To the right, you’ll see a sketch of a spine. In the metaphorical sense, we’ve been getting ours ground down over the last few years. Every year Arnold plays games with the budget, gradually eroding the social safety net.
If the social safety net is still alive in California, it is surely on life support. Let’s put this into simple terms. Oh sure, we can steal more for K-12 education, that’s merely robbing from our future. We can eliminate In-Home Support Services, those people are weak. According to Republicans, we need to “thin the herd” anyway.
I say it every time this fight rolls around, we must be willing to say no, and just shut it down. The suffering will be immense, and the Republicans know that. However, they have shown that they do not care. They are playing this game knowing that we won’t go all the way. And so, they have the advantage. The only way to neutralize that is to find the spine (–>) to lose badly on teh day to day basis to win on the broader scale.
The Governor has made it perfectly clear that he’s going to pummel the state of California, and that he is for damn sure going to get his way.
No specifics are out yet on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s revised plan to balance the state budget. But Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear offered two salient details today: There will be no tax hikes and “absolutely terrible cuts.” (LAT)
He’s saying everything is on the table except that which would cause the least amount of damage. It makes no sense outside of the political realm, but here we are. Stuck in the middle with Schwarzenegger. But he knows that, though it might take a while, the Democrats will eventually yield to his cuts, and we’ll take one more step towards the precipice to avoid the big jump down…for now.
Shouldn’t we be looking around for the bungie cord right about now? It’s called revenue, and given our economic conditions, it makes sense now.
Link Fuhrer Arnold to Republicans who do not want to reverse the Corporate tax cuts that were done in the dead of night(pound the wooden stake into that undead vampire), Make the corporate taxes on corporations into a 3 tier system(smallest=none, middle=lower, biggest=raise[Biggest like WalMart]), Make an oil severance tax, Especially on companies Like “oil spill BP” and make sure the tax isn’t passable onto the consumer, just from oily profits(If Alaska can do this, So should We, The oil in the ground in California belongs to the People of California, Not Big bad oil, If they want It, Make them pay for It), Raise taxes on the wealthy and most notably, NO more dammed cuts… Line in the sand on these…
The expected cuts for K-12, the ones upon which the layoff notices were based, were assuming a ~$250 per student cut.
The worst possible case scenario floated was $400 per student.
Note that we are already getting about $1000 less per student in absolute dollars than we got in 2007 for K-12.
My Assemblywoman, Nancy Skinner (14thAD) and Speaker Perez will be in Albany (near Berkeley) this evening at an event billed as “Your Chance to Fix the California Budget”:
I plan to ask them to stage a walk out until the Governor gets real and puts new revenue on the table. If this is truly an emergency, there should be no business as usual in Sacramento until emergency measures are taken.
If you live in the SF Bay Area, come on over to Albany tonight and help me get the point across.
Thursday, May 13
7 – 8:30 p.m.Albany High School
603 Key Route Boulevard, Albany
– Janet Stromberg
Would that prioritize having a budget over the far more important work the legislature prioritizes?