As we begin the new year in Sacramento we are once again facing
a daunting budget deficit spurred by years of unsound fiscal
principles. That stated, I am more encouraged about the direction
of California after Governor Schwarzenegger’s State of the State
speech and budget rollout.
Dear Editor,
As we begin the new year in Sacramento we are once again facing a daunting budget deficit spurred by years of unsound fiscal principles. That stated, I am more encouraged about the direction of California after Governor Schwarzenegger’s State of the State speech and budget rollout.
With the governor’s leadership we can turn California around.
Last year I brought to your attention the boondoggle that is the state’s management of its surplus assets. Any budget plan must include the reform of this state’s property management. The sale of these assets will help fill the $9 billion budget hole. While last year was a good first step, we need more reform on this issue. The state should not be playing landlord to stadiums that only produce $80,000 in revenue a year, when their yearly value is in the millions. Our hardest-core felons should not be housed in unsafe prisons on real estate worth hundreds of millions of dollars with a view of the San Francisco bay.
While reform should include and start with surplus assets management, change is needed in many areas that California does business.
The governor has done what he pledged to do. He is taking on the structural problems that have required fixing for years. Along with the governor I am not pleased with everything in this budget. But as he has said, the state has a spending problem not a revenue problem.
More taxation is not needed to close the budget hole. Structural problems exist in the budget right now that will automatically trigger more spending when more revenues come in. The problem is how the state has been doing business over the last several years. For example, this year we are bringing in $5 billion more in revenues and yet the state is required to spend $10 billion more. We will never get out of the hole without structural reform.
We need to scrutinize every dollar spent by state agencies and departments to ensure that your money is being spent wisely to provide the utmost in government services. Layers of inefficiency and bureaucracy need to be shed. Unneeded oversight boards and commissions that serve as retirement communities for Sacramento fat-cat insiders need to be eliminated. Some boards and commissions are needed and serve a legitimate purpose, but others can be combined with other boards or outright eliminated. Any board that meets once or twice a month while its members receive $100,000 per year salaries is an outrage.
Speaking of efficiency, as we started this new legislative session this year I was encouraged by the spirit of bipartisanship in the Senate. Soon, however, we began to hear rumblings that some of the governor’s proposals were dead on arrival in the Legislature. That is unacceptable. We need to work together to solve these problems and come to an honest agreement. The bickering of the past needs to take a back seat to meaningful dialogue. It is time to cooperate and do it in an efficient manner.
There is no reason that this budget should not be passed on time. Now is the time to set partisan politics aside and get down to business. It would be good to resolve policy issues between January and June, rather than playing politics in July.
State Sen. Jeff Denham
