replace him.

This was the first recall of a Governor that any of us had participated in to my knowledge.  It was a wide open free for all.  Prior to the election that took place in October that year, 163 candidates entered the field.  In the end six Republican candidates pulled in 5,000 or more votes.  Five Democrats did too.

By election day, Schwarzenegger, Bustamante, and McClintock seemed to be the clear majority choices, and that was borne out.

THE major problem for Conservatives, was that a wildly popular movie actor had entered the race, and was clearly attracting more than the normal cross-over vote.  Despite a solid Conservative (McClintock) being in the field and looking as if he would pull around 15% of the vote, a question mark to mid-stream liberal (Schwarzenegger) was looking as if he would pull in around 50% of the vote.  Bustamante, a very liberal brown separatist candidate was polling somewhere around 30%.  The rest of the vote was spread around over the other 160 some odd candidates.

There were two central choices for Republicans in 2003.  There was the clear cut Conservative McClintock, and the liberal Schwarzenegger.  If this had been a primary, there is no question where all Conservatives would have gone, but this wasn't a primary.  Schwarzenegger, Bustamante, or McClintock were going to be the next Governor, if the recall was approved.  So weeks before the election, I personally held off daming McClintock for remaining in the race.  I urged folks to give him consideration.  I asked them to respond to polls by stating they were going to vote for McClintock.  I asked them to take a good look, and if his numbers look reasoned by election day, then to by all means vote for him.

When it got down to two weeks before the election, I began to urge folks to give Schwarzenegger more consideration.  I'll admit to not being very happy that McClintock was remaining in the race, because my worst nightmare would have been a Bustamante victory, to replace Davis.  My reasoning was that with three people in the race, 35% of the vote could have ushered in the next governor.  Bustamante's polling figures in the are of 30+%, it looked as if he could win with slightly over 1/3rd of the vote.

With Schwarzenegger pulling in about 45% of the vote and Bustamante pulling in a little over 30% of the vote, I was concerned what would happen if people broke for McClintock at the last minute.  The polls couldn't be trusted.  We never know how much we are being gamed by the liberal press in California, or the nation for that matter.  If about 20% of the vote had gone from Schwarzenegger to McClintock, we would have been in that never never land, very close to a possible victory for Bustamante, my personal nightmare.

Others thought that McClintock could have pulled it out.  I never saw him bringing that 15% up to the 35 to 40% he would need.  Others hoped against all odds he would.  I was thinking Perot 1992.  What happens if we split the vote, and the worst candidate of all won?

Folks, this was the final vote.

48.58% - 4,206.284  Schwarzenegger
31.47% - 2,724,874  Bustamante
13.41% - 1,161,287  McClintock

I have taken a verbal beating for five years over my decision to vote for Schwarzenegger.  I voted for him in good concience back then.  I would not do so today.  That still doesn't mean that I was wrong to do so.  There was hope that Schwarzenegger would prove better than we thought.  Well, he didn't turn out to be.

Folks, I am not convinced that we could ever have botten the number of votes for McClintock that his followers thought we could have.  The six Republican candidates pulled in 5,414,141 votes.  The number of Republicans registered to vote in that election was 5,429,256.  Yes, Republicans got votes equal to 99.72% of their registered voters in that election.  Conversely, the Democrats got 2,763,261 total votes.  The number of Democrats registered to vote in that election was 6,718,111.  The Democrats only got votes equal to 41.13% of their registered voters in that election.  What this indicates is that Schwarzenegger got a massive amount of crossover votes. The number was so vast, that it's doubtful that Republicans could have swayed the election enough to avoid taking a very risky chance on Bustamante getting in, to try to win it for McClintock.

In the best scenario, we could have seen Schwarzenegger, Bustamate, and McClintock in close to a dead heat in that election.  It is possible McClintock could have pulled it out.  Frankly, I have never bought into that logic, but who can say categorically, he couldn't?  I can't say that, any more than others can declare that it was a dead certainty that he could win.

What we are left with today in California are two camps.  We have Republicans who voted for McClintock and are rightfully proud that they did.  We have Republicans who voted for Schwarzenegger, and still think they had a valid reason for having done it.

We now have a presidential race just behind us, where another Hobsin's choice was presented to Conservatives.  Should we vote for a man we knew to be a consumate leftist, or should we refrain from supporting him, and let the Republican Party know they have jumped the shark, if they are going to ask us to vote for a George Soros, John and Teressa Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton loving Republican(D) any longer.  And if we did withhold our vote, would we be able to live with Obama being president.

I opted out.  I have seen what has taken place in our nation over the last twenty years, twelve of those years with a Republican president, six years of which we had the Congressional majority, and I decided I could no longer go along to get along.  This nation is too important to me.  It has gone decidedly left in twenty years.  I've had it with watching our side usher in leftist/socialist policy.  Now I am trashed for taking the reverse course of action I did in 2003.  Frankly, that's okay.  I understand where people are coming from.  I don't necessarily think people are RINOs for voting for McCain, even though I consider him to be the consumate RINO.  People did what they thought to be in the best interest of our nation.  So did I.  And so did folks in 2003.  It's unfortunate, but there are times when differing opinions can still be rational.

Where I object to any of this, is when folks try to rehash the election over again now.  If you folks want to think I am a RINO for voting for Schwarzenegger, that's okay.  I know that we probably share 95% of the same views.  I'm certainly not going to rag on your for voting for McClintock, or for having voted for McCain or not.  We each have to do what we think is best.  And sometimes we're going to be wrong.  And sometimes even though we make different choices, we will both be right.

What is the point of trying to trash each other today.  We have one of the most important elections in our state's history next spring.  Within the next sixty days, we must find someone to champion our cause.  And once they commit, we must beat a path to every door in the state (not just once, but a number of times), explaining why we must elect that person to be our next governor.  It's not worth it to have the 2003 debate again.  We had it before the October vote that year.  We had it after the October vote that year.  We have had it off and on since then.

Despite the fact that I voted for Schwarzenegger in 2003, I hope you folks will understand that it's more imporatant that we join together trying to get Hunter or some other genuine article to run in the spring of 2003, and then drum up support every moment until then.

At some point we must move on.  We can't afford to insult each other here for the rest of our lives.  Folks are going to want to help out this year.  Let's not keep the circle fire going, shooting each other, when doing so will discouraged people from trying to help out.

[jersey117]

I thought Jersey was bad but I really feel sorry for California. They have the worst of the worst representing them. Polosi, Waters, Boxer, Schwarzenager.... ugh

[twistedwrench]

Sacramento County has purposed just that, and immediately the usual suspects stepped in to kill it. If this county gets attacked like this, There’s no way the state
will attempt it. Especially with so many Illegal immigrant advocates at the state level.

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1615510.html?mi_rss=Our+Region

A controversial proposal was to stop providing care to undocumented immigrants through the medically indigent program.

Officials estimate the change would save $2.4 million a year, although Bruce Wagstaff, head of the Department of Human Assistance, said the savings would be offset by the cost of setting up a program to verify eligibility.

Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan, long a supporter of such a move, said the money is needed to fund other vital services. Last year, she failed to get the votes for the cut.

Advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union say the move is unconstitutional and actually increases costs.

“Those people will get sicker and end up in the emergency rooms,” said Allen Asch, the Sacramento chapter representative of the ACLU. “It will endanger the health of all of us.”

[hedgetrimmer]

No, its number 1 in the globalist’s mind. That means democrat and republican.

[Vaduz]

(Legislative leaders )this is the best they can do? Looks like they are following obama’s grand plan everyone bend over.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Not draconian enough. Lay off 10% of state workers and don’t fill vacancies until the number of employees is the same as 2000. The state doubled its revenue and spending over the last eight years, while the population stayed about the same. Time to cut costs to what they were before the real estate bubble.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Even my California-proud husband is talking about moving back to Arizona. He asked me, “Do you think we can make more money in Phoenix than in Fresno?”

I said “Yes,” without hesitating. California employers can’t pay employees as much because of the taxes the companies have to pay.

I’d hate to leave but dang it seems we won’t have a choice.

[Right Cal Gal]

And your analysis is spot on. Had people really thought about who to elect governor to replace spend/bribe union and La Raza Davis, McClintock was such a solid choice. A great fiscal conservative. And everybody knew it. Fortunately, Tom says what he means and he’s got no problem letting Congress know what he thinks of Porkulus.

It’s sad to watch this state slip away so badly. What does it have - the 7th largest economy in the world (or did), and is Red geographically - unfortunately, since both of our legislative houses are based SOLELY on population, the liberals get the majority. And since we know it’s going DemoRAT in every Presidential and Senate election, we have no voice in Washington save our Congress person. And I have Ellen Tauscher, who has a wonderfully drawn gerrymander of a district designed to keep her in power.

[DoughtyOne]

If California can vote to deny Homosexuals marriage rights by a comfortable margin, it can elect solid political candidates.

The Democrats loft a candidate and everyone from Ted Kennedy to John Kerry and others flock to the state to attend massive political campaign rallies.

The Republicans somehow get a solid candidate nominated, and... crickets!

We haven’t seen a solid Conservative get the monetary or party support for at least twenty years. When the Presidential election comes along, the Democrats have their guy paraded around the state for all to see, and for all to hear the wonderful tidings of socialism.

That same election year, we’ll have one mealy mouthed candidate come out to make a few measly pathetic rallies and to apologize for holding moderate (if not far more liberal than that) views that bear no connection to Conservatism.

And we wonder why Conservatism languishes in the state.

California was the 5th largest economy in the world. It has slipped to seventh. I am convinced it would be 5th again, if we had a solid Conservative in the Governor’s office.

Is even one person under the impression that a Conservative who laid out a sound fiscal plan that would involve lowering taxes and paying down our debt, would be rejected outright?

Folks, the local media does sidewalk polls, and the unified voice today is that our state capital is completely out of control. Democrats and Republicans know it to a man/woman.

Where is the voice of reason from the right, capitalizing off the proven failure of the leftists? Once again, crickets. And so it goes in a state blessed with natural resources and the populace to exploit it.

Sadly, our political figures are way more professional at exploitation.

The Republican Party leadership should be ashamed of itself. I hold it in extreme contempt.

[DoughtyOne]

BTW, thank you for your nice response.

[GeronL]

their even going to ‘borrow’ from the lottery... so much for the chilrun

[Right Cal Gal]

I really appreciated the analysis. I often find when posters are kind enough to do detailed responses there’s a tidbit or a fact that I’ve either forgotten or didn’t know. The difference between us and the moonbats is that to us, facts MATTER.

Bustamente - that scumb*g. You’re spot on - we’d be overrun with illegals if he’d been elected and by now you’d need your SAP button on your TV to get the program in ENGLISH.

[Right Cal Gal]

WHAT? I thought it was written into the state Constitution in such a way that it absolutely could not be raided to pay for any other projects. Heck, if I recall, the code even sets forth the specificity the items that schools can pay for with lottery proceeds.

This is outrageous. Watch - they’ll find a way to reduce percentage of lottery money going to winners.

[GeronL]

remember those ballot initiatives to devote money to things?? they’re planning on raiding those too apparently