When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a financial state of emergency earlier this month, the news kind of got lost because it was announced on a Friday afternoon, it was in the middle of the holiday season and more likely, as California taxpayers, we have seemingly been immunized to the state’s perpetual fiscal difficulties. Finding $14 billion to close the current projected budget gap either through programs cuts, increased or new taxes, or some combination of those, won’t be easy and it will only be more complicated by the partisan wrangling and the election year positioning that we will all bear witness to.
New or higher taxes are the third rail of California politics. Since the days of Proposition 13, state, county and local governments have been shackled by the severe restraints of the ballot initiative and unable to meet increasing demands for services and programs without resorting to the budgetary gymnastics exhibition or slight-of-hand approaches that we witness each year.
Most people will say don’t raise taxes and offer the advice of cutting spending. On the face of it, it is not a bad idea. However, the devil is in the details and it gets to what do you want to cut, and how much do you want to cut it? Do you cut school funding? Do you stop long needed transportation projects? Do you stop the rehabilitative work on the Delta watershed? Do you emaciate the social safety net programs that bring civility to our society? Every action has a reaction. Shutting down one program may create a need for a new, more expensive one. Cut school funding and class size increases but teacher salaries do not. Then teachers look for jobs in other states with lower costs of living and smaller class sizes. And, the state’s education system suffers. Cut funding for Medi-Cal, and your health care providers are forced to raise the rates that you pay.
People will say you can cut programs that they personally don’t benefit from. Extend that line of reasoning and you soon come to the conclusion that we have a problem without a solution. And, that’s how our state has plodded along for years, going to the bond markets and mortgaging the future, while perpetuating an annual budget circus. It is time to start with a clean sheet of paper and develop a new, fully equitable and honest tax system that funds government operations properly.
I do not advocate a return to the wild days and ways of the 1970s, but it is time for voters to swallow hard and repeal Proposition 13 and its siblings that have created this mess.
That will mean higher taxes.
That will mean the return of the vehicle license fee.
That will mean local and county governments will be able levy new taxes for police and fire protection, or parks or redevelopment. And, it could mean more and different taxes.
It does not and should not mean reckless, irresponsible spending by government.
This is where we, as taxpayers and citizens, have an important role to play. We need to get involved in our government. We need to have an ongoing dialogue with our city council members, county supervisors and those who represent us on the state and federal levels that is open and honest about our wants and our needs and how we are willing to pay for them. Both sides of that equation need discussion. Having one without the other is intellectually dishonest. It is far too easy to sit on the sidelines and heckle. It is significantly more difficult to get serious and find workable solutions.
We also have to be mature enough to engage in that serious dialogue and not let it degenerate into contentious threats against office holders and shouting down or booing those with a different perspective. We’ve been far too influenced by the cable news channels where interruption and shouting are now viewed as meaningful engagement. It isn’t.
In our work lives, we are constantly working with others to find common ground and to find solutions to business challenges. We manage to do that without too much acrimony and we can rise to the occasion and do it here and now for this.
We need to remember that we have far more in common, than that which separates us.
David Cohen, a member of this newspaper’s editorial board, is a corporate speechwriter. He also serves as president of the Community Law Enforcement Foundation of Morgan Hill, a grassroots organization in support of the Morgan Hill Police Department. Reach him at da*********@*ds.com.
