CA: Governor to declare emergency, bypass Legislature to help cities

Sac Bee ^ | 12/17/03 | Tom Chorneau - AP

[NormsRevenge]

To make up for money lost when he cut the car tax, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will use new extraordinary powers to declare a financial emergency and bypass the Legislature to provide millions of dollars due cities and counties, administration sources said Wednesday.

[NormsRevenge]

.

[ambrose]

So how did these cities manage to survive just several months ago - before Grayout tripled the car tax?

No one ever seems to ask this question.

[Enterprise]

"Local officials have said they are losing millions of dollars everyday since Schwarzenegger cut the car tax last month."

Just lay everyone off then. I'm tired of hearing about it.

[Not now, Not ever!]

If he does, it's going to be sweet hearing them squeal!!!

[Dog Gone]

I'm curious whether Davis's STATE OF EMERGENCY declaration in 2001, which gave him broad powers to do all kinds of bad stuff, expired when he was recalled.

[LaraCroft]

What I don't get is why it's always the police and fire that have to be cut, not the ESL classes for illegal aliens.

[Tempest]

What money are they losing??? How long has the car tax been in effect?

[poindexters brother]

So how did these cities manage to survive just several months ago - before Grayout tripled the car tax?

I wonder the same thing. Just tonight there was a local talk show on with a Political Science professor on talking about how cities were going to go bankrupt because this money was taken away from them. I was in the car, so all I could do was yell the question at the radio - "How is it that the can claim to be losing money that they haven't been getting?!!"

I guess it's the standard govenment bass-ackwards mealymouthsprechen that labels a smaller-than-proposed increase in funding as a decrease.

[dalereed]

Instead of crying, the cities and counties should eliminate ALL SOCIAL PROGRAMS and fire the people that administrate them, problem solved!

[RS]

"What money are they losing??? How long has the car tax been in effect?"

Here ya go...


http://www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/CA%20vehicle%20license%20fee.html

[Carry_Okie]

First he offers a series of truly lame cuts of some $4.6 billion, IIRC (a pittance after a 40% increase in spending since Davis took office). Failing to find any more, he goes about floating a Washinton Monument strategy over the disabled, so that the noise will be so loud he can say we've already cut to the bone. Then he plays New York city by trying to borrow his way to fixing his balance sheet without adjusting for his income statement. Frustrated with an inability to prioritize in a credible fashion (because he doesn't know what the hell he is doing), and because he doesn't understand how the cities and counties are playing him for a fool (because they are hiding their truly egregious excesses), he merely dispenses with the Constitutional Separation of Powers (required under Article IV of the FEDERAL Constitution). Seeing as he can't propose a credible revised budget and then veto the excesses of the legislature as he IS allowed under the State Constitution, he wants to be king. He wants the power to restructure the State budget without telling anybody what his plans are. As it is, this move will be tossed by the State Supreme Court and leave our uberhero looking like a dumbass.

Will somebody tell this idiot he wasn't elected to be king? Perhaps if he dropped shaking hands for a thrill and got down to UNDERSTANDING his job description, where the money went, and who to lay off he might make a real stab at leadership. Of course, there IS somebody who DOES understand where the money goes...

Maybe someday he'll develop the courage to lay out a plan and take the flack for it? Naaah, playing king is easier.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the Link!

[SierraWasp]

"If he does, it's going to be sweet hearing them squeal!!!"

What??? Like the little piggies at the trough that they are??? They never had it till Davis tripled the tax last fall!!! They should not only be backed up to there, they should be backed up all the way to the budget before Davis was elected the first time!!! 1998!!!

C'mon Schwarzenegger... Show some fiscal grit and stop bein a "little girlie mon!" Build character in these Demonicrats like you used to build you body!!! Let's see some heavy lifting for the people as you advertised... Just do it!!!

The reason talk is cheap is due to a vast oversupply!

[Amerigomag]

A step in the correct directions.

The closer the spending to the electorate the greater the influence the electorate directly posses.

Take it all. Give it to the counties and cities. Let your next door neighbor on the board or council defend his actions to you personally.

It takes months for a state to throw the bumb out. It takes only minutes for the angry mob to scare the hell of a city councilman. More than not, they'll throw up their hands and tell you to do it.

[hedgetrimmer]

Great idea! Won't play well in the communist county of Santa Cruz however. Most of the voters keeping the communists in power are on the payroll of the city county or state.

[NormsRevenge]

Updated AP content for

Governor to declare emergency, bypass Legislature to help cities TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writer		Wednesday, December 17, 2003

(12-17) 18:54 PST SACRAMENTO (AP) --

To make up for money lost when he cut the car tax, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will declare a financial emergency and bypass the Legislature to provide millions of dollars due cities and counties, administration sources said Wednesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, aides to the governor said he will announce Thursday morning that he will make a $40 million payment to local governments to keep many jurisdictions from closing facilities and laying off police officers and fire fighters.

Not all Democratic leaders were told of the new Republican governor's pending actions, said sources inside the governor's office who also insist that lawmakers have no option but to agree.

To make the payments, Schwarzenegger will use new authority in an agreement reached in July and is part of this year's budget. These powers allow the governor to impose cuts of up to 5 percent on any line item in the budget in order to fund an "emergency deficiency."

Money saved by those cuts will then go to local governments to replace the money lost when Schwarzenegger repealed the tripling of the car tax that was included in the July budget deal.

The governor's pending action calls for cuts of $150 million immediately that can be done, according to the administration, without legislative approval. The cuts are expected to hit public health and welfare programs hardest. California's total budget is $99 billion.

Administration sources side the process will begin when the governor declares a fiscal emergency and invokes his authority to cut spending and order payments to the cities and counties.

The next check for $40 million is due Dec. 26.

Included in his letter Thursday, Schwarzenegger is also expected to detail where he will save the $150 million through cuts that will be imposed through the end of the fiscal year.

Those cuts, according to sources, will fall heavily on public health and welfare programs.

In addition, the emergency proclamation will call on lawmakers to make additional cuts of $2.6 billion to fully reimburse local government for all the money lost since the higher car taxes were repealed. The Legislature will have until March 1 to make the cuts, according to the governor's office.

Since Schwarzenegger cut the tax as his first official act as governor last month, local officials have said they are losing millions of dollars every day. Many have also threatened to sue the state if efforts are not undertaken quickly to restore the funds. Among those ready to go to court are the city of Los Angeles and the counties of Contra Costa, Humboldt, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tuolumne, Tulare, Yolo and Los Angeles.

If left unchallenged, Schwarzenegger's move would appear to sidestep a growing political crisis.

The car tax was raised last summer as part of the budget solution crafted by former Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature to bring in about $4 billion annually. But the hike proved a pivotal issue in the recall campaign and Schwarzenegger promised early on to cut the higher rate if elected -- an action he took only hours after being sworn in.

While the new governor had the authority to repeal the higher tax, he cut it without a plan in place for replacing the funds. Schwarzenegger has sponsored legislation to repay cities and counties with reserve funds, but Democrats -- who form the majority in both houses -- say the state can't afford the expense without imposing deep cuts that they won't do.

Meanwhile local officials are losing money. The city of Los Angeles, for instance, will lose $19 million a month until the tax money is restored.

The move by the governor took Democrats by surprise.

Paul Hefner, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Culver City, said they had not seen the proposal and could not comment. "We will have to examine in detail what the department of finance and the governor are proposing before we react," he said.

Senate Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, could not be reached for comment but an aide to the governor said Burton had been notified about the action.

[montag813]

I don't want to hear any more FReepers whining about how Arnold will be cutting 5% from the Austistic Children's Assistance Fund (like we saw last month), or from Elderly Assistance, or substance abuse, or....etc. Personal and family tragedies are unfortunate, but let's remember that the government was not created to be your own personal welfare program. It was treated that way for decades, which is why it is in the pathetic shape it is in. Gov. Schwarennegger is trying to reverse that excess. It will be difficult, and involve painful decisions. But private charities and your friends and neigbors will need to provide the bulk of help, as it did for 180 years before the Great Society.

[SierraWasp]

It's like that breathtaking "sinking feeling" one gets as they see someone trying to out-race a train to the railroad crossing, knowing they're not gonna make it in time!!!

Great reply as these taxsuckers have gotten even more spoiled than when Pete Wilson was governor and this is going to go way beyond "hard ball!" It's WAR!!!

They're going to cut his throat! Hell hath no fury like that of a spendthrift Damocrud Party scorned and broke and nowhere to turn!!!

[NormsRevenge]

..let's remember that the government was not created to be your own personal welfare program.

---

Hear, Hear!

The New Deal aka The Raw Deal ,, saddled this nation with a socially progressive yolk that it has long since labored long and hard under an increasingly imposed and not voluntarily borne burden,,