Posted on 12/17/2005 8:59:09 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top education advisor said the administration is prepared to consider raising taxes as part of a long-term solution to the problems plaguing California schools.
The statement by California Education Secretary Alan Bersin came in a Dec. 1 speech to the California School Boards Assn. It was posted on the group's website Friday.
His comments mark the first time any top administration official has acknowledged that new taxes could be needed to restore the quality of state services.
"No one can look at the history of California education over the last generation and not notice we went from first to worst … and not attribute that also to the per-student revenue limits we now live under," Bersin said in the speech.
He pledged to join the dialogue "about what are the conditions in which we can talk to Californians about increasing taxes — and what are the obligations we will assume in the education world to assure the dollars that are raised are used productively."
The governor has repeatedly said that raising taxes would only cause more problems for the state.
And other administration officials say that there will be no tax increases in the budget that Schwarzenegger will propose to the Legislature next month.
Bersin's speech focused on finding common ground between the politically powerful education lobby — which he said has resisted proposals to hold teachers to higher standards and operate schools more efficiently — and the anti-tax forces that fight attempts to raise new revenue.
"Any suggestion that I believe a tax increase is in order now is incorrect," Bersin said in a telephone interview Friday.
But he added, "We have got to start to create a dialogue in which people look at opponents' arguments without rejecting them out of hand."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Gee, how considerate of a moderate to care about what a conservative thinks. don't see that very often, especially around here.
btw, I wasn't polled, were you?
Looks like time for Plan B and field a real conservative and not a pretender.
Haven't we wasted enough elections already running moderates and not backing conservative candidates, even when they poll well or win party primaries.
Oh, that should show ya what I think of your boy and his handlers.
How can you spew that stuff with a clear conscience?
Same old tiresome lies, Fair Opinion. They must pay you a lot to keep posting this stuff. As you have been shown, on numerous occasions, even Arnold's Prop 76 Campaign Manager said this would not cut spending.
One more time....
"The key is not to crank government spending down," said Tom Campbell, Schwarzenegger's former finance director, who left the post to campaign for the initiative. "It's just to spend no more than we have."
San Diego Union-Tribune, October 21, 2005But Campbell said he has looked forward starting in 2006, which is when the measure would take effect, and doesn't believe that the cap would have an impact on state spending until 2013. "That's because we start with three good years of revenue behind us," he said. "It completely depends on what year you start."
San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 2005
Yep. Prop 76 was all about borrowing--not spending. From the Los Angeles Times, October 24, 2005
Interviewed on public television's "California Connected" last week, Schwarzenegger said: "Look, we don't have enough money to build hospitals, … freeways, bridges. We need more energy. We need to make sure we have the cleanest environment…. We need more water, we need more of everything. And more affordable housing, which is the biggest problem of all."(snip)
But how does the state, facing a deficit projected at $6 billion next year, live within its means without raising taxes — while spending more to build things?
The governor must be a magician.
Actually, Schwarzenegger and his chief fiscal advisor, Tom Campbell, do offer answers for the money mystery. One answer is to borrow more with infrastructure bonds.
The Schwarzenegger administration is considering an ambitious bond program to fix freeway bottlenecks, improve access to cargo ports, shore up Delta levees, upgrade water facilities and quake-proof hospitals.
But the state first should get its cash flow in order, says Campbell, who's on leave as state finance director to promote Prop. 76. "We'd go to the market with a substantially better balance sheet and bond rating if 76 passes," he says. "That means lower interest."
He wasn't. He made a pragmatic decision. A decision worthy of a politician.
McClintock was running for Lt. Governor on the Republican ticket. McClintock had neither the financial or orginazational resources to conduct a successful, state wide campaign without the assistance of the CAGOP and the RNC. The support appears a straight forward reciprocation. Support the CAGOP and secure their continued benevolence.
Only McClintock knows the compendium of reasons behind his public pronouncements but two things are certain to politcal observers. 1) It wasn't out of loyalty to the CAGOP after their stunt in Aug 2003 which stung the then gubernatorial candidate and 2) it wasn't out of support for the core issues contained in Prop 76, borrowing and lender protection, which McClintock had railed against prior to his ordination by the CAGOP.
Ironically, today, in the face of the recent shenanigans by the Austrian, the CAGOP probably needs McClintock's image as much as McClintock needs the CAGOP's resources.
For those from Rio Linda here's the translation.
If we can borrow an additional $5-$8B, delaying our on-paper deficit and allay the fears of the lending community by granting them constitutional protection precluding renegotiated repayment schedules for previous bonding, we'd go to the market in a much stronger position to borrow another $50B.
Excellent translation of the true Prop 76 intent. Bookmarked!
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
"He wasn't. He made a pragmatic decision. "
Is that a nice way of you calling him a liar ?
That for whatever reason he was attempting to get others to support a prop that YOU say he personally did not support the "core issues" of ? ... a prop that if passed you want us to believe would leave us worse off then we are now.
Good thing you warned us about this CINO !
McClintock is neither. He's a politician. That's why political speech is legally exempt from strict scrutiny.
McClintock's historical positions are known to both Google and our archives. Some effort and a little experience is required but the results are informative. Insightful search strings are our friends.
If RINO Arnold goes for a tax increase/new taxes, it will be equivalent to submittal of a resignation letter just ahead of the Recall Petitions.
We recalled one liberal jackass. It shouldn't be that difficult to recall an even more liberal jackass.
Bring it on.
"That's why political speech is legally exempt from strict scrutiny."
I don't think the scrutiny has to be too strict when he makes a commerical urging people to vote for something that is against his supposed core beliefs - perhaps everything he has said before deserves to be put under some kind of scrutiny.
You've opened our eyes to this CINO, and are deserving of all the credit and accolades that go with it -
Who? You? You're the one that shallowly thinks that anyone who cannot tolerate A.S. and his Kennedys is automatically a total psychophant of McClintock. You sound exactly like the GovernMental EnvironMentalists who chant that if you don't buy their bogus BS, that you're automatically "against the environment!"
Just got to your room and stand on your head in the corner until some blood manages to trickle down to you starving brain, will ya???
With my blessing. Exposing the Republican masses to conservative thought usually results in a convert. Usually.
"Exposing the Republican masses to conservative thought usually results in a convert. "
Would you still like them converted if they were exposed to the "conservative thought" espoused by McClintock in his commercials promoting Prop 76 ?
An interesting observation. Most apparently believed the thought was partisan.
Both the left and the right voted NO on Prop 76 leaving only the 19% in the center that bothered to vote alone on the decks of the USS Wilson, either transfixed in the headlights of celebrity or wrapped in their partisan mantle as its Austrian captain, occupied with hurling taunting, personal insults at a plurality of the electorate, steered the great ship of deceit into the shoals.
In the movie "Animal House", the frat boys destroy the car of Flounder's brother. As Flounder stares at the wrecked auto, Belushi puts his arm around Flounder and says "You f***ed up Flounder, you trusted us."
Why the leaders of the party continue with this attitude is beyond me. Don't they understand that the changes she wants to make is to eliminate republican obstructionism to the Democrat's socialist agenda? Do the party leaders really believe that a "socialism slow is better then socialism fast" platform is good long term strategy? Better yet, are they so naive as to think that the base won't desert the party in droves over this type of muddle through policy?
And calcowgirl, before we rejoin the Party, we figure we're on the outside looking in anyways, so what's the difference? We can still foment and torment from out here just as good as if we were card carrying ignored members, right? Right!!! (rhetorical questions once again)(grin)
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