It’s hard to believe a California governor could sink any lower than Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger did but Jerry Brown has achieved the impossible.
It’s hard to believe that in this the fourth year of economic stagnation, the eighth year after the bursting of the housing boom and the 12th year of unbearable budget deficits that have destroyed the economy, the public education system and the hopes of the tarnished Golden State’s nearly 40 million people, Jerry Brown has gambled the future on pipedreams.
It is hard to believe that Gov. Moonbeam who promised in his dotage to bring mature and competent leadership to the state Capitol seems to know as much about the financial consequences of his budget deals as the man on the moon.
It’s hard to believe alright because it isn’t true.
At a time when the state cries out for courageous leadership we get yet another governor dancing to the tunes of the devils — the unions who cut deals with him for temporary savings through furloughs, Democratic legislators who win deferred cuts in social welfare spending, the developers and other special interests who keep on getting what they want in the name of “creating jobs” no matter what the cost to the environment and the quality of our lives.
All the deals Jerry Brown has cut as part of a budget for this fiscal year are predicated on the same insane notions of fiscal responsibility that have ruled in LA City Hall.
These elected officials, these public servants, these self-important nobodies have decided year after year to put off facing the new economic reality as if there will be an economic boom that will lift all ships, cover the outrageous pensions and benefits they awarded public employees and themselves and soothe the wounds endured by the masses.
It isn’t going to happen. A fundamental restructuring is occurring in the global economy that is forcing Europe to face the fact they cannot indefinitely consume wealth faster than they created it. The bills are coming due and to pay them severe austerity measures are being imposed.
But not here in the good old USA which at 236 years old on Wednesday is old enough to know better. You can’t have anything and everything is what you want all the time.
You don’t hear Obama or Romney talking about anything except how they are going to make us all rich again. It isn’t going to happen. There’s too many people — 7 billion and soon to be 9 billion — willing to work for next to nothing to have a better life than they got so we have to change dramatically to create a new normal, a new America, that works better than the two-class society we are so rapidly becoming.
Jerry Brown’s soak-the-rich tax proposal seeks to exploit the resentment against the rich felt by those getting poorer these days as much as those already poor — which itself is sort of funny since his family’s wealth comes largely from his father’s sweet deals with Indonesian oil barons during the Suharto regime and presumably is carefully invested to minimize income taxes.
The same is true of most of those who have held great wealth for a while: They have all the advantages of low capital gains taxes and various tax shelter schemes. So the Brown plan protects people like himself at the expense of all those Californians who are making it big now like Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team and many others whose activities are generating wealth for the future, not sitting on golden eggs. And, of course, it sticks it to all us little guys in the form of the increasing the nation’s second highest sales taxes.
The deeper problem was put into focus in the LA Times Tuesday by Chris Megerian who counted up all the ways Brown and the Democrats — no longer needing any support from Republicans who offer no solutions of their own — have gambled the future of California, your future, on if-comes and maybes that even if they happen only defer the day of reckoning a while longer.
Here’s examples of the high-risk assumptions approved to make the nearly $16 billion deficit:
- Nearly 10 percent of Brown’s $91.3 billion budget counts as revenue the $8 billion in sales tax/income tax revenue that voters may or may not approve in November — a number that itself is inflated.
- The budget assumes that over the next four years the state will reap almost $2.3 billion from the federal estate tax on inheritance that was abolished in 2004 and likely to be extended.
- The Facebook initial public offering of stock was a dud and will fall short of generating $1.9 billion in new tax receipts.
- The abolition of community redevelopment agencies without a road map was so badly botched that it is expected to provide only half of the $1.7 billion expected this year.
It may look great politically to Jerry Brown way up high in the sky on the moon but down here on earth it’s frightening.
But Brown’s finance spokesman, H.D. Palmer, assures us that “if the state pulls in less revenue, it won’t be required to spend as much on public schools under California’s voter-approved funding formula. That would ease the burden on the budget,” according to the Times.
So Brown’s tax plan doesn’t really put the money into education as he claims though Molly Munger’s competing soak-the-rich plan does and if it fails, the gun to your head is your kid won’t learn to read and write, will be relegated to in overcrowded classrooms with a sharply shortened school year, your jobs will be in jeopardy, public safety put at risk with all those criminals released early from prison . . .
This is political blackmail: Your money or your life.
And why? Because after all these years of economic turmoil, they still don’t have the courage to face the changing reality and deal with it.
Do you?
Ron, and you somehow expected anything “better” from Jerry Brown? Anything except just raising taxes? What else does a trust fund baby like him who spent all his life feeding at the government trough, what else would he know?
Funny that all these stories of his daddy dealing with Suharto (a really nice guy indeed) would not make the news. I guess this wasn’t as juicy as Whitman and her maid.
And then you have this scummy deal about the numbering of the ballot measures. But Molly Munger hauled them into court in a nano second. And this litigation and the resultant discovery will provide some juicy details about Sacramento’s basic lack of ethics and decency.
DO THE MATH: Molly Munger+Jerry Brown=VOTERS SAYING NO TO THE ENTIRE BALLOT OF CONFUSION!
NOTE: CHECK YOUR MAIL—THERE IS A MESSAGE FROM THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE DWP—WE ARE RAISING YOUR RATES EFFECTIVE JULY 1RST 2012 BY 40%!!!! Did you know there is a legal way to stop it? NO?
IF OVER 50% OF RATE-ABUSED PAYERS SEND A CERTAIN KIND OF LETTER TO CITY HALL BEFORE AUGUST 2012—THE RATE HIKE IS AUTOMATICALLY KILLED!!!! It’s printed in very small print, and the L.A. Crimes and Daily Douchebag News WONT tell you nothing about it.
RON NEEDS TO CREATE A FORM LETTER FOR EVERYONE TO DO IT. This is possible because of the changes in prop 218, now Dennis Zine and his 75 campaign donors have a small chance of losing this 3 BILLION DOLLAR RATEHIKE. Small, but POSSIBLE. Thank you Howard Jarvis Group FOR MAKING THAT STATE LAW HAPPEN. Let’s hear Mr. Dummy Zine on KABC radio talk to his buddy Peter Tilden AND DISCUSS THIS WAY TO STOP THE RATE HIKE? yeh, right!
VOTE NO ON ALL TAXES, BOND MEASURES, AND ANYONE WHO CALLS THEMSELVES A MODERN DAY DEMOCRAT! JFK was cool, but the party left that kind of common sense way way long ago. The Democratic party of California is the PARTY OF KORETZ AND ALARCON. Just remember that when you vote!
Wayne, since you seem to have all the info on letter writing to stop the DWP rate hike and you like to write, I suggest you write the form letter and/or email with appropriate addresses and we will copy and send…
Instructions on opposing the rate increase compose the second paragraph of the letter from DWP. It’s the same size print as the rest of the “notice is hereby given” letter. The neighborhood councils need to get this info out. Broadcast e-mail anybody?
I don’t think you are being completely fair, Ron, in your terrific analysis. The unfairness is that Jerry Brown did everything in his power to get a few republicans to sign on his last budget. And even though, he put up the most CRITICAL part of our budget problem–pensions and health care for public employees–as a bargaining chip, the party of NO threw away a golden opportunity. He got rid of the CRA after bitter battles with his own party. And where was the side of the aisle? What were they willing to do? Where are the plans of what to have been done with the CRA money unleashed?
Now, what do you want him to do? The GOP has made it crystal clear that it is their way or the highway. At least, the dems will give him something AND he runs on the democratic slate.
Secondly, does a political leader have to change everything 100% overnight to get credibility? Because he doesn’t make the long goal, he’s toast? Frankly, until the GOP rejoins the conversation, there is very little Brown or any other govenor can do except buy time..
Your thoughts, Ron?
Please – I need that letter to the DWP and City Council.
Why, because it has to be “just right” . What is that?
A City Clown Hearing to ram this thing in is SET FOR AUGUST 2012:
TO SAY HELL NO===DO THE FOLLOWING:
TO:
City Clerk,
200 North Spring Street, Room 395, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
YOUR NAME,
YOUR ADDRESS WHERE THE METER IS
“I/we protest.”
regarding: “LADWP Water Rate Ordinance”
Send it certified mail, or better yet, GO IN PERSON AND HAVE THEM STAMP A COPY FOR YOU AT THE WINDOW!
Here’s some more about it:
Written protests to the proposed rate changes may be submitted at
the public hearing or delivered in person or mailed to the City Clerk,
200 North Spring Street, Room 395, Los Angeles, CA 90012, in time
sufficient to be received prior to the close of the public hearing. A
valid protest must include: the name of the customer of record,
the parcel address, and a statement of protest (“I/we protest” will
suffice). Please also write “LADWP Water Rate Ordinance” on your
written protest. Email protests will not be accepted. Please note
each customer of record on the same account will be counted as
a single vote, regardless of the number of persons listed on the
application for water service; only one written protest per parcel will
be counted. (This means, for example your neighbors who rent out to 10 people will only get one vote to yours!)
++++If a majority protest exists, the applicable proposed rate changes will not be imposed.+++++Business customers too count as a vote. If you have 2 or 3 SEPARATE BILLS FOR SEPARATE PARCELS–YOU DO ONE FOR EACH AND YOU CAN GET A MULTIPLE VOTE!
Thank you, Wayne…
Without a mega amount of publicity, it’s going to be a Herculean task to get 50% of DWP rate payers to do this. And they don’t make it easy. We can’t get 50% of registered voters to move their carcasses out to the voting booths for highly publicized elections, let alone get people out to the post office.
Good luck to us!
There is a CROSS-BURNING event in ALABAMA for a church on Friday! Whites are invited ONLY! The desperation of many people financially is leading to more of this extreme types of behavior.
MONEY IS FREEDOM—the more YOU KEEP, THE MORE YOU’RE FREE!
That’s why YOU MUST MAIL IN OR HAND DELIVER THOSE RATEHIKE PROTEST LETTERS TO THE CORRUPT CITY’S CLERK’S OFFICE!!!!!!!!!!!
DON’T FEE THE DWP PIG—PUT THAT PIG ON A MUCH NEEDED DIET!
Never mind, I just heard from the DWP with all their hype. Thank you.
The California Imperial Senate yesterday by a 21 vote Dumbo-Crat majority (needed 21 votes minimum) got their pork-n-corruption train to nowhere passed! Alex Padilla voted YES. All the Dummies with a (R) next to their names voted NO. 4 With a (D) voted No—but that was just pony and show—And we the taxpayers are paying BILLIONS for a never to be built TRAIN TO NOWHERE. Ironically the REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED HOUSE in Washing-turd DC VOTED DOWN THE FUNDING FEDERALLY FOR THIS CRAPPY SCAM.
Isn’t this proof to ABANDON AND STOP VOTING FOR CALIFORNIA POLITICIANS WITH A (D) next to their names for a while? Hmmmm?????
Also, your Dumbo-Crats legalized ILLEGAL ALIEN GANG MEMBERS as this same load of crap YOU KEEP SENDING TO SACRAMENTO. How? By ORDERING ALL COPS TO NOT HOLD THESE TERRORISTS after their recent arrests/jail/pleas TO all MISDEMEANORS and “non-serious” FELONIES!
This way, when they get out of jail for a few MISDEMEANORS, they can practice MAJOR CRIMES until someone gets KILLED OR TERRORIZED, then maybe YOUR DUMBO-CRATS will send a few to ICE after the funeral arrangements or the coma of the VICTIMS of these guys! Hey, wasn’t that JAMIEL SHAW’S SITUATION?
Yes, your DUMBOCRATS are HARD AT WORK MAKING IT HARD TO STAY IN CALIFORNIA FOR THE SUFFERING TAXPAYERS!
Happy 4th of July weekend to YOU THE DUMBO-CRAT VOTERS!
How about high speed train to Texas? Full trains one way.
Thank you, Everybody. And Wayne, I appreciate your addition of the “legal”
letter to the DWP in protest of the rater hikes. Ron writes about Viral effects –
and I shall write my letter and put it in an envelope and stamp it. Ready to mail.
Then I shall send your July 4 message to my lists with a “Please share after you
respond to the DWP”. Imagine what will happen if we all do same. That is the
viral effect. Much more effective than our daily newspapers. Are you going
to help yourself against our city government who thinks their job is to hire
more and more relatives and friends and keep sending us bills for the money
to pay for their misadventures. Let’s get going on this!!!!!!!