The problem of soaring prison costs is nothing new in California government, even as the state faces largely unprecedented problems with its budget.
The recent polling by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shows that 70% of the voters singled out prisons as a major area where the budget should be cut. This exists, in fact, across party lines and geography.
Governor Jerry Brown delivered the first State of the State Address of his new tenure as California’s Governor, and he called on both Democrats and Republicans to do things that they do not want to do.
“This is not a time for politics as usual,” he said in a line that is usually reserved more for rhetoric than substance. However, this time it is different.
Polling Shows Some Support for Higher Taxes, Will Voters Get the Chance to Vote on It? However, earlier this week, the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released their findings showing that a strong majority say that a special election on Governor Jerry Brown’s tax and fee proposal is a good idea, and a majority are generally satisfied with his budget plan.
In July, candidate Jerry Brown laid out a series of common sense proposals to deal with pension reform on the state level. While we have generally focused on pension reform at the local level, clearly, state-level changes could be made to help communities trapped into past promises of unsustainable wages.
However, as critics are quick to charge, Governor Brown’s budget proposal has promised cuts to about every sector except one, pension reform. Orange County Columnist Steven Greenhut, a leading proponent of pension reform, accused Jerry Brown of dodging the issue.
This morning’s Sacramento Bee points out that those who own the land and buildings in downtown Sacramento pay an estimated 31 million dollars in property taxes every year. Contrary to popular belief, most of that money does not go to fund schools or the local government.
Rather, 26 of the 31 million dollars goes directly to the city’s redevelopment agency (RDA) which ostensibly uses money to “subsidize development projects, build affordable housing, fix up rundown buildings and beautify streets.”
One thing Jerry Brown cannot be accused of doing is playing things safe. His plan is bold, it spreads pain, and it has the potential to both please and irritate everyone at the same time.
Time will tell whether he will be successful in convincing a few Republicans to allow the tax plan to go before the voters, where he will get to make his case. Many will quibble at the margins, but frankly I cannot think of a bolder first week in any recent administration.
In recent years the Brown Act, which protects the fundament right for the public to be noticed of meetings by public officials and governmental bodies, has been suspended or threatened during the state’s current budget crisis.
Under state law, local governments are reimbursed the cost of fulfilling statutory requirements enacted by the Legislature – so when the state’s budget fails to allow that reimbursement, local governments have argued that they are no longer required to fully notice meetings.
Governor Jerry Brown unveiled his budget plan Monday, but critics have already scoffed that it looks remarkably like that of former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and GOP leaders have already said that the tax plan will get none of their votes.
In a statement, Governor Brown said that his proposed budget will be comprised half of budget cuts and half tax increases in order to attack a deficit that is estimated at $25.4 billion.
While much of the focus on Monday remained at the top with the swearing in of new Governor Jerry Brown, one of the biggest offices will undoubtedly be the California Office of the Attorney General where San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris was sworn in, “vowing to ensure that state law is on the side of the people.”
What that means will be the question of the next four years, but Ms. Harris represents the last best hope for real reform in the criminal justice in California – a system bogged down with an expensive and over-capacity prison system, recidivism and ridiculous sentences for minor crimes.
In an Op-ed in the LA Times yesterday, Joe Mathews asked if the failures of Arnold Schwarzenegger will save the state. He argued, “Nothing worked for Schwarzenegger because the system itself doesn’t work.”
He went on to argue, “On fiscal and budgetary matters, Schwarzenegger suffered defeat after defeat. The state’s fiscal record after his seven years — California has the same budget deficit now as in 2003, with a much larger debt — has led commentators across the political spectrum to write him off as a failed governor. That conclusion has a factual basis — and is deeply wrong. And it obscures the most interesting and important lesson of his governorship. Put simply: The sheer number and surpassing scale of Schwarzenegger’s failures to fix the state budget constitute a grand and peculiar success, especially if Californians heed the lessons they provide.”
The first time I saw Kamala Harris was in San Jose back in 2008 at the California Democratic Convention. It was during the heat of the primary battle, and both of the top Democrat contenders sent representatives to speak on their behalf.
Hillary Clinton sent Former President Bill Clinton. Barack Obama sent a little known District Attorney from San Francisco, Kamala Harris. She lightened the mood by poking fun of the disparity, pitting herself as the David to Bill Clinton’s Galliath.
Last week we reported that Genentech, one of the chief backers of Prop 24’s efforts to prevent the closing of tax loopholes opened up in the 2008 and 2009 budget deals, had pumped 1.6 million dollars into the efforts to defeat Prop 24, only to turn around and eliminate over 800 California jobs.
Now Dan Morain, Senior editor of the Sacramento Bee, is reporting that Comcast is the latest to play “take our tax breaks and run.”
The caveat, of course, is that things change in politics very quickly. In 1994, California was not a blue state. Pete Wilson had just been re-elected Governor by a wide margin, despite having extremely low opinion ratings. Dianne Feinstein needed everything she had to hold off what was then a record spending by Michael Huffington.
The Republicans for the first time won the Assembly, although Willie Brown would nullify that advantage. They won all but two of the partisan constitutional offices. And they rode the coattails of Three Strikes and Prop 187 to victory.
Davis has often lamented the fact that Dixon, rather than Davis, got Genetech’s expansion. In 2008, Genentech, a company based in South Francisco, decided to put a 140,000 square foot research facility in close proximity to UC Davis. But instead of building it in Davis, they built it in Dixon.
At the time, the facility was expected to house 120 employees starting in 2010 and expand to 160 employees in 2016. This was before the collapse of the economy in September 2008, and the plans have since been dropped (perhaps demonstrating the problematic nature of any investment by a large company).
Accusations Fly As Ballots Continue to be Counted – Steve Cooley may also be inclined to join other AG’s across the nation in suing on Obama’s health care reform. Kamala Harris, for all her flaws (and there are many), is a strong opponent of the death penalty and has been pushing for sentencing and recidivism reform.
Apparently Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger did not get the memo – he is a lame duck, he is no longer in charge, and even when he was in charge he did a poor job of getting budgets passed anyway. It is time to step aside and let Governor-Elect Jerry Brown have a shot at it.
In case you missed it, last week Governor Schwarzenegger, who is still refusing to be called a lame duck, called a special session of the legislature for December 6 when the new legislature is sworn in. The purpose?
We already knew it was going to be a problem because the last budget passed was largely smoke and mirrors covering up a deficit as high as ten billion dollars. But now we know it is much worse than that.
According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, a non-partisan agency that scrutinizes the state budget, “Our forecast of California’s General Fund revenues and expenditures shows that the state must address a budget problem of $25.4 billion between now and the time the Legislature enacts a 2011-12 state budget plan.”
As the campaigns in California were nearing an end, I ran a story on the Field Poll showing both Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer moving from close races to a big leads. I pay particular attention to the Field Poll because it has long been regarded as the best of the statewide polls.
I spent a good amount of time in graduate school studying polling and following the debates over the proper way to poll. I recall in the middle part of the decade there was a long debate among pollsters about what factors should be weighed and what factors should be measured. In particular was the question of party indentification.
For much of the last decade, California has been ungovernable – beset by partisan polarization and hamstrung by a political system designed in another era. The state was led by an inexperienced and at times temperamental Governor, and legislative leaders apparently never quite knew what they were going to get.
The result was not necessarily the record deficits we have seen, as those came more naturally from a collapsed economy. The political stalemate, however, meant there was never a real or workable solution.
Jerry Brown leads Democratic Sweep in California – It was a different story in California. The AP and most networks called it early for Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, and then watched nervously as the Senate Race remained tight until late, with Fiorina at one point holding a very narrow lead. But the exit polls were right and the projections held.