Suggestions on the budget crisis are coming in from just about every possible source. Right-wingers across the spectrum are calling for their favorite cuts. It’s like an all you can eat buffet of cuts to Nortquistian-government slashers.
But over on the progressive side, a slew of reasonable plans are emerging from a variety of organizations. The California Tax Reform Association has a detailed list of suggestions that include a litany of “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the tax code, improving collections of existing taxes, and adding a few taxes that are broadly supported. The entire report is just a few pages, but provides a very good guide on how we proceed. Many of these suggestions are majority vote, so the question is once again Arnold’s willingness to bend to reality.
| Idea | Support | Oppose | D/K |
| Cut Police | 23 | 74 | 3 |
| Cut K-12 | 25 | 73 | 2 |
| Cut Health Care for the poor | 26 | 72 | 2 |
| Increase Tobacco Tax | 75 | N/a | |
| Increase Millionaire’s Tax | 74 | ||
| Oil Severance Tax | 54 |
Many are advocating for the repeal of the corporate tax cut, and there are some great grassroots groups pushing on that front. Some grassroots folks are working on FixTheBudgetNow, which is pushing a variety of solutions. And the good folks at CREDOMobile are pushing a 5 pronged plan for a portion of the deficit:
1. Reverse three expensive tax concessions to businesses.
2. Tax the extraction of oil.
3. Update the administrative rules governing the assessment of commercial property.
4. Impose a sales tax on medical marijuana.
5. Tap the rainy-day fund.
These are all ideas that have been discussed to some extent. The interesting one here is the tax on medical marijuana. Asm. Ammiano (D-SF) has proposed legalizing and taxing marijuana, but this would cover only that which was already legal. CREDO is encouraging their members to sign their petition online.
At this point, Legislators are getting calls from anyone and everyone. But, it is important that this process is more open than the previous attempt, so it seems to me that the ideas should keep on coming. The hard part will be solidifying on one coherent plan in order to move forward in the negotiations.
The Drug Policy Alliance, Ella Baker Center, and ACLU also have a few ideas, described here: http://www.californiaprogressr…
Eliminate the death penalty, the CYA (DJJ), and reform drug sentencing and parole.
Talking points that are persuasive and concrete have been a big need. Those Field Poll numbers are a real good start: they show where we need to hit.
Looking at that poll’s executive summary, it’s worth also adding the bad news:
The latter point we need to think about carefully, because we can’t really solve the state’s financial mess unless we start pulling that 37% up.
We’re currently screwed on the 2/3 rule as well:
We should not take these numbers as fixed, but as a benchmark of how far we need to go. In short, we need to think carefully about how we communicate and how we can persuade.
The budget deficit seems overwhelming when you talk in billions. I think the magnitude of it may be scaring people and making them feel impotent to do anything about it.
and of course, since the numbers are so big, the policy analyst’s first tack is to go after big blocks of cash to get there.
I tried to figure out what the deficit means for each person who lives in CA, and figured out that the $20 billion amounts to about a buck a day. 1/3rd the price of a Starbucks, some fraction of the cost of a soda or a bag of chips. Not so hard to find as $5 or $10 billion.
Almost everyone stands to lose more than a $1 a day from the budget cuts, and those who don’t stand to lose are likely the very same ones who can afford to pay more. Since the top 20% of the CA income distribution receives 50% of the income, I am sure they will gladly step forward to pay their share. The bottom 20% earns just 3% of the income, so I am sure they will be able to contribute something, too, to preserve services they need, e.g., medical care or home health services.
I believe (though I’m not sure) that an increase in our state income tax would offset what we owe to the feds, so it would be a wash from a tax perspective, but greatly benefit our state by keeping our taxes local.
I would step up immediately to pay my share +. I would gladly pay an extra dollar a day just to be saved this worry among all the political worries we have these days. I wonder how others would feel about contributing a $1 a day to retire the deficit?
is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of billions, indeed trillions, that are being unloaded from the national treasury to rescue this, that or the other “sector” of the economy, or to fund Imperial adventures abroad.
Something like $80 billion of the stimulus funds are dedicated to California, but it’s not enough, no. In fact, hardly any of it can be used to paper over the gaping hole of the deficit, so they say.
For all the structural problems inherent in the state’s constitution and government, the immediate financial difficulty is relatively small compared to all the money that is being thrown around elsewhere. Realistically, nothing can (or rather will) be done about it in the short term. Kind of like the household debt burden issue writ very large. Just as there is essentially nothing to help households get out from under their increasing burden of debt, so there is to be nothing (much) for states.
Arnold’s various ‘solutions’ — basically to cut everything (except the perks and favors to the rich and well-connected), and to pull the plug on government altogether if he doesn’t get his way — at least amount to a comprehensive package of “No.”
The Legislature, as always, is dithering; the Dem majority is, as always, in thrall to the R minority, who are now practically orgasming in their pants at the thought of finally, finally! getting their dream-come-true, the elimination of all welfare provisions (except for themselves), social services, and the permanent crippling of public education, while simultaneously preserving, protecting and defending the notorious California prisons and their guards, even expanding them, or — heaven! — privatizing them!
The fact that Washington sits on the sidelines eating popcorn while this situation devolves — but oh, they will jump to it if some “important” domestic constituency pleads for succor — is instructive.
They like the “show” I guess. But their refusal to do anything — whether at the White House or in the Congress — is about as strong a signal as you can get that Washington would be just as happy to see California’s government collapse altogether. Apparently they believe we can get along without it. Think about that. Think what that means. Regardless of the dysfunction of California’s government, our friends in the White House and Congress seem to believe we just might be better off without it at all, and they seem to be prepared to let the chips fall where they may, if, when push comes to shove, Arnold really does let the state government shut down.
This is well beyond Shock Doctrine now. This isn’t just using a crisis to implement long desired right wing/corporatist policies. It’s utilizing a crisis to shut down an entire state government, and not a minor one by any means. Apparently it is being done with the full knowledge and cooperation of the White House and Congress, too.
The fact that progressives have not been able to grab the leadership role in this situation, in fact have receded farther and farther into the background as some of the most regressive influences and interests in California surge to the front — and are all but dancing a victory dance right now — is also instructive.
Despite the fact that there has been so much time to prepare — years — progressives are not prepared with a comprehensive plan of reform either in the short or the long term, but are still at the point of kicking around some “ideas.”
So the default solution is in the hands of the rightists, the corporatists, and their boy Arnold, who is prepared — to pull the plug as it happens. But hey, at some point, ideas and argument have to yield to action. And that simply isn’t happening from any quarter except the rightists and corporatists and Arnold.
I doubt the public favors the consequences of the solution on the table, but since it is the only solution on the table, the public is likely to go along with it in the short term as long as it doesn’t cost them more. Or doesn’t seem to cost them more.
The Board of Equalization voted in October of 2005 to tax the sales of medical marijuana, and in 2007, the BOE collected more than $100 million in sales tax from medical marijuana dispensaries. (The number is far greater now and still growing.) You can read all the details about this here.
Of course, the state could bring in even greater revenues from dispensaries if they mandated that cities and counties must allow dispensaries to open, since several localities have banned dispesnaries.