Experts Expound

Experts Expound

“The CTA (and some others, too) is urging Brown to forget the ballot and push for legislative approval of his tax plan. Brown says he still wants a budget election. What’s the best outcome here?”

The unions are afraid that should Brown go the initiative route that anti-tax advocates will put pension reform on the ballot to increase Republican turnout. That would be bad news for the CTA and others and doom the tax hikes.

Raise the damn taxes, invest in the state, keep the schools open and build the Peripheral Canal and keep the state going until Chiang runs for governor.  

Best outcome for who? For the Teachers, the best outcome is more taxes   –  Brown’s promises be damned – so they can continue to have as much money as possible to waste. For Brown, the best outcome is an election so that he can fulfill his promise to the people.

Brown will keep his trust with the voters. Best outcome is that Democrats pass a budget deal with the governor’s tax extensions by the constitutional deadline, but they will not be effective unless approved by the voters in a Special Election in September, which will qualify by the initiative route. That gets you a budget earlier than last year, and if the voters say NO, it is time for nasty cuts.

Brown badly needs a “Sister Soulja moment” with Big Labor, but it probably won’t happen.

The best outcome is elected Reps embracing the concept of…wait for it…an election. If it’s good enough to put them in office, it’s good enough to determine yea or nay on tax extensions. We’ll fight them on the beaches, the shores, etc. if they stand in the way of an open, democratic vote. 

The governor is right to keep true to his pledge to allow the people of California to vote on policy choices on funding versus cuts as a course for the Calif. budget. The tour around the state to engage voters and educate them on consequences of choices is critical to restore trust in govt. and engage citizens in developing a vision of what Calif. should be.

Brown put himself in a box by adamantly promising “no tax increases without a vote of the people” during the campaign. Many of us Democrats couldn’t figure out why he was doing it, since George Deukmejian could have run on such a pledge, and it wasn’t really necessary for Brown to stake out a winning platform against Whitman. Now he’s stuck, and he has no one to blame but himself – and also probably his wife, who he claims actually ran the campaign.

Brown should steal the GOP playbook and simply spend less than projected revenue, do not increase debt, and tell the people honestly and sincerely that it is going to hurt for a while. And like everyone else I’m damn tired of paying the cost of slow bureaucrats retiring better and younger than me.

Andrew Acosta, Elizabeth Ashford, A.G. Block, Mark Bogetich, Barry Brokaw, J Dale Debber, Peter DeMarco, Mike Donovan, Jim Evans, Kathy Fairbanks, Jeff Fuller, Rex Frazier, Ken Gibson, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Sandy Harrison, Bob Hertzberg, Jason Kinney, Greg Lucas, Mike Madrid, Nicole Mahrt, Steve Maviglio, Adam Mendelsohn, Barbara O’Connor, Bill Packer, Kassy Perry, Jack Pitney, Adam Probolsky, Tony Quinn, Matt Rexroad, Matt Ross, Roger Salazar, Dan Schnur, Will Shuck, Sam Sorich, Ray Sotero, Garry South, Kevin Spillane, Robin Swanson, Angie Wei.

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