A new way to view California's yearly budget process

Last night’s Marin Peace and Justice Coalition discussion of the California State budget forced me to reflect over our efforts of last year. Our fourth Monday forum, January 2010, was a great event. It provided a chance for many to talk back to an official and an opportunity to learn how the budget impacts our lives. But by the measuring stick of how we have moved our self-government forward it fell short. Here we are a year later and our Legislature and Governor are repeating the process again. This year’s Democratic scheme includes borrowing up to $9 billion and imposing a $1 billion oil severance tax to make the payments. Last year’s Democrats put Prop 14 on the ballot and gave away our ability to elect progressive members to State and Federal office.

Without diminishing our advocacy for services for those in need, for universal education, and gainful employment for all, (the list is long) I believe we need to broaden the conversation. Here are few ideas that have been kicking around inside my head for a while now.

I would like to propose that we use the momentum of this yearly event to craft something permanent, an action plan that will span many years, a document that envisions a sustainable lifestyle for all Californians, a budget that will implement it, and a revenue stream that will support it. The Green New Deal for the North Bay was a beginning example that needs to be built on.
[ http://www.greennewdeal.info/ ]

The specter of 12 percent unemployment, and that rate will be rising, makes me question why we tax labor at every point in our economy. The corporate right has convinced most of us that taxing capital gains is a double taxation of the same money, as in all profits are returned as dividends and are taxed as personal income at some point. But their point that all economic income derives from our collective economic endeavor is not far off the mark. Maybe we should be taxing based on revenues, as a measure of how much of California’s infrastructure is used. Let’s not tax labor any more than we tax the physical material used in production. Let’s not tax profit which rewards the inefficient. Let’s tax revenue and financial transactions as they represent use of the commons. We can use taxes on income, profit, property, sales, and resource use to balance our economy so as to encourage the productive sector that we will be relying on for most of our state budget.

I have spent all of my 62 years as a California resident. I remember the best educational system in the country and it was essentially free all the way through college. I remember that for most 40 hours of work was sufficient to provide for a family. Now it takes 80 hours or more. It is important that we not just focus on current economic schemes to avert this or that crisis but that we describe what life values we can sustain. Until we know what we want it is difficult to demand that our elected officials work for it.