Vantage point: Let’s not make kids the losers in budget battle
By:
CSBA President Martha Fluor
Published: April 1, 2011
I’ve spent a lot of time in Sacramento over the past few weeks in my role as CSBA president, and even though the calendar says that spring has begun, you wouldn’t know it from a visit to the capital city. The last few times I’ve been there, the prevailing weather conditions have featured wind, rain and, most recently, rising flood waters.
In a way, that kind of weather seems almost appropriate. I’m told that there’s a saying around the Capitol that a state budget will never be signed before the first 100-degree day of summer rolls around. This year, given the accelerated budget timeline made necessary by the need to place a revenue extension measure on the ballot in June, one could almost say that the deal can’t be sealed until the first real day of spring arrives. As of late March in Northern California, they’re still waiting for that day.
As I write this, we’re also waiting for that day to come when two-thirds of the Legislature agrees to place the revenue extension measure on the ballot. With each passing day, the odds of that happening grow longer. The governor and others are talking about “Plans B, C and D.” If it doesn’t happen, it will be a sad day for California. It may sound overly dramatic to characterize what is happening as the death of democracy, but in a way that’s exactly what it is.
Every poll conducted since the beginning of the year has demonstrated that the people want to have the opportunity to vote on the question of extending the temporary revenues. A recent survey conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Pew Center on the States went even further than that. It examined public attitudes about fiscal realities in what were referred to as “five stressed states”—California, Arizona, Illinois, Florida and New York.
The study made two things perfectly clear—one, the public is deeply interested in finding long-term fiscal solutions and is willing to make sacrifices to preserve what they see as core functions of state government. Second, K-12 public education and health and human services are seen as being those core governmental functions—worth protecting from cutbacks even if it means more taxes.
However, that message has yet to sink in with some of our representatives at the Capitol. So right now we’re witnessing a game of political chicken, one with billions of dollars on the line and the livelihoods of thousands of dedicated educators at stake. To me, it’s beyond belief that we’re even having this discussion at this late date.
What some in this state—the Golden State, the land of opportunity, the last frontier—appear ready to do is sacrifice the futures of our children in exchange for a political victory in the battle over what constitutes the appropriate role of state government. That is heartbreaking to me, and makes me question our collective humanity. There are hard conversations that need to take place, and difficult decisions to make. But let’s not make our kids the losers in this battle.