I saw two articles and an interactive exercise that would benefit any of us pondering California's budget situation in today's LA Times.  The first article talks in general about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals to slash dollars in just about every category including completely shutting down all State parks.  Sheesh!

The second, an opinion piece, is a good primer for legisltors on how to get this thing we call a state budget moving.  I was interested to hear that we have among the leanest state employee figures in the nation, but that's just an aside.  Timothy Hodson, a professor at Sacramento State University (which is looking forward to budget cuts, I imagine) urges Republicans to remember they are in the minority and have been since Hoover.  Partisan solutions should be kept to a minimum in such a case.  He then reminds Democrats that the last time the State legislature really worked well, Republicans were given meaningful committee assignments and invited to participate in the process of legislating by doing more than blocking a 2/3 vote.

The third, and most interesting to me, was a tool to calculate how you would make cuts and/or increase taxes to erase our $24 billion deficit.  Without doing any borrowing or other fancy footwork, I got to within $5 billion with $9 billion in cuts and $10 billion in new taxes.  (I can hear conservative apoplexy from here but I stand by the idea that we are the State, we allowed ourselves to get into this mess, so we need to pay more and spend less both.)

Here's my "package" of proposals.  The only trouble with this tool is that it doesn't allow for more options and more subtlety.  So some cuts I'd be willing to make were too all inclusive for me to include...especially when it comes to health care for kids, elderly and the poor.

Spending Cuts:

Cut Education at K-12 and State colleges (the State college $ can be recouped from the Federal budget): $6.8 billion 
Various cuts in Human Services: $649 million
Cuts in Health $200 million
Cuts in Law Enforcement: $395 million
Transfer 1/2 of Car Tax increase to General Fund (1 time fix): $250 million
Add a 4th furlough day to State Workers: $450 million
Cut the Legislature's Budget in half: $120 million

Tax Increases:

Increase top income tax bracket by .7%: $5 billion
Assess Commercial Properties outside of Prop 13: $2 billion
Increase the Sales tax by including tax on services: $1.1 billion
Tax oil companies for the oil they extract from CA: $855 million
Increase alcohol tax by 5 cents/drink: $585 million
Increase the Corporate Tax rate by .96%: $470 million

I'd love to hear how you would cut the spending and/or increase taxes!  Let me know how your session with the LA Times budget tool comes out.

I had an interesting talk last week with Hal (as Charlie was walking and running us), we had an interesting discussion about Carrie Prejean--the Miss California who was asked her opinion of gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant.

Here is her response: 

"Well, I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other.  We live in a land where you can choose same sex marriage or opposite marriage and ... you know what, in my country and in my family, I think that I believe a marriage should be between a man and a woman--no offense to anybody out there--but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be, between a man and a woman.  Thank you.'

Since that answer, Carrie Prejean's fame has grown as she's been vilified by gay activists and sainted by the religious (and irreligious) right.  I agree with Hal that Carrie had a right to her opinion and to freely express her opinion on that stage.

Soon after she gave her answer, Celebrity blogger  and pageant judge, Perez Hilton went on camera and said she lost the title of Miss USA not because of her controversial answer but because she was a "dumb b*tch and a divisive personality rather than an uniting personality.  He also said, rather hubristically, that he was "the...moment" of the pageant.  Get over yourself, girlfriend.

Perez Hilton, by the way, is equally entitled to his opinion and to the free speech protections that Carrie Prejean holds so dear in every interview since.

I quibble with Perez Hilton's vlog about the answer and Carrie Prejean because he resorted to personal attacks rather than reasoned argument for the ways in which he took issue with Prejean's answer.

In a similar way, I have issues with Carrie Prejean's answer.  First she states, inaccurately, that it's great to live in a country where people can "choose" same sex marriage.  Very few people in very select parts of the country can make that choice.  So she overstates her initial attempt at an appeasement answer.

Then she stops herself and reverses course.  And I especially note the words, "in my country" that marriage should be between a man and a woman.  This is her genunine opinion and she has the right to voice it.  However, it sends chills up my spine because that's exactly the point...it's not just Carrie Prejean's country, it's my country and the country of my gay friends and relatives.

Various defenders have pointed out that she was representing California because the "majority" of Californian's voted for Proposition 8.  But they neglect to mention that it was a bare majority, not a landslide by any means.

In later interviews, a couple of other comments by Prejean really rankled me.  When asked her opinion of Perez, she said she would be "praying for him" and that he's obviously angry and hurt about something greater in his life.  And she knows this how?  She doesn't.  It's the typical "christian" answer that says see how pious I am, pitying this poor creature who is attacking me.

She also said instead of being politically correct, she chose to be biblically correct.  I'd love to sit down and talk with her about the 7 instances which could remotely be interpreted as being condemnations of homosexual activity.  And at the same time I wonder about a young woman who claims to adhere to biblical principals as a guide yet prior to this had stated, according to the LA Times, that her goal was to be a Victoria's Secret model and who surgically enhanced her bust size in order to do better in the contest.  While neither is directly addressed in the bible, there are more urgings of women to be modest in their dress than there are strictures supposedly against homosexual acts.

The lessons I hope we all can take away from this brouhaha are:

1.  People in the USA enjoy the right to free speech.

2.  If one disagrees with another's opinion, it's best to disagree with the opinion, form counterarguments, etc., than to attack the person (whether you do it by name calling as Hilton did or pseudo-piety as Prejean did).

3.  If you put yourself in the public eye, you'd best be better prepared to defend your opinion than saying "that's the way I was raised."  Otherwise, the arguments will keep on coming.

Such is my not so humble opinion.  Now off to yoga!

As I was driving to yoga tonight, there seemed to be a lot of traffic at the corner of La Paz and Marguerite Parkway.  Whatever could it be, I wondered?  Then I remembered a few tweets about a Tea Party and an essay (with which I happen to agree) about the "Huh?" response I'm having to the whole concept of the nationwide "rebellion" against higher taxes.

In his op-ed piece in today's LA Times, Marc Cooper asks the important question up front:  "What, exactly, are the protesters protesting? The marginal tax rate rising 3% for millionaires?"  I would like to up the ante and ask where all this anger was when Bush was busily cutting taxes on millionaires (and billionaires), cutting programs for the lowest paid workers among our citizenry and building up the biggest deficit in history?

I understand in California (especially in Orange County) that there is the frustration of actual taxes going up (vehicle taxes, for example)...but again, my question is what are these folks protesting?  That ballot box budgeting (which they've consistently voted for in the past 10 years) ties the legislature's hands and makes it impossible to balance our budget due to "required spending?"

Yeah, we're a wreck economically but we (or the majority of we) are the ones who voted for this system.  Maybe we should recall ourselves instead of our governors.

Then there was the very amusing (and right on the button) piece by Jon Stewart on the Barackaphobia going on over at Fox "News" and generally throughout the right wing these days.  I know it will slow down my page's loading, but it's worth it to let you just click below and enjoy.

(Or if you're of the opposite political pole, perhaps it will provide you with a sense of how I felt watching the last 8 years.)

So...yeah...what Cooper and Stewart said.  This "Tea Party" belongs to the Mad Hatter's realm...not on the corner of La Paz and Marguerite.

At long last, we have a budget in California.  It's a mix of program cuts ($14.8 billion focused primarily on education programs, health and social services programs and local transportation funding) and tax increases ($12.5 billion spread across sales tax increase, vehicle license fees, income tax increase and a cut in the income tax credit for dependent children).

Governor Arnie added some flair of his own with $1.3 billion line item vetoes, cutting budgets of various state offices including (and perhaps punitively) the Lt. Governor's office.  According to the Sacramento Bee, Scwharzenegger said he did it "to ensure that sufficient resources are reserved for key programs within state government. In these tough times, we cannot continue to fund the Office of the Lieutenant Governor at the level provided in recent years."  I note that he did not find it necessary to "ensure sufficient resources" by cutting his own office's budget.

I do give him props for cutting $400 million from the Department of Corrections and (ahem) Rehabilitation.  (I say "ahem" because there IS no rehabilitation in the DOC in this woman's opinion.)

The budget also includes borrowing from the lottery fund, among other things, to the tune of $5 billion from the lottery fund alone.  There were also some tax breaks for businesses aiming to keep business in California and expediting some work permiting processes for a few highway projects.

Overall, the budget has the stitched together feel of a Frankenstein monster.  Part of the problem is our process for budgeting.  The 2/3 vote needed to pass the budget allows people to essentially hijack the process and get pet projects added.  As an example, Senator Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria (a tiny part of the Central Coast), made a deal to vote for the budget only if the legislature agreed to modify our election rules to allow for "open primaries" where anyone can vote for any candidate of any party. 

Sounds good on its face but the catch is that only the top two primary vote getters are on the general election ballot.  This effectively would eliminate third party candidates from general elections.  For more on why this is a bad idea, check out this LA Times commentary.

The other part of our problem, as I have preached long and hard, is ballot box budgeting wherein through the Proposition process, California voters have hamstrung the legislature by reducing what's truly discretionary spending to a minority piece of the budget pie.

As far as I'm concerned, the increase in taxes ($960 for a person making $75,000 per year) is relatively palatable.  (I realize that many people will disagree with that assessment, especially during tough economic times.) What's not palatable, indeed, not workable is being tied to funding programs that may or may not work because they sounded good during a Proposition campaign.

On the personal front, we passed a lovely day with Dick and Dotty...doing errands, having lunch at the club, and eating a light dinner a few moments ago.  The day was gorgeous and I went for a walk (which is tax-free at the moment) with my hubby.  Sacramento may be all honked up, but a good day is still a good day.

This photo was taken by miro31 on flickr.com, but it's pretty darn close to the view in the hall outside of the courtroom to which I'll be reporting this morning.  I'm part of a large pool of potential jurors and today is the day they whittle us down to 12 jurors and 4 alternates.

I'm taking books, snack money and water to my adventure in civic duty.  Unfortunately, I won't have my computer available...so if I get picked, blogs may be shortened for a day or two.

There is a silver lining to the situation.  There are lots of McCain Palin stickers and Yes on 8 stickers in Orange County on the way to and from the courthouse in Santa Ana.  The good news is my jury duty travel provides a Lexus counterpoint (Obama and No on 8) to the general OC Conservative opinion on the freeways.

I'm a bit under the weather, hence no blog posts for a few days.   I'm not quite 100% yet so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share, with the author's permission, an open email about Prop 8.  The letter says it all, much better than I ever have.  Many thanks to the letter's author, Jeffrey Bryan.

From: Jeffrey Bryan 
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 4:00 PM
Subject: Today is My Birthday
 

I was born October 20th, 1977 in the far recesses of the Inland Empire (I admit it, I'm not technically an Orange County native).  We did move before I turned a year old though, if that counts.

As a child, I was always involved in the community somehow.  I had a short stint in the Boy Scouts (and also in the Girl Scouts - long story).  I was president of the Lake Forest 4H Club, and Vice President of my High School's Environmental Action Group.  If that's not geeky enough I was a Mathlete and in the Academic Decathlon.

Through theatre, I performed with dozens of groups across Orange County - and through the Children's Mime Experience I was part of the opening ceremonies for Lake Mission Viejo and many other carnivals, festivals, and private parties.

My first job was at Togo's in Lake Forest, and I've also done my time at Disney, PETCO, and FreeCreditReport.com.  My first "real job" was at AppleOne Employment in Santa Ana helping people find jobs to support their families - an experience that will never leave me.

For the last three years I've donated a week of my life to AIDS LifeCycle - a charity event to raise funds to fight AIDS in San Francisco and Los Angeles.  I personally have raised several thousand dollars, and the event has raised almost $30,000,000 in those three years.

But like I said, it's my birthday.  And this year, I only want one thing for my birthday.  For the past 31 years I've given to California.  I've supported the community, paid my taxes, and been the best citizen I could be.  In November, there is a Proposition to amend our state constitution to prohibit marriages between members of the same sex.  I want to get married one day.  I want to have a big amazing wedding and invite all of you to help me celebrate the love that you all keep telling me I deserve.  If Prop 8 passes, that will never happen.

The people supporting Prop 8 have told a lot of lies trying to convince you this change to the constitution is needed.  They said it will legally require schools to teach kids about gay marriage (not true, the state law says that all changes to curriculum must be independently reviewed and approved by a committee of teachers, administrators, and parents).  They have said that your taxes will go to support gay marriage (not true, having gay marriages HELPS the economy and no taxes are required to support them).  They have said that gay couples will force churches to marry them (not true, this law has nothing to do with church rights).

This isn't a political issue, or a "social agenda".  This is personal.  This is my life.  These are my rights.  For my birthday, please vote no on Prop 8.  And if you're feeling particularly generous, please donate to the cause.
http://www.noonprop8.com

Your Friend and Neighbor,
Jeffrey Mahacek

I've finally gotten my personal recommendations for each and every one of California's 12 November 4th propositions written up.  Click here to see them or on Voter's Guide above.

I think I'll take a well-deserved rest from fine print for a few days before checking out the local issues, judges, city councilpersons.  This voting is hard work!

I'm bound and determined to post another proposition review today...but it will likely be the no-brainer, prop 12.  I just can't face any more fine print at the moment.

I did get the chance to watch last night's debate...but not until this morning.  Yesterday afternoon we were at the celebration of Shelter Partnership's newly named S. Mark Taper Foundation Shelter Resource Bank.  The Taper Foundation gave the inaugural grant for the nonprofit's refurbishment of their central warehouse, which distributes nearly a million dollars worth of goods to L.A. County shelters each month.  Dan's on their board and I am so proud of the work he's done with them.

We were joined by our friends, Tom, Peter and Rod.  Then Rod and Peter joined Dan and I at the club for a round of golf in the late afternoon.  It's definitely coming on Fall, as we weren't able to finish the round in the daylight.

At any rate, the day's festivities, combined with writing up Prop 9, left me with no blog time.  Sorry to have missed you!

As to the debate, I thought it was the best of the bunch.  Moderator Bob Schieffer did an excellent job of keeping the candidates on topic (as much as is possible) and allowing for back and forth exchange.  I don't think we learned anything earth-shattering in the debate.  It seemed like both candidates shared their views on what's best for America going forward.

McCain's line about Obama not running against Bush was a good sound bite, but I don't think he was effective at drawing a clear distinction between his own economic policy (cut taxes for businesses and the wealthy) and Bush's.  And Obama had very artfully stitched the two men back together by the end of the debate.

19 more days to go!

I have completed my review of Propositions 1-6 and Prop 8.  Check out the Nov 08 Props link above or click here to check them out.  I've got five more to review but the two toughest ones (in terms of research and reading very tiny print in the voter guide) are under my belt.

I have a busy schedule this week outside of this research, but it's my intent to get these all written up by Friday.  That way those of you who have your "Vote by Mail" ballots already can get them in next week.

In general, I have to say that I am becoming more and more disenchanted by the initiative process.  Between ballot box budgeting and sweeping changes to law, I feel that the initiative process brings blunt force to a system that requires precision if changes are to be effective (both as a matter of finanace and a matter of process).

I think my motto for the Proposition recommendations will be:  "Laura Morefield--Reading the Fine Print so You Don't Have To!"  What do you think?

By coincidence, I'm headed off to the eye doctor today for an exam and, most likely, a new prescription for my lenses.  Good thing I read all that strikeout and italic print before having to resort to my back up glasses!