If you want to find out what is happening with the California State budget drive a bus delivering folks to their programs. Last week I stopped by a program that offers rehabilitation to the aging to help restore their mobility and other physical capabilities and the front desk person told me they are being shut down as a result of the $11.6 billion in state budget cuts. Yesterday it was an assistant teacher who received a pink slip and ask me to pray for her job. This is my prayer for her.
I know that teachers are planning a sit-in for the Capital Rotunda trying to highlight that another $15 billion in cuts will be coming if we don’t raise some taxes, but what about the first set of cut backs. California’s unemployment rate is one of the highest in the country at 12%, that’s 2,176,333 officially counted out of work Californians. The $11.6 billion in cuts will mean that another 100,000 plus will lose their jobs. That will move our UI rate back up to 12.5% where it was at the pinnacle of this recession.
Offering a referendum on raising $2 billion from the millionaires or $1 billion with a oil severance tax just won’t fix this crisis. We have a real need to change the course that our state government is heading. If we are to prevent an economic catastrophe we need to raise $26 billion and there is only one plan out there now that will do that. The 1.5% tax on business revenue compares well to the combined 1% sales tax increase, the 0.5% vehicle license fee increase, plus an income tax increase that only covers $15 billion.
Our choices are clear, continue down this path of raising taxes primarily on the working poor while at the same time laying off over 100,000 workers and denying services to the elderly, children, and those in medical need, or raise a tax on all businesses that will be shared by all Californians.
For more information on the 1.5% business revenue tax read below.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
California Democratic Convention
The California Democratic Party convention in Sacramento this weekend was to my mind a success. I had three concerns that I wanted addressed and accomplished them all. I wanted to support the Progressive Caucus inside the Democratic Party and press them on issues of my concern. Of the nearly 1800 delegates to the Democratic Party over 800 are members of the Progressive Caucus. Senator Bernie Sanders, the independent democratic socialist from Vermont, addressed the general session and then came to our caucus to keep fighting the good fight. As most readers of this will know the Democratic Party of California is not a progressive body, and certainly not the national party.
My second reason for attending was to connect with PDA national and local activists from around our state and measure the support for Norman Solomon’s campaign for congress. He addressed the Progressive Caucus with a new sense of urgency of mission. We have a new Norman, who can address a crowd of progressive activists and make them stand and shout. But he was also was attending many of the smaller caucuses including the Resolutions Committee. They were a tough sell. Three separate groups submitted resolutions that required the shut down of San Onofre and San Luis Obispo nuclear power plants. This event reinforced my commitment to bring progressives into the leadership of the California Democratic Party. The Resolution Committee was populated by labor representatives, three who represented workers at these plants. Regardless of all the right talk the committee submitted a resolution for the plant operators to study themselves whether or not their plants were safe.
Finally I wanted to attend and let everyone there know that we do not need to accept the austerity budget that was recently passed by our Democratically controlled legislature and signed by our Democratic Governor. The Democratic spin machine was out in full force suggesting that it was all the Republican’s fault, when in fact they were all opposed to the governor’s plan of 50% in cuts and 50% in tax increases. Those cuts mean that during this economic downturn whit a 12% unemployment rate in California, our state will be laying off thousands of employees. 400,000 college students won’t attend school for lack of teachers, subsidies for daycare for the working poor are to be eliminated, as will healthcare and other human services for elderly disabled and poor. I was able to put the Social Justice Center of Marin’s proposal for raising money to prevent these cuts into 200 hands including members of the State Senate and Assembly.
I love the California Democratic Party because it will let anyone in and the spoils of victory go to the better organized. That being said, the Progressive Caucus even with its gaudy numbers of nearly half the delegates, spoke not one word about our austerity budget and the pain it will inflict.
My second reason for attending was to connect with PDA national and local activists from around our state and measure the support for Norman Solomon’s campaign for congress. He addressed the Progressive Caucus with a new sense of urgency of mission. We have a new Norman, who can address a crowd of progressive activists and make them stand and shout. But he was also was attending many of the smaller caucuses including the Resolutions Committee. They were a tough sell. Three separate groups submitted resolutions that required the shut down of San Onofre and San Luis Obispo nuclear power plants. This event reinforced my commitment to bring progressives into the leadership of the California Democratic Party. The Resolution Committee was populated by labor representatives, three who represented workers at these plants. Regardless of all the right talk the committee submitted a resolution for the plant operators to study themselves whether or not their plants were safe.
Finally I wanted to attend and let everyone there know that we do not need to accept the austerity budget that was recently passed by our Democratically controlled legislature and signed by our Democratic Governor. The Democratic spin machine was out in full force suggesting that it was all the Republican’s fault, when in fact they were all opposed to the governor’s plan of 50% in cuts and 50% in tax increases. Those cuts mean that during this economic downturn whit a 12% unemployment rate in California, our state will be laying off thousands of employees. 400,000 college students won’t attend school for lack of teachers, subsidies for daycare for the working poor are to be eliminated, as will healthcare and other human services for elderly disabled and poor. I was able to put the Social Justice Center of Marin’s proposal for raising money to prevent these cuts into 200 hands including members of the State Senate and Assembly.
I love the California Democratic Party because it will let anyone in and the spoils of victory go to the better organized. That being said, the Progressive Caucus even with its gaudy numbers of nearly half the delegates, spoke not one word about our austerity budget and the pain it will inflict.
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