Posted on 03/01/2005 2:04:55 PM PST by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he will go over legislators' heads and take his case straight to the voters with a special election later this year on overhauling pensions, teacher pay and the way political districts are drawn.
He said he and supporters will start gathering signatures to place the measures on the ballot. No date has been set for the special election, but it would probably be held in the fall.
Schwarzenegger has been threatening such a move for months. It would pit the popular Republican governor against some of the state's most powerful political forces - including the majority Democratic Party and the teachers union.
During a news conference, Schwarzenegger endorsed three specific initiatives. They would privatize the state's public-employee pension funds, which manage more than $300 billion in investments; give authority for drawing legislative and congressional districts to a panel of retired judges; and tie teacher pay to merit rather than seniority.
"The problems are too big to ignore and too dangerous," Schwarzenegger said.
While Schwarzenegger also wants to create a constitutional requirement that would impose across-the-board spending cuts when revenue falls short, on Tuesday he did not endorse any of the proposed initiatives that are being developed.
In January, he called on the Democratic-controlled Legislature to place the four measures on the ballot before March 1 or face him at the polls. The deadline has passed with no agreement.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said Tuesday they are willing to work with Schwarzenegger on the proposals. The problem, they said, was that the administration kept making changes to the plans.
Margita Thompson, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, said the changes were minor.
Schwarzenegger, who was brought to power in a 2003 recall, has called the upcoming election a "great battle" and vowed to raise $50 million to pass his agenda.
Like him or not, Arnold did not go to Sacramento to smoke cigars and hobnob.
I love his style. Blowing up the boxes....
Truth to power bump.
Well I must say that this style of " going to the people" is impressive. Only one problem, Arnold is ONLY going to " bring to the people"......what ARNOLD wants!!
In case you hadn't noticed, he abandoned his "blowing up boxes" proposal.
He also abandoned a spending cap proposal.
Also, his pension proposal saves no money.
His "reform" priorities are way out of whack, IMO.
You may be right. But it is not business as it was with the corrupt Davis. Arnold is trying and I'll take a slice or two if not a half loaf which is better than the status quo...
Well, if what Arnold wants keeps getting the thumbs up from the voters, can you blame him.
Read the fine print, not the propaganda.
The path you follow is worse than where we were with Davis.
(more spending, more borrowing, lost property rights, etc.)
Not to mention with all the libs out there who knows how they will vote.
"The path you follow is worse than where we were with Davis.
(more spending, more borrowing, lost property rights, etc.)"
Whatever...but here is the conservative/libertarian Cato Institute giving Arnold the highest marks...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1353356/posts
But...but, I've SEEN him smoke cigars in Sacramento - and I did watch Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies last night and I forgot how good that movie is.
Frist and some of the other GOP leaders should take lessons from Arnold on how to push the nuclear button
Maybe he can lend Frist his left nut for a few months.
What people fail to realize is that more Democrats voted for Arnold than Republicans. With mega-media blitzes promoting initiatives, and the absence of "truth in advertising" for political campaigns, almost anything can be pushed at the ballot box. And because Arnold has an (R) next to his name, many Republicans follow, thinking every proposal must be a good thing not taking the time to critically analyze the issues.
Schwarzenegger Gets Top Score on Governors Report Card
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger earned the highest score on the Cato Institute’s seventh biennial fiscal policy report card released today. The report card grades 42 governors on 15 objective fiscal measures, and shows that states that keep tax rates low and restrain spending growth have the best economic performance and long term fiscal health.
"...wants to create a constitutional requirement that would impose across-the-board spending cuts when revenue falls short..."
We have a similar thing here in Colorado - Tabor.
The state and local govts hate it with a passion. Just say Tabor to a liberal bureaucrat and watch the fireworks. They are required to the voter's permission to raise taxes -- darn! Sort of a bureaucracy for the bureaucrats.
It has restrained spending to a point where we don't have a budget crisis now when the economy is slow. And when the economy is good, we get a nice refund.
Ironically, most of the ballot issues to raise taxes have passed. And still they complain.
Does this bother anyone else?
Here's some CATO snips:
Full Text of Policy Analysis no. 537 (PDF, 1 MB)
SPENDING RESTRAINT
The freshman class governors with the best spending restraint records are Craig Benson of New Hampshire, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California.
Governor Schwarzenegger started his term in office with some much-needed budget cutting: a net of around $2.5 billion from Gray Davis’s baseline spending level. Although part of Schwarzenegger’s budget-balancing plan included a large and controversial amount of debt, Schwarzenegger did do a substantial amount of cutting and realigning programs to avoid future cost overruns. He also recently held a huge “garage sale” of unused state assets, such as computers and furniture, to raise funds for debt retirement. Although his 2005 budget compromise with the state legislature increased spending above what he requested—indeed, it raised overall general fund spending by 4 percent in real per capita terms and brought spending levels close to where they had been when he entered office—the state is still far better off with him in charge. The state is no longer teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and inability to pay its bills, even if it still remains one of the most indebted states in the union.
TAX POLICY
The freshman class governors who have so far racked up excellent records in tax policy are Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Craig Benson of New Hampshire, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, and Mark Sanford of South Carolina.
Schwarzenegger’s main strength was in resisting the call for tax increases to balance a badly overextended budget. In fact, Schwarzenegger repealed the unpopular car tax hike put into place during the waning days of the disastrous Gray Davis administration, thereby providing a tax cut of more than $2 billion in 2004.
OTHER
The freshman class of governors has within it some rising stars who deserve praise for cutting taxes and controlling spending, especially in light of the budget deficits they encountered upon entering office. The bright new stars in the GOP are Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Mark Sanford of South Carolina. The longer those governors stay in office, the more they must resist the temptation to relax their vigilance.
---
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s historic win in California’s recall election has been a salvation for the state’s beleaguered taxpayers. Within hours of taking office, Schwarzenegger cut taxes by more than $2 billion by repealing Gray Davis’s tripling of the car tax. Inheriting a $15 billion budget deficit, Schwarzenegger proposed a balancing plan that did not raise taxes. He proposed slashing spending by around $6 billion over two years and relied on a $15 billion bond issue to cover the rest. The legislature gave him much of what he wanted, and for the first time in years spending was under control in Sacramento. Borrowing is not as preferable as cutting the state’s obese $105 billion budget further, but it is far preferable to the alternative: raising taxes. The budget negotiated in 2004 reversed some of the gains of his first: it increased net general fund spending by around $1 billion but is still below where it was headed under Davis. Schwarzenegger held a government-wide “garage sale” to get rid of excess state property, from computers to staplers. He created a budget task force that found that $32 billion could be saved over five years and recommended, among other things, abolition of more than 100 state boards and privatizing state assets. By the look of things, Schwarzenegger isn’t through shaking up the power structure in Sacramento.
Cato is sponsored by corporations. Arnold is taking care of his corporate sponsors who have loyalty to neither party. In fact, he belongs lock, stock, and barrel to the very same crooks as funded Gray Davis. He is screwing small business and landowners, the conservative base of the Republican Party.
If that's what you want, keep cheering, but you are on the wrong forum.
Does this bother anyone else?
Yes. I think that selected judges can be more corrupt than elected representatives. I don't like what we have, but I think there are better solutions. (e.g. tighten up the language of the law to reduce the ability to pick and choose or let a computer model draw the districts.)
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