Drove to Sacramento early Wednesday morning to attend the
California Newspaper Publisher’s Association annual Governmental
Affairs Day. A few blocks away, the state’s
”
Big Five
”
– the governor, the Assembly speaker, the Assembly minority
leader, the Senate president pro tempore, and the Senate minority
leader – were hunkered down behind closed doors working on a budget
that is $42 billion (that’s right $42 billion) in the red and seven
months past the deadline. Setting
aside my abhorrence over a budget being worked out in secret,
the lack of statesmanship in our state Assembly and Senate, as well
as the governor’s office, is astounding.
Drove to Sacramento early Wednesday morning to attend the California Newspaper Publisher’s Association annual Governmental Affairs Day. A few blocks away, the state’s “Big Five” – the governor, the Assembly speaker, the Assembly minority leader, the Senate president pro tempore, and the Senate minority leader – were hunkered down behind closed doors working on a budget that is $42 billion (that’s right $42 billion) in the red and seven months past the deadline. Setting aside my abhorrence over a budget being worked out in secret, the lack of statesmanship in our state Assembly and Senate, as well as the governor’s office, is astounding.
There are some remedies being discussed which make sense, but one that merits support is a simple proposal being championed by the California State Grange which is working to put a “No budget – No Pay” initiative on the state ballot. The initiative is short. It starts, “SECTION 1. The People of the State of California hereby find and declare all of the following:
(a) The executive and legislative branches of government of this state have become unable to prepare and approve a spending plan as required by the California Constitution. This inability to execute the most fundamental responsibility of state government has placed local governments and special districts in great chaos and risk.”
It goes on to say, “(g) … in any year in which the budget bill is not enacted by midnight on June 30, the Governor and each member of the Legislature shall forfeit any salary, benefits, and reimbursement for travel or living expenses for the period from July 1 until the date the budget bill is enacted. No salaries, benefits, or reimbursements for travel or living expenses forfeited under this subdivision may be paid at any time. For purposes of this subdivision, ‘budget bill’ means a bill that makes appropriations for the support of the government of the State for the entire ensuing fiscal year.”
It’s shameful that it’s come to this, but I’m signing on. You can, too, at www.NoBudget-NoPay.org.
Along the same lines, it’s the payola from the federal bailout that prompted Gilroyan Tracy D. Roberts to send a note suggesting I have some fun with a word clamoring for revival. “Bankster”, is a blend of “bank” and “gangster” – an Americanism coined in the 1930s. So, that could be a humorous idea for the next sheriff at Rotary – get ready to duck Kurt Michielssen – or it could be a new addition to newspaper stories as the bailout bill unfolds. When I hear that there will be $650 million in the bailout for digital TV coupons, I cringe. That’s the same kind of thinking that got us into this mess. One of the speakers Wednesday was our current attorney general, Jerry Brown, who’s also our former governor who was lambasted after proposing that “America was entering an era of limits.” We don’t like to be limited, and that’s a good thing as long as we can pay as we go to stretch those limits – as opposed to signing up for a mortgage and a car payment we can’t afford. Anyway, something the always-entertaining Mr. Brown repeated a few times Wednesday, besides the fact that he’s weighing another run for the California governor’s seat, is this: “We’re borrowing what we don’t have to buy things we don’t need.” Could I really vote for Governor “Moonbeam” again – knowing, too, that Linda Rondstadt is out of the picture? Stranger things have happened.
Must be some awfully strange and wonderful potions and lotions at Sally’s Beauty Supply near Barnes and Noble in the 10th Street center which has been robbed three times in the last two months. Strange. Whenever I drive in that area, I hardly see anyone in that store. Maybe that’s why it’s a target or …
Maybe that’s where Alex Rodriguez is getting the undetectable clear and the cream he’s currently using … see that’s the thing – once someone is established as a liar, believing whatever the person says after that becomes infinitely more difficult. So, when the billion-dollar contract Yankee says he only used steroids for three years, well …
Going to the well is Dennis Lalor from South County Housing to ask the city to draw some money from the city’s housing trust fund to buy half interest in four homes at the Cannery Project downtown. This, he says, will jump start the project and allow the trickling sales – which is better than zero sales – to continue. You’re already starting to weigh in, as our editorial board has on this page today, in the Web poll.
Polling oddity brought up several times by editors and legislators at the Wednesday conference: When voters are asked how the legislature is doing, the results are awful. Current approval rating for the state legislature is about 20 percent. But when voters are asked how their particular state legislator is doing, Assemblywoman Anna Cabellero for example, the results are astoundingly better. Given that degree of illogic, it’s no wonder why legislators are not accountable.
Speaking of accountable, will the city seriously look at disbanding the fire department? Not sure, but I received this in the mail: “I would be greatly surprised if the Council has the guts to seriously consider farming out the fire department. The Fire Department would fill the chambers to overflowing with union members, wives, kids, cousins, neighbors as well as a few homeless off the street. They can put on a great show.” Hopefully, serious and substantial concessions will be made soon and it won’t come to that.
