Ever wonder if your water is contaminated with toxic runoff from local industry? What about if your kids are safe playing in the dirt at home or at school?  California regulators should be able to eliminate that fear.  We’re at the confirmation hearing for the new director of the CA Dept. of Toxic Control to make sure she answers the tough questions and outlines her plans to hold companies accountable if their hazardous waste and manufacturing facilities are spewing toxins into our air and water.

And just this morning, the Sacramento Bee published an opinion piece that further illustrated the need for regulations that have teeth and for regulators who are strong enough to stand up to industry power brokers.

The underbelly of industry in California is toxic waste, from the arcane chemicals used to manufacture computers to contaminated engine oil left behind after an an oil change at a service station. The state has strict rules and regulations on how such waste can be disposed of or recycled – governing storage, transportation and reprocessing to protect air, soil and water…Yet too many middle- and working-class families in this position are plagued by odors, toxic dust, fiery accidents and worries about their drinking water.” -Judy Dugan & Doug Heller, Special to the Sacramento Bee 4/11/2012

Read more of the Sacramento Bee opinion piece here

Combined measure raises hope for a progressive victory

by Brian Leubitz

Governor Brown for a long time has known, and publicly stated, that he wanted to eliminate the other competing revenue measures.  When he wasn’t able to do it by sheer publicity, apparently he found it necessary to strike a deal:

After weeks of battling in public and negotiating behind the scenes, Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Federation of Teachers have reached a tentative compromise on a November tax initiative, sources close to the deal said.

As currently structured, the deal would result in a smaller sales tax hike and larger tax increase on the wealthy than the Democratic governor wanted. CFT had been circulating an initiative with no sales tax hike and a two-step increase on earners starting at $1 million.(SacBee)

Now, Molly Munger still has her revenue measure that would raise taxes on pretty much everybody. And considering she just dropped another $300K into the account, it doesn’t seem like she has any interest in backing away now.  It certainly doesn’t seem like she’s posturing, but considering where her measure is polling, it is a long shot at best.

CFT and the Courage Campaign worked quite hard on this more progressive Millionaire’s tax, and they both deserve a lot of credit for pushing the Governor on this.

Governor releases poll showing measures would fail if all three on ballot

by Brian Leubitz

Of course, the question then becomes which measure you actually put on the ballot. Brown’s poll has some interesting figures on that:

Both Brown’s temporary tax hike — a half-cent rise in the sales tax coupled with increased levies on higher earners — and a proposed tax increase on millionaires sponsored by some unions score more than 50% on the poll. Brown’s measure is at 53% while the millionaire’s tax polls at 55%, according to a statement from Sacramento-based pollster Jim Moore.

The third proposed tax hike, an across-the-board income tax hike to fund public education pushed by civil rights attorney Molly Munger, lags with only 31% support.

But if all three appear on the ballot, the release states, none cross the 50% threshold. Brown’s wins 43% support, the millionaire’s tax 42% and the income tax 17%. (LA Times)

Munger seems not to be interested in backing off, despite what poll after poll shows: her measure really can’t pass. And, really, it should be no surprise. It increases tax increase for everybody making any amount over about $7750.  That really isn’t going to fly with any electorate really.

Now, as to the question between Brown’s measure and the millionaire’s tax, the issues become closer.  Both sides seem intent on their own measures making it on the ballot.  While Brown’s has considerably more resources to get on the ballot, there is still a strong chance of both making it.  Unless somebody backs off, we stand a chance of seeing all three measures on the ballot.

For reasons of confusion and principle, having three on the ballot makes it even tougher to get one through to 50%.  And at this point, I’m not sure the little discussion through the media is really working.

As Conservatives play games with the former President’s legacy, what would Ronald Reagan do in today’s California?

I probably wouldn’t have known it was “Reagan Day” but for the helpful tweets of @GeorgeRunner. The former legislator and current member of the Board of Equalization isn’t really much of a tweeter, but on occasion he gives us such helpful words as “Happy Reagan Day!” after a few weeks of silence other than an announcement of his “e-newsletter.” (By the way, if you call it an “e-newsletter,” you are doing it wrong.)

Anyway, I thought I would take a moment to remind Mr. Runner and his #tcot friends about a few facts of the Gipper’s tenure here in California. In a blog post, Bruce Bartlett, a Reagan domestic policy adviser, points out some of the false tax mythology:

Reagan’s record on raising taxes began almost the moment he entered politics. Elected governor of California in 1966, he inherited a large budget deficit from his predecessor, Pat Brown. Although a conservative, dedicated to shrinking government, Reagan nevertheless found the magnitude of spending cuts that would have been necessary in 1967 to be beyond reach. This led him to endorse a $1 billion per year tax increase, equivalent to a $17 billion tax increase today – an enormous sum equal to a third of state revenues at that time. Journalist Lou Cannon recounts the circumstances:

“No amount of budget reductions, even if they had been politically palatable, could have balanced California’s budget in 1967. The cornerstone of Governor Reagan’s economic program was not the ballyhooed budget reductions but a sweeping tax package four times larger than the previous record California tax increase obtained by Governor Brown in 1959. Reagan’s proposal had the distinction of being the largest tax hike ever proposed by any governor in the history of the United States.”1] ([CG&G Feb 2011)

Let’s stop with all the beatification and think about what really happened 45 years ago, and what is happening now.  Like Reagan, Gov. Brown inherited a big deficit from his predecessor. Schwarzenegger’s mish-mash of policies left the state without direction and with a huge deficit to show for it. Brown the Younger in his third time has a similarly daunting challenge as he did in 1978 after Prop 13 and as Reagan did in 1978. And like Reagan, he understands the impracticality of a cuts-only budget solution.  And the tax increases that Brown is proposing today is less than half of the Reagan 1967 tax increases.

Runner and his fellow Republicans need to really take a deep look about their presidential saint and how he was able to objectively look at a situation and be more than ideologically dogmatic.  Perhaps then we could really govern the state, and the GOP could return to relevance.

If you’d like to see more debunking of the religion rapidly building around Reagan, read the entire post. Think Progress also has a great post about Reagan’s real legacy last year for his centennial.  Let’s

Controller John Chiang sounds the alarm bells

by Brian Leubitz

While tax season is gearing up, the state government is now running low on cash reserves. Controller John Chiang announced today that without payment delays and other tactics, the state will run out of cash in March:

California will run out of cash by early March if the state does not take swift action to find $3.3 billion through payment delays and borrowing, according to a letter state Controller John Chiang sent to state lawmakers today.

The announcement is surprising since lawmakers previously believed the state had enough cash to last through the fiscal year that ends in June.

But Chiang said additional cash management solutions are needed because state tax revenues are $2.6 billion less than what Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers assumed in their optimistic budget last year. Meanwhile, Chiang said, the state is spending $2.6 billion more than state leaders planned on. (SacBee)

To some extent this happens every year. Last year we had to borrow $10B to tide us over until tax revenues came in.  And heck, Chiang thinks this year will only be $5.4billion. The world is getting better, hooray.

Unfortunately, with the continuing high demands on state services, this is really to be expected. And, Chiang, as he has always done, will have to find a way to balance the state’s checkbook.  Fun job, isn’t it?

While Brown works to cobble together a centrist coalition, the corpse of Howard Jarvis speaks.

by Brian Leubitz

Jerry Brown is putting together quite the interesting coalition for his tax revenue measure.  He’s got some labor support, of course, but he’s been claiming support from some large companies that usually go by “Big” and followed by the name of some industry. He’s got some Big Oil, some Big Healthcare, yada, yada.

Hearing this, the corpse of Howard Jarvis was none too pleased. So, they’ve gone ahead and begged their Big Business friends to resist Jerry Brown’s “cajoling.”

“We know that Governor Brown, just through the power of his office alone, can cajole and perhaps even threaten vulnerable businesses,” the groups said in an open letter. “It is therefore not lost on us that, under certain circumstances, modest support to help the governor place his measure on the ballot might be viewed a lesser of two evils or, more likely, as an insurance payment. However, on behalf of citizen taxpayers and the small business community, we appeal to your sense of doing what is right for all of California.” (SacBee)

This really is quite remarkable. Though HJTA didn’t exactly get along with Gov. Schwarzenegger, they never really went this far with him.  By this far, I mean insinuating that Brown is threatening companies in order to solicit funding for his revenue measure.  Not that Arnold ever did that, because, special interests had no power on him.  He could resist them with his massive musculature.  Until he couldn’t.

But this is more a sign of desperation than anything else.  If Brown is able to pull significant resources and support from some of the traditional funders of anti-tax campaign, it will be an exceedingly difficult fall campaign for HJTA and its allies.  Because you know you are doing well when you try to quote Benjamin Franklin about hanging together or hanging separately. (I say try because it is quite possible that Franklin didn’t actually come up with the phrase.) The quote is even more out of touch considering the desperate state of many of Californians most needy who have been devastated by the continuous cuts to services.

by Leighton Woodhouse

California’s budget crisis has inflicted an enormous amount of suffering on millions of California families. But its worst victims are likely to be the hundreds of thousands of animals that enter the state's shelters every year.

According to recent media reports, Gov. Jerry Brown is planning to propose a repeal of key provisions of a 1998 law written by legendary political activist and former State Sen. Tom Hayden to protect shelter animals in California from premature euthanasia and increase their chances for adoption.

The "Hayden Law" requires shelters to wait at least four to six days before killing an animal, rather than the 72-hour minimum that prevailed prior to 1999. It also requires California shelters to schedule their operating hours to allow working people to visit during weekends and evenings so that they can find their missing companion animals or adopt an animal that would otherwise be put to death, and mandates that animals be provided needed veterinary care.

Repealing the law would do away with all of these basic protections, consigning countless animals to death. Sadly, this heartless remedy is what passes for a practical solution in today's fiscal and political climate.

In a video message to Gov. Jerry Brown released this week by Dog Park Media, Tom Hayden urges California Gov. Jerry Brown to leave intact the law he wrote over a decade ago.

"The cost of (repeal) is to put countless dogs and cats to death," says Hayden in the video.

Addressing the Governor, Hayden continues, "I urge you to look at your dog before you allow this bill that protects animals to die."

 Nathan Winograd, director of the California-based No Kill Advocacy Center and author of Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation & The No Kill Revolution in America, agrees.

"Other states also face economic challenges," Winograd told me. "But instead of gutting animal protection laws, they are expanding them. When it comes to protecting animals in shelters, California is far from generous. Turning the clock back almost 15 years as the Governor proposes is unconscionable."

Dog Park is circulating an online petition to accompany the video, calling on Gov. Brown "not to kill thousands of innocent shelter animals" to solve the state's budget woes.

These animals have nothing to do with California's budget shortfall and it is wrong to kill them to solve our fiscal problems.

Governor thinks big, highlights HSR and education

by Brian Leubitz

You can read the whole State of the State here, and the Bee has a collection of responses here, but there were a few points I thought were worth pulling out.

1) The budget

The Governor’s line was pretty much as expected.  He is planning on making some rather grievous cuts, but feels that we need some revenues to balance out the system.  He promoted his measure and spoke of the temporary nature of the increases.  I would think that temporary is a word that you will be hearing many times as we head to November.

2) HSR

Governor Brown has always been a supporter of HSR, and the recent troubles have done nothing to dissuade him that now is the right time to start building.  The state will be putting up $2B for the first segment, which the Governor calls a good deal no matter what else is built.  However, he went through the old quote book to come up with some good fodder for why we need HSR:

Critics of the high-speed rail project abound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. During the 1930’s, The Central Valley Water Project was called a “fantastic dream” that “will not work.” The Master Plan for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 was derided as “new Deal jitterbug economics.” In 1966, then Mayor Johnson of Berkeley called BART a “billion dollar potential fiasco.” Similarly, the Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal: “totally impossible to be carried out.” The critics were wrong then and they’re wrong now.

3) Education

Brown has been something of critic recently of the overabundant testing scheme in place under NCLB. Today was no different:

In California we have detailed state standards and lots of tests. Unfortunately, the resulting data is not provided until after the school year is over. Even today, the ranking of schools based on tests taken in April and May of 2011 is not available. I believe it is time to reduce the number of tests and get the results to teachers, principals and superintendents in weeks, not months. With timely data, principals and superintendents can better mentor and guide teachers as well as make sound evaluations of their performance. I also believe we need a qualitative system of assessments, such as a site visitation program where each classroom is visited, observed and evaluated. I will work with the State Board of Education to develop this proposal.

We’ll see what becomes of this, but reducing testing won’t make the Arne Duncan and the Dept of Education happy. However, it is the right choice for California. We spend too much time teaching to tests in what is becoming an ever-shorter school year.

You’ll be able to watch a replay of the speech soon, I’ll post a link to that when I get it.

Republicans pre-respond, but the basis of today’s speech already seems clear

by Brian Leubitz

UPDATE: Read the text as prepared by the Governor at his website here.

First, let me apologize for not “going dark” today, but since the state of the state is today, I hope the “Stop Censorship” logo on the front page will clearly state my opposition to SOPA/PIPA. Hey, if it works for Google, right?

Anyway, in a few minutes, the Governor will be giving his state of the state speech.  The Republicans have already “responded” to the Speech on the intertubes, but apparently they put those behind a password until the speech to complete the illusion or something.  Not to defend them on this, but to most Capitol watchers, the meat of the speech is not much of a mystery.

The governor will outline how the economy of the state is improving, which it is, but at a rate that has not kept up with the state’s demand for services from an already slashed budget. In order to combat that, he is going to ask the people of California to approve his revenue measure that will temporarily increase the sales tax by half a cent and levy a higher tax on upper income earners.

His budget already takes this measure into account, basically providing two alternatives. One that attempts to preserve K12 funding while still continuing the slash and burn of our social safety net.  The other budget, which assumes no additional revenue, cuts billions of dollars from K12 and would likely mean big teacher layoffs and a still shorter school year.

Dan Schnur and other Republicans are calling this a ransom note from the Governor.  But as Brown said, that’s where the money is. If we don’t have money, we can’t pay for education. The facts are there, we need additional revenue.

But, there is still a speech to be given. You can watch it on CalChannel online or on cable. You can hear the audio on KQED here or KALW here. The SacBee has the stream and live Dan Walters(!) commentary here. I’ll be back with more after the speech.

SACRAMENTO – In his 2012 State of the State speech, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. said California is “on the mend” and laid out an ambitious agenda for economic growth in the year ahead.

The full text of the speech is below: (Remarks as prepared)

As required by the state constitution, I am reporting to you this morning on the condition of our state.

Putting it as simply as I can, California is on the mend. Last year, we were looking at a structural deficit of over $20 billion. It was a real mess. But you rose to the occasion and together we shrunk state government, reduced our borrowing costs and transferred key functions to local government, closer to the people. The result is a problem one fourth as large as the one we confronted last year.

My goal then was to balance budget cuts with a temporary extension of existing taxes-if the voters approved. You made the reductions and some very difficult decisions but the four Republican votes needed to put the tax measure on the ballot were not there. So we are left with unfinished business: closing the remaining gap.

Again, I propose cuts and temporary taxes. Neither is popular but both must be done. In a world still reeling from the near collapse of the financial system, it makes no sense to spend more than we have. The financial downgrading of the United States, as well as of several governments in Europe, should be warning enough. It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and digging ourselves into a deep financial hole-to do good-is a bad idea. In this time of uncertainty, prudence and paying down debt is the best policy.

For my part, I am determined to press ahead both with substantial budget cuts and my tax initiative. The cuts are not ones I like but the situation demands them. As for the initiative, it is fair. It is temporary. It is half of what people were paying in 2010.  And it will protect our schools and guarantee-in the constitution-funding for the public safety programs we transferred to local government. With enough time, we can and should devise more permanent tax reform but for now we should finish the job of bringing spending into balance with revenues.

Putting our fiscal house in order is good stewardship and helps us regain the trust of the people. It also builds confidence in California as a place to invest and realize one’s dreams. Contrary to those critics who fantasize that California is a failed state, I see unspent potential and incredible opportunity. Every decade since the 60’s, dystopian journalists write stories on the impending decline of our economy, our culture and our politics. Yes, it is fair to say that California is turbulent, less predictable and, well, different. Yet, look at the facts.

After the mortgage bubble burst in 2007, California lost a million jobs, much of it driven by the overleveraged construction industry and its financial partners in the under-regulated mortgage industry. The result is a recovery far slower than after the previous six national recessions. But now we are coming back. In 2011, California personal income grew by almost $100 billion and 230,000 jobs were created-a rate much higher than the nation as a whole.

Contrary to those declinists, who sing of Texas and bemoan our woes, California is still the land of dreams-as well as the Dream Act. It’s the place where Apple, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, QUALCOMM, Twitter, Facebook and countless other creative companies all began. It’s home to more Nobel Laureates and venture capital investment than any other state. In 2010, California received 48% of U.S. venture capital investments. In the first three months of last year it rose even higher-to 52%. That is more than four times greater that the next recipient, Massachusetts. As for new patents, California inventors were awarded almost four times as many as inventors from the next state, New York.

California has problems but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.

The year 2012 presents plenty of opportunity and, if we work together, we can:

Stimulate jobs

Build renewable energy

Reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses

Launch the nation’s only high-speed rail system

Reach agreement on a plan to fix the Delta

Improve our schools

Reform our pensions, and,

Make sure that prison realignment is working-to protect public safety and reduce recidivism.

Last year, I appointed a top advisor with an impressive background in the private sector and charged him with finding out what doesn’t work for business in this state and how to fix it. What he heard consistently was that business needed an effective champion to navigate the state’s plethora of complex laws and regulations which can discourage investment and job creation. You enacted a law to restructure our office of business development and place it in the governor’s office. Under the name GO-BIZ, we now have a point of contact at the highest level for businesses large and small. More than that, the GO-BIZ office is staffed with people who understand what it’s like to be in business and stand ready to intervene and give real help to get businesses open and projects off the ground.

Already California is leading the nation in creating jobs in renewable energy and the design and construction of more efficient buildings and new technologies. Our state keeps demanding more efficient structures, cars, machines and electric devices. We do that because we understand that fossil fuels, particularly foreign oil, create ever rising costs to our economy and to our health. It is true that the renewable energy sector is small relative to the overall economy but it pays good wages and will only grow bigger as oil prices increase and the effects of climate change become more obvious and expensive.

I have set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. You have laid the foundation by adopting the requirement that one third of our electricity come from renewable sources by that date. This morning I can tell you we are on track to meet that goal and substantially exceed it. In the last two years alone, California has permitted over 16,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal energy projects.

In the beginning of the computer industry, jobs were numbered in the thousands. Now they are in the millions. The same thing will happen with green jobs. And California is positioned perfectly to reap the economic benefits that will inevitably flow.

California also leads the nation in cleaning up the air, encouraging electric vehicles and reducing pollution and greenhouse gases. Our vehicle emissions standards-which have always set the pace-now have been adopted by the federal government for the rest of the country.

Under AB 32, California has stepped out and crafted a bold plan to deal with climate change and foreign oil dependency. The plan will require less carbon in our fuels, more efficient technologies across a broad swath of businesses and a carefully designed cap and trade system that uses market incentives instead of prescriptive mandates.

As a result, California is attracting billions of dollars in clean tech venture capital investments. In 2011, almost 40% of such investments were made in California, making our state not only the leader in the nation but in the world.

My commitment is to continue these innovative programs and build on them in the coming year in every way that I can.

Just as bold is our plan to build a high-speed rail system, connecting the Northern and Southern parts of our state. This is not a new idea. As governor the last time, I signed legislation to study the concept. Now thirty years later, we are within weeks of a revised business plan that will enable us to begin initial construction before the year is out.

President Obama strongly supports the project and has provided the majority of funds for this first phase. It is now your decision to evaluate the plan and decide what action to take. Without any hesitation, I urge your approval.

If you believe that California will continue to grow, as I do, and that millions more people will be living in our state, this is a wise investment. Building new runways and expanding our airports and highways is the only alternative. That is not cheaper and will face even more political opposition.

Those who believe that California is in decline will naturally shrink back from such a strenuous undertaking. I understand that feeling but I don’t share it, because I know this state and the spirit of the people who choose to live here. California is still the Gold Mountain that Chinese immigrants in 1848 came across the Pacific to find. The wealth is different, derived as it is, not from mining the Sierras but from the creative imagination of those who invent and build and generate the ideas that drive our economy forward.  

Critics of the high-speed rail project abound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. During the 1930’s, The Central Valley Water Project was called a “fantastic dream” that “will not work.” The Master Plan for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 was derided as “new Deal jitterbug economics.” In 1966, then Mayor Johnson of Berkeley called BART a “billion dollar potential fiasco.” Similarly, the Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal: “totally impossible to be carried out.” The critics were wrong then and they’re wrong now.

Another huge issue we must tackle is water. Last week, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar – met here in Sacramento with those in my administration who are working to complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Together we agreed that by this summer we should have the basic elements of the project we need to build. This is something my father worked on and then I worked on-decades ago. We know more now and are committed to the dual goals of restoring the Delta ecosystem and ensuring a reliable water supply.

This is an enormous project. It will ensure water for 25 million Californians and for millions of acres of farmland as well a hundred thousand acres of new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife. To get it done will require time, political will and countless permits from state and federal agencies. I invite your collaboration and constructive engagement.

Next, I want to say something about our schools. They consume more tax dollars than any other government activity and rightly so as they have a profound effect on our future. Since everyone goes to school, everyone thinks they know something about education and in a sense they do. But that doesn’t stop experts and academics and foundation consultants from offering their ideas – usually labeled reform and regularly changing at ten year intervals-on how to get kids learning more and better. It is salutary and even edifying that so much interest is shown in the next generation. Nevertheless, in a state with six million students, 300,000 teachers, deep economic divisions and a hundred different languages, some humility is called for.

In that spirit, I offer these thoughts. First, responsibility must be clearly delineated between the various levels of power that have a stake in our educational system. What most needs to be avoided is concentrating more and more decision-making at the federal or state level. For better or worse, we depend on elected school boards and the principals and the teachers they hire. To me that means, we should set broad goals and have a good accountability system, leaving the real work to those closest to the students. Yes, we should demand continuous improvement in meeting our state standards but we should not impose excessive or detailed mandates.

My budget proposes to replace categorical programs with a new weighted student formula that provides a basic level of funding with additional money for disadvantaged students and those struggling to learn English. This will give more authority to local school districts to fashion the kind of programs they see their students need. It will also create transparency, reduce bureaucracy and simplify complex funding streams.

Given the cutbacks to education in recent years, it is imperative that California devote more tax dollars to this most basic of public services. If we are successful in passing the temporary taxes I have proposed and the economy continues to expand, schools will be in a much stronger position.

No system, however, works without accountability. In California we have detailed state standards and lots of tests. Unfortunately, the resulting data is not provided until after the school year is over. Even today, the ranking of schools based on tests taken in April and May of 2011 is not available. I believe it is time to reduce the number of tests and get the results to teachers, principals and superintendents in weeks, not months. With timely data, principals and superintendents can better mentor and guide teachers as well as make sound evaluations of their performance. I also believe we need a qualitative system of assessments, such as a site visitation program where each classroom is visited, observed and evaluated. I will work with the State Board of Education to develop this proposal.

The house of education is divided by powerful forces and strong emotions. My role as governor is not to choose sides but to listen, to engage and to lead. I will do that. I embrace both reform and tradition-not complacency. My hunch is that principals and teachers know the most, but I’ll take good ideas from wherever they come.

As for pensions, I have put forth my 12 point proposal. Examine it. Improve it. But please take up the issue and do something real. I am committed to pension reform because I believe there is a real problem. Three times as many people are retiring as are entering the workforce. That arithmetic doesn’t add up. In addition, benefits, contributions and the age of retirement all have to balance. I don’t believe they do today. So we have to take action. And we should do it this year.  

As for prison realignment, we are just at the beginning. The cooperation of sheriffs, police chiefs, probation officers, district attorneys and local officials has been remarkable. But we have much to do-to protect public safety and reduce recidivism-and together, we’ll get it done.

It is one thing to pass a law and quite another to implement it and make it work.

As I see it, that’s my job as governor and chief executive: make the operations of government work-efficiently, honestly and in the peoples’ interest. With your help, that’s what we’ll do in 2012 and prove the declinists wrong once again.

Thank you.