Our leaders in Sacramento can’t even agree on how big the
state’s budget deficit is, much less on how to fix it. Is it around
$35 billion, as the governor claims, or nearly $9 billion less, as
the nonpartisan legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill asserts?
Our leaders in Sacramento can’t even agree on how big the state’s budget deficit is, much less on how to fix it. Is it around $35 billion, as the governor claims, or nearly $9 billion less, as the nonpartisan legislative analyst Elizabeth Hill asserts?
Voters understandably have little hope that the crisis will be wisely or swiftly resolved if the parties involved can’t even agree on the size of the problem.
This crisis calls for someone who’s respected across the political spectrum to craft a bipartisan plan that will close the budget gap in a way that makes sense. We think the man for the job is state Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz.
This guy must appeal to the left, the middle and the right to be a consistently re-elected Republican from ultra-liberal Santa Cruz County.
Our newly re-elected Gov. Gray Davis, who California voters unenthusiastically chose as the lesser of two evils, or as one comic put it, the evil of two lessers, is showing a shocking lack of leadership and courage in the face of the state’s budget woes.
Instead of making hard choices and clearly explaining them, he’s proposed a “rob Peter to pay Paul” shell game that’s fooling no one.
We urge McPherson to sit down with senators, assemblymen and, yes, folks from the governor’s office to come up with a no-nonsense plan to deal with the red ink flowing from Sacramento.
The first step should be symbolic and substantial cuts that start in Sacramento: Elected officials should embrace across-the-board pay cuts for themselves, accompanied by an immediate hiring freeze for their staffs. We don’t need more expensive assistants and analysts swarming Sacramento; officials need to do more, much more, with less.
Next, the state must stop tolerating waste and fraud in government programs.
The California Tax Organization, which promotes efficient government, estimates that Medi-Cal fraud and waste cost taxpayers between $1 billion and $2.5 billion annually. Welfare fraud may cost half a billion dollars a year, Cal-Tax’s Web site, www.caltax.org, reports. And the state has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in federal fines because it has failed to install an automated child support collection system, the group reports.
As Ron Roach of Cal-Tax said, “If they can’t close the gap by finding enough waste and fraud, we would like to see them make a good-faith effort by really combing government spending from top to bottom.”
There can be no sacred cows, no untouchable programs, in the unpleasant, but utterly necessary, detailed review of government spending. This is a time for hard choices. Which is more important, adequate infrastructure or jailing non-violent offenders? Which is preferable, adequate health care for the needy or a new death row? Is it better to have enough teachers or enough prison guards?
No one said these are simple decisions, but they must be made – now. Waiting only eliminates options in a time when options are too few to begin with.
The last resort should be raising taxes. The governor has proposed raising the state sales tax by one cent per dollar spent. Others have proposed restoring the vehicle licensing fee, which is currently .65 percent of the value of a car, to 1998’s 2 percent level.
Let’s make sure we understand the impact of raising taxes before we rush to generate the revenue.
According to Cal-Tax’s Roach, if the proposed sales taxes and vehicle licensing fees increases are implemented, they would mean the buyer of a $20,000 car would pay an additional $470 – for a total tax bite of $2,200. Especially in this economic climate, new car buyers will think twice before buying a new vehicle if lawmakers tack on those additional taxes.
Especially in Gilroy, which depends on sales tax revenue from auto dealers for a sizeable amount of its General Fund, the unintended consequences could be enormous.
As they say, time is money. Sen. McPherson, your state needs you, now. Lead the way to a sane and sound plan to pull the state out of the billion-dollar budget hole and onto sound fiscal ground.
