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State Tortures Everyone By Delaying Budget OK
By Editorial Board
There’s only one thing worse than taking something away.
That’s threatening to take something away. The on-going threat can be torture.
The entire state is being tortured right now by our so-called leaders in Sacramento. California long has been a laughing-stock when it came to passing a budget on time, but it is even worse this year, thanks to the reality of a $26 billion deficit.
We know something is going to be taken away. We just don’t know exactly what it will be or how much it will be. Now we don’t know when it will be, either.
That we includes individual taxpayers, cities, school districts and counties. Both the Long Beach Unified School District and Los Angeles County already have passed budgets with the full knowledge that some amount of their revenue will be going away.
The school district has more cuts prepared in the wings while the county has reserves set aside to cover the expected state raid. The question that is keeping school board members and county supervisors up at night is whether what they’ve set aside is going to be enough.
Ironically, Long Beach is just beginning deliberaton of its fiscal 2010 budget. The mayor’s office has a proposed budget now and is scheduled to release both the city manager’s plan and any changes Mayor Bob Foster wants by Aug. 1. Then the City Council gets its crack at the numbers.
More than a decade ago (1996, to be exact), then-City Manager James Hankla convinced the council to try to avoid the annual pain of adjusting after the state passed its late budget, and the city moved its fiscal year back three months. Now Long Beach’s year starts on Oct. 1. Surely the extra three months would eliminate the torture of not knowing, they thought.
It worked for a little while. But as the city has faced its own deficits, planning has been pushed earlier and earlier. This year’s process is particularly hard, as we attempt to plug a $43 million spending gap.
And that’s without the expected state raid. Plans have been laid to deal with a robbery of up to $10 million — a figure that once seemed reasonable. Now it is anyone’s guess as to what the final number will be.
How does this impact you, the individual taxpayer? Well, you have already been hit by some increased taxes. There’s always the possibility of more (but be assured they’ll be called fees, not taxes).
More importantly, you are going to see reductions in service from our local government entities. You’ve already seen some — cuts in summer school, reductions in recreation offerings, etc. There will be more. The question is how much more.
No one is going to like the budget solution Sacramento eventually comes up with. You don’t make people happy cutting $26 billion, or raising $26 billion, or any combination. For that matter, you don’t make anyone happy covering a $43 million gap, either.
But hemming and hawing, refusing to make the tough decisions, only exacerbates the problem. Better the pain you know than the pain you don’t.
We can point to a multitude of reasons for this dysfunctional state government — term limits, a two-thirds majority required, term limits, district gerrymandering so there are no contested seats, term limits, a governor who lives and breathes macho, term limits — but those issues are secondary right now.
Here is the real issue. No matter how weak they are, the state legislators are adults who should be capable of making a decision.
And decision time is now.
Besides whining, what can we do? Let those leaders know that we expect action, and expect it now. They will see this editorial. Will they see a letter or an e-mail from you?
Here are the e-mail addresses for a few decision-makers. More can easily be found at www.ca.gov.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, go to gov.ca.gov/interact.
Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, Assemblymember.Lowenthal@assembly.ca.gov.
State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, senator.Lowenthal@sen.ca.gov.
State Sen. Jenny Oropeza, senator.Oropeza@sen.ca.gov.
That’s threatening to take something away. The on-going threat can be torture.
The entire state is being tortured right now by our so-called leaders in Sacramento. California long has been a laughing-stock when it came to passing a budget on time, but it is even worse this year, thanks to the reality of a $26 billion deficit.
We know something is going to be taken away. We just don’t know exactly what it will be or how much it will be. Now we don’t know when it will be, either.
That we includes individual taxpayers, cities, school districts and counties. Both the Long Beach Unified School District and Los Angeles County already have passed budgets with the full knowledge that some amount of their revenue will be going away.
The school district has more cuts prepared in the wings while the county has reserves set aside to cover the expected state raid. The question that is keeping school board members and county supervisors up at night is whether what they’ve set aside is going to be enough.
Ironically, Long Beach is just beginning deliberaton of its fiscal 2010 budget. The mayor’s office has a proposed budget now and is scheduled to release both the city manager’s plan and any changes Mayor Bob Foster wants by Aug. 1. Then the City Council gets its crack at the numbers.
More than a decade ago (1996, to be exact), then-City Manager James Hankla convinced the council to try to avoid the annual pain of adjusting after the state passed its late budget, and the city moved its fiscal year back three months. Now Long Beach’s year starts on Oct. 1. Surely the extra three months would eliminate the torture of not knowing, they thought.
It worked for a little while. But as the city has faced its own deficits, planning has been pushed earlier and earlier. This year’s process is particularly hard, as we attempt to plug a $43 million spending gap.
And that’s without the expected state raid. Plans have been laid to deal with a robbery of up to $10 million — a figure that once seemed reasonable. Now it is anyone’s guess as to what the final number will be.
How does this impact you, the individual taxpayer? Well, you have already been hit by some increased taxes. There’s always the possibility of more (but be assured they’ll be called fees, not taxes).
More importantly, you are going to see reductions in service from our local government entities. You’ve already seen some — cuts in summer school, reductions in recreation offerings, etc. There will be more. The question is how much more.
No one is going to like the budget solution Sacramento eventually comes up with. You don’t make people happy cutting $26 billion, or raising $26 billion, or any combination. For that matter, you don’t make anyone happy covering a $43 million gap, either.
But hemming and hawing, refusing to make the tough decisions, only exacerbates the problem. Better the pain you know than the pain you don’t.
We can point to a multitude of reasons for this dysfunctional state government — term limits, a two-thirds majority required, term limits, district gerrymandering so there are no contested seats, term limits, a governor who lives and breathes macho, term limits — but those issues are secondary right now.
Here is the real issue. No matter how weak they are, the state legislators are adults who should be capable of making a decision.
And decision time is now.
Besides whining, what can we do? Let those leaders know that we expect action, and expect it now. They will see this editorial. Will they see a letter or an e-mail from you?
Here are the e-mail addresses for a few decision-makers. More can easily be found at www.ca.gov.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, go to gov.ca.gov/interact.
Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, Assemblymember.Lowenthal@assembly.ca.gov.
State Sen. Alan Lowenthal, senator.Lowenthal@sen.ca.gov.
State Sen. Jenny Oropeza, senator.Oropeza@sen.ca.gov.
