California Voters Say Cut Government Size and Spending!

Business Life applauds the defeat of ballot propositions and the passing of 1E. The voters were very clear.  They do not support tax increases, and they want state leaders to address the budget problem head-on by rolling back expenses and eliminating waste, fraud and inefficiency. 

State, County, City elected officials can start by looking within. First of all, at what rate has their individual staffing, expenses, salary, travel, entertainment been increasing over the past years? Shouldn’t they be held accountable, as has private industry that includes the auto and banking industry?  Isn’t it time that Government, start reducing, trimming payroll, pensions, health care benefits, saving billions of dollars in bloated staff and expenses.

California votes—residents and business, oppose raising state income taxes to eliminate the budget deficit. The same is for raising of the numerous hidden fees. The only Proposition that passed was 1E, which made a strong statement, that if legislators can’t balance the budget, they should take a significant pay cut now. We see polls showing that voters would favor one tax and that is the state should legalize and tax marijuana. Will we next legalize prostitution to raise funds. There are many other local hidden storms on the horizon. Included are the pending increases in utility rates for “electric,” as a result of AB 32 reducing greenhouse gas emission and “water” due to the drought that we have been experimenting.  Lets also mention other fees set to increase by our cities, for refuse collections and sewers. All adding to the cost of doing business and living in California.

In the wake of the resounding defeat of Proposition 1A, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich has called on Governor Schwarzenegger to appoint a five-member Blue Ribbon Commission from California’s top business schools to develop significant structural and procedural reforms, along with a special session of the state legislature to address the nearly $63 billion dollar deficit and enact the Commission’s recommendations. “With a multi-billion dollar deficit and lower bond ratings, it is imperative that this be done within 60 days, said Antonovich. He further notes the following to be considered by the special commission. 1) Consolidate and eliminate state agencies with duplicative responsibilities;  2) Implement a Two-Year Budget that would enable local government  a consistent funding stream; 3) Eliminate non-essential
commissions; 4) Replace salaried commissioners with $100 stipend per meetings; 5) Part-Time Legislatures; 6) Repeal Term Limits and 7) Reform Civil Service. 

“Illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact Los Angeles County taxpayers,” said Antonovich.  “With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $420 million in welfare allocations, the total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year – not including the millions of dollars for education. It seems that illegal immigration has fallen off the radar screen and has become a sacred cow, as have touching the pension issue for government retirees. 

To obtain additional information on Supervisor Antonovich’s various initiatives over the past year, we ask our readers to visit www.businesslife.com/click California News/
 

The L.A. Area Chamber has outlined priorities to recover, reform and rebuild California following the recent defeat of the Propositions. Together with more than 100 business leaders, The LA Area Chamber will be meeting with state lawmakers to advance its reform agenda during Access Sacramento- the region’s leading business advocacy trip to the state capital. The LA Area Chamber complete advocacy agenda is available at: www.lachamber.com/accesssacramentoadvocacy. 

It will be interesting to see how Sacramento goes, it seems the issue of the day is always the need for more tax revenue. It is time for some additional outrage from the voters. Our elected legislators and city officials are not royalty. The legislature has no choice now but to confront its addiction to spending and government expansion.

The state employs 345,000 people who average $85,000 in annual pay and benefits. In comparison, private industry per capita pay and benefits averages $45,000. It is noted that if state employees’ pay and benefits were scaled to average that of private industry, this saving would repair the state budget by $14 billion.

The outrage was loud and clear by the voters. We trust that it was loud enough for our legislators to hear. If not now, then when they are up for re-election.