ilbegone
01-14-2010, 06:05 PM
This Opinion by the Monteray county Herald was in the LA Daily News opinion section as "Another view" 1-14-2010 and headlined:
Candidates add nothing to discussion
Editorial:
Candidates full of election year vows
THE HERALD'S VIEW
The Monterey County Herald
01/13/2010
Another year means another budget meltdown in Sacramento, which will provide plenty of material for a season of meaningless campaign promises lacking in specifics.
Prepare to hear the leading candidates for governor, as well as other offices, tell us that a vote for them is a vote to cut state spending. Do not, however, expect to hear details on where and how their cuts would occur. Because that's the hard part.
With California facing another budget crisis on top of last year's crisis, budget cutting has become an almost entirely political act. Forget analysis, forget comparisons with other entities. When there are billions to be cut and artificial deadlines looming, deciding where to cut is an exercise in determining where the votes and lobbyists are, not in evaluating the government process itself.
Forget analysis and forget about even thinking about raising taxes. The safer approach, the political approach, is to simply demonize state employees and cut programs with relatively ineffective lobbies.
Republican Tom Campbell, as thoughtful as any of the gubernatorial candidates, said he would lay off 15 percent of state employees or cut salaries by that amount. If you attend one of his speeches this year, ask him which 50,000 state employees he would fire. Which functions would he eliminate?
Another leading Republican, Meg Whitman, would cut a similar number of employees by adopting a formula calling for the same number of employees as in 2005. She says that can be done by edict. Let's hear some details.
They might take a lesson from Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue, who proposed slowing his city's budgeting processes this year to allow time for a systematic review of how and why the city does what it does. He understands that there is a better way than tossing out budget-cutting proposals and weighing the public reaction.
This year, in-home care for California's disabled is in serious jeopardy because their advocates didn't put up enough of a fight when cuts in that area were first proposed a year ago. Never mind that many of the disabled would end up in nursing facilities at much greater expense to the state.
Schools are relatively safe this year, not because the governor suddenly became a believer in education. He and his advisers simply realized that the education lobby is strong enough to defeat another major round of cuts.
The other Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Steve Poizner, is on the same track as Donohue, encouraging a department-by-department review of operations with an eye toward streamlining. But he proposes only a two-week time frame, and as for specifics, he's looking to trim programs that "don't impact people." Not exactly an outline.
The leading and perhaps only Democrat in the race, Jerry Brown, may have it all worked out, but he's not ready to share.
In other words, there appear to be few fresh ideas to lead the current crop of leadership out of the swamp. Gov. Schwarzenegger in his State of the State speech spoke of creating a plan for "performance-based budgeting," but not just yet. Maybe next year.
What can we do? Tell the legislators what you think. Ask questions and don't accept empty answers. Don't vote for the candidate who sounds the toughest. Vote for the candidate with a plan.
Candidates add nothing to discussion
Editorial:
Candidates full of election year vows
THE HERALD'S VIEW
The Monterey County Herald
01/13/2010
Another year means another budget meltdown in Sacramento, which will provide plenty of material for a season of meaningless campaign promises lacking in specifics.
Prepare to hear the leading candidates for governor, as well as other offices, tell us that a vote for them is a vote to cut state spending. Do not, however, expect to hear details on where and how their cuts would occur. Because that's the hard part.
With California facing another budget crisis on top of last year's crisis, budget cutting has become an almost entirely political act. Forget analysis, forget comparisons with other entities. When there are billions to be cut and artificial deadlines looming, deciding where to cut is an exercise in determining where the votes and lobbyists are, not in evaluating the government process itself.
Forget analysis and forget about even thinking about raising taxes. The safer approach, the political approach, is to simply demonize state employees and cut programs with relatively ineffective lobbies.
Republican Tom Campbell, as thoughtful as any of the gubernatorial candidates, said he would lay off 15 percent of state employees or cut salaries by that amount. If you attend one of his speeches this year, ask him which 50,000 state employees he would fire. Which functions would he eliminate?
Another leading Republican, Meg Whitman, would cut a similar number of employees by adopting a formula calling for the same number of employees as in 2005. She says that can be done by edict. Let's hear some details.
They might take a lesson from Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue, who proposed slowing his city's budgeting processes this year to allow time for a systematic review of how and why the city does what it does. He understands that there is a better way than tossing out budget-cutting proposals and weighing the public reaction.
This year, in-home care for California's disabled is in serious jeopardy because their advocates didn't put up enough of a fight when cuts in that area were first proposed a year ago. Never mind that many of the disabled would end up in nursing facilities at much greater expense to the state.
Schools are relatively safe this year, not because the governor suddenly became a believer in education. He and his advisers simply realized that the education lobby is strong enough to defeat another major round of cuts.
The other Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Steve Poizner, is on the same track as Donohue, encouraging a department-by-department review of operations with an eye toward streamlining. But he proposes only a two-week time frame, and as for specifics, he's looking to trim programs that "don't impact people." Not exactly an outline.
The leading and perhaps only Democrat in the race, Jerry Brown, may have it all worked out, but he's not ready to share.
In other words, there appear to be few fresh ideas to lead the current crop of leadership out of the swamp. Gov. Schwarzenegger in his State of the State speech spoke of creating a plan for "performance-based budgeting," but not just yet. Maybe next year.
What can we do? Tell the legislators what you think. Ask questions and don't accept empty answers. Don't vote for the candidate who sounds the toughest. Vote for the candidate with a plan.