By Scott P. Plotkin
Executive Director
California School Boards Association
As the years have gone by, California's extraordinarily volatile revenue system has subjected us to feast-or-famine budgeting. Many of the "solutions" adopted by our legislatures and signed by our governors have done little more than get the state through another fiscal year. Even when the times demanded balanced political compromises, state leaders often delivered expeditious, "get-out-of-town" budgets that avoided the hardest decisions on both revenues and expenditures.
This year, the meltdown of the national economy and the state's astonishing $41 billion-plus deficit resulted in cuts to public education that are unprecedented and catastrophic.
Budget Myopia
But the failure to adopt a sustainable budget is only the most obvious manifestation of a dysfunctional state government. The simple fact is that California is not investing in the future, whether in needed infrastructure, economic development or in education. New laws and regulations are piled on without balancing the costs against any clear added value. Long-term implications of current actions are ignored. Urgent current problems go unaddressed. The inherent strength of community-level governments is dissipated.
Things have gotten so bad that sometimes I'm afraid to ask the question, "How bad do things have to get before they start getting better?" In my speeches to school leaders, I've taken to quoting Peter Finch's famous line from the movie "Network," where he exhorted citizens to run to their windows and scream at the top of their lungs, "I'm mad as (heck), and I'm not going to take this anymore!"
As bad as things may be, it makes little sense for us to wallow in despair. And that is why schools have joined with their local government partners in cities and counties to advocate and advance reforms designed to rebuild California, from the ground up.
Core principle
The local governments of California are the key to the solution, and the core principle of any successful reform must be that each level of government and each agency of
government be given the authority and the resources to do what it does best. We can restore functional state and local governments only by aligning authority, responsibility, resources and accountability.
In July, the local governments of California began to do something about it. Sponsored by the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties and the California School Boards Association, the Local Government Summit on State Governance and Fiscal Reform brought together more than 500 local elected officials throughout California for a two-day discussion about reform and real solutions to the crises we face today.
During the summit, city, county and school leaders broke up into small groups to discuss more than two dozen reform options, with the goal of identifying consensus priorities. After three hours of spirited conversation, the following options rose to the top:
Protect local revenue sources from diversion or borrowing by the state.
Reform state term limits.
Reduce the two-thirds majority required for local taxes.
Require that new funding sources be identified for any new state programs.
Even though there was wide support for "protect local revenues" as a concept, the conversations within each breakout group varied widely. In some groups, there was strong support for the type of bold, broad reform that might result from a constitutional convention. In other groups, the approach was less drastic, focusing on incremental changes that could be made within the current system.
Perhaps the key message I took from the summit was the universal frustration and anger that local elected officials directed at the Legislature. There was a huge groundswell of support for reforms directed at the legislative process -- including term limits and the reapportionment process. Just as important, there was a great desire to do something -- anything -- to reduce the amount of partisanship in both houses.
The hard work
Now is when the hard work really begins. Many of the reforms supported by summit attendees will generate strong support -- but achieving them is much easier said than done. It is imperative that we try. We must capitalize on the momentum of the summit, and turn that momentum into a real movement made up of school, city and county leaders to achieve the reforms that are essential to the long-term success of our state.
Artwork by Tim Teebken/Special to The Press-Enterprise