Budget/Fiscal

This weekend, much of the nation is watching the Final Four.  I was particularly glued to my seat yesterday to watch a couple of supposed underdogs, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth University, battle to see who would take on more traditional powers UConn or Kentucky in the college basketball championship.

Those programs are both headed by hot young coaches that universities will be throwing two to three million dollars toward, if not more, to try to lure them to head their basketball programs.

It was an interesting and contentious week in Wisconsin and elsewhere, as Governor Scott Walker attempted to sidestep a judicial order by getting an agency with no official authority to publish the controversial law that would put a halt to collective bargaining for Wisconsin’s public employees.

On Friday, Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court extended a temporary restraining order blocking the legislation for at least two months, as she considers whether Republicans passed it illegally.

Every week, I use this space and time on Sunday to highlight a critical issue facing our community.  This past week was a strange week with an odd combination of occurrences, Spring Break at UC Davis, week off for council, quiet week in the courts.  I spent more time this week waiting around and trying to find a story than actually finding stories.

The biggest news is probably the water situation, but frankly that has been covered sufficiently for now.  I remain disturbed by the Michael Artz situation and the role that government has taken into the private life of a citizen.  And it is that thought that leads me finally to a third issue, the role of government and pension reform.

A few weeks back, early on in the process in Wisconsin, I suggested that Republicans should be thankful that 14 Democratic Senators had prevented them from carrying out their plans to eliminate collective bargaining in Wisconsin. 

We shall now see whether that was wise thinking or fool-heartiness, because Wisconsin came up with a majority rule solution for the impasse that bypasses the budget process, by severing the collective bargaining rules change from the rest of the budget.

Signs around country continue to show that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s contentious bill that would eliminate collective bargaining in most cases for public employees has done precisely what we suggested it would do a few weeks ago – mobilize the opposition.

According to recent polls, Scott Walker’s approval rating has plummeted recently.  The latest poll from Rasmussen, a polling company itself accused of bias towards Republicans, shows that just 43% in Wisconsin support the job that Governor Walker is doing, while 57% have negative reviews.  More concerning is that while just 34% strongly approve of the job he is doing, 48% strongly disapprove.

Wisconsin is emerging as the political fault line that might decide the outcome of the 2012 elections.  In a lot of ways, Governor Walker has miscalculated, as we have written, mobilizing groups of people who sat by dispassionately in the just-completed elections.

To put it in Machiavellian terms, he has unified his enemies while dividing his allies, who are arguing whether his policies have gone too far.

The headline in the Woodland Daily Democrat’s AP story was misleadingly labeled, “Collective bargaining for state workers in jeopardy.”  In reality, the story was about a Republican State Assemblymember, Allan Mansoor of Costa Mesa, who is introducing a bill that would eliminate collective bargaining for pension benefits by California’s public employees.

The long and the short of it, there is a better chance of snow this weekend in Davis than this bill passing.

The brewing political fight in Wisconsin gives us a chance to hit the pause button and the recognize how changes need to be made.  I have been a strong proponent of fiscal responsibility within the City of Davis, for a variety of reasons.

First, I recognize that during this economic crunch, we have limited governmental resources and we must therefore prioritize those resources.  From the very beginning, I have argued that our first priority needs to be to continue our investment in education and the second priority needs to be maintaining social services at the county level.

Every so often a letter to the editor comes along that so perfectly illustrates a point.  I found one in the Daily Democrat from Tuesday entitled, “Liberal Press Doesn’t Understand Tea Party.”  This ought to be good, I thought.

Writes Jim Hanney from Woodland, “Those of you in the liberal press, and the Daily Democrat has never made a secret about being just that, have often expressed a lack of understanding about what the Tea Party movement represents.”

When the city of Davis decided to seek a new source of revenue, it tapped Target as a goal.  Never mind that Target had almost as bad a labor reputation as Wal Mart.  Never mind that they had been cited for numerous labor violations.  And never mind they had utilized sweatshops in third world countries.  Someone in the Davis leadership thought if they strapped on some green, Target would fit Davis’ community values.

Well, now that will really be put to a test.  Progressives across the country have called for a boycott of the Target Corporation after revelations that the company donated $150,000 to a group that is running ads backing conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who opposes same-sex marriage.  Conservatives, you can stop reading now, and post your dissent.

With the case of the City of Bell’s pay for their city manager, assistant and police chief making headlines across the state and even nationally, State Controller John Chiang Tuesday announced new reporting requirements for all California cities and counties, directing them to clearly identify elected officials and public employees’ compensation. The information will be posted on the Controller’s website, starting in November.

It took an expose by the Los Angeles Times to reveal that the city manager had received a salary of $800,000.  In addition to that the Mayor and Council got an obscure measure on the ballot that allowed council members to pay themselves any amount of money.  They received $90,000 and $100,000 a year as part-time councilmembers.

When the issue of the City of Bell first arose, it drew me in because, while the magnitude of the problem in Bell is far greater perhaps than elsewhere, it embodied a number of problems that every local community is struggling with.

One point I think that this illustrated to me, and I was not alone because I have had numerous people tell me this over the last week or two, is that the problem in Bell illustrates why we need local beat reporters.  Yesterday, this site celebrated its fourth anniversary of its founding on July 30, 2006.  I would like to believe at the very least we have made local government more cognizant of their actions.

When we first covered the fiasco of the city of Bell, it appeared that the city staffers were being defended by their city council.  However, residents of the blue-collar Los Angeles suburb where one in six live in poverty, became outraged to find out how much their city staff was being paid and they demanded that the city manager, police chief, and another high-salaried official resign.

Worse than that, the Mayor and Council got an obscure measure on the ballot that allowed council members to pay themselves any amount of money.  They received $90,000 and $100,000 a year as part-time councilmembers.

Labor unions have been working on resurrecting a controversial bill in an eleventh hour maneuver in Sacramento over the weekend.

Assembly Bill 155 (Mendoza) would authorize the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (CDIAC) as a filter for municipalities to go through before filing for bankruptcy, originally created to provide information and technical assistance about debt issuance to public agencies and other public finance professionals.

Democratic leaders and Governor Schwarzenegger had agreed to a sweeping prison reform bill that would have reduced California’s inmate population by 27,000.  However, last week, Assemblymembers balked at the legislation.  11 Democrats in more marginal districts facing reelection feared the charge of “soft” on crime.

Key provisions that would have changed the way we do sentencing and incarceration have been swept aside.  These include a plan that would have allowed some prisoners to finish their sentences at home–which would have freed up huge amounts of jail space and saved money.  They also removed provisions that would have changed some felonies to misdemeanors and would have created a sentencing commission to revamp sentencing rules.

While moving back in with mom and dad may be mortifying, the real killer is that recent graduates may no longer have their healthcare covered by their parents or at low cost through the University. The author of this column himself is facing down the prospect of losing his healthcare in a couple of years for just the same reason.

What has been downplayed in the debate over the cost of healthcare and lost in the endless proposals is how this gap in coverage, that more and more young people are experiencing, is going to get patched up. President Obama’s plan articulated during the election campaign included provisions that kept children on their parent’s plan until age 25 and bolstered that with a robust public option. Those policies combined would do much to provide medical services to the young uninsured.

As I often do, I was scanning through articles this morning trying to get a sense of what is going on not only here in Davis and Yolo County, but across the region.  One thing that caught my eye was the Sacramento County District Attorney’s memo to their county administrator.  It reminded me a bit of the Yolo County Sheriff’s reaction to our proposed budget cuts.

While Yolo County has to close a twenty-four million dollar deficit, one third of its operating dollars, Sacramento County is looking to close about a 187 million dollar deficit for the next fiscal year.  There has been persistent talk that Sacramento County will have to declare bankruptcy.