Posts tagged politics
Finished!
Jan 17th
I can’t believe it! I just finished the manuscript for Crazifornia, wrapping up the difficult but ultimately very entertaining budget and pensions chapter. Here’s an excerpt:
Hooting and Hollering on the Budget
Californians witness the challenges of running a progressive state every year as the legislature struggles to develop a balanced budget in the face of fundamental fiscal imbalance. The resulting budget is always a work of fiction, projecting more income than will come in, and promising more savings than will ever occur. A mid-year correction is always needed to account for this, but the charade goes on in all seriousness year after year. It’s a tragedy; it’s a comedy; it’s California.
Over 50 state budgets ago, in 1966, the legislature’s top budget leaders and Governor Pat Brown fled Sacramento for Palm Springs to try to sort out yet another horrific California budget mess. Nothing was getting done in soggy, cold Sacramento to fix chronic problem of revenues not covering ever-increasing government expenses, and since Brown would face the voters in November hoping to win a third term, the Democrat was adamant that the budget would be balanced without raising taxes.
Joining the senior legislators in Palm Springs was a young legislative staffer, David Doerr, who felt very lucky to get the chance to travel with the delegation, not so much because it involved a boondoggle trip to the desert, but because he actually hungered to see how California’s budget sausage was made. And see it he did. Ultimately, the budget was balanced on a number of gimmicks, including one that was unusually elegant: a switch to accrual accounting from cash. With the change, all the money due the state could be applied against expenses, no matter how far back it was in the pipeline. With this trick and a few others on the books, Brown was able to face Ronald Reagan in November armed with a balanced budget and no tax increase.
There were plenty of other gimmicks that came out of the Palm Springs session, but one really stuck in Doerr’s mind. Showing his uncanny ability to remember financial matters from the distant past in exquisite detail, Doerr told the tale in a small conference room at the California Taxpayers Association, the wall behind him lined with shelves displaying his 811-page tome, California’s Tax Machine, A History of Taxing and Spending in the Golden State. He spoke in the light, wispy voice of a man who had heard far too many politicians argue far too loudly, and his hair was as white as snow – an expected side effect of being the single Californian who knows the most about the state’s budget-making process.
“After not really getting much of anywhere in the negotiations,” he said, “one of the suggestions that came up, casually, just sort of a throw-away was, ‘Why don’t we just delay paying the state employees by a day so one pay period will go over into the next year?’ At first everyone was quiet and I wondered if they would really do something like that, but then they began to hoot and holler, laughing like this was the craziest thing they ever heard of.”
Doerr, who ultimately spent three decades as chief consultant for the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee before becoming the Chief Tax Consultant of the California Taxpayers Association, continued the story: “Jumping forward over 50 years, no one in the legislature hooted or hollered one bit when the idea of shifting one pay period into the next fiscal year came back, this time as a way to balance the 2008-2009 fiscal year budget. The legislature just did it, knowing full well their action would come back to haunt them a year later, when they would have to balance a budget that had one extra payroll period in it.” The subterfuge saved $1.2 billion for the moment – that’s what it cost per payday to pay the state’s bloated payroll.
The 1966 junket to the desert ended up not doing Brown any good, as Ronald Reagan drubbed him by 16 points that November, sweeping all but three counties in the state. And the 2008 roll-over of one payday didn’t help Governor Schwarzenegger either, and he declared upon announcing the inevitable budget revise that May, “We’ve run out of Band-Aids.”
“Gimmicks and band-aids aren’t new,” Doerr said. “There have always been battles over the budget and crazy balancing tricks as long as I’ve been here, and that’s been 50 years, more than one-quarter of the time California’s been a state.”
There’s a lot more good stuff in the chapter and in the book. If you haven’t already, be sure to fill in the box in the upper right, so I can notify you when this baby rolls off the press.
That will be a while longer, since I have four dedicated editors marking up the manuscript. They’re making some really great suggestions, so I’ll be doing a fair amount of rewriting before I can claim, finally, that it’s ready for the publisher. I’m still on target for a May publishing date.
Crazifornia Highlighted in Flash Report
May 26th
Flash Report, the top conservative news aggregator in the state, has linked to just about every opinion piece I’ve written, so I wrote an exclusive for Jon Fleishman, the site’s politically powerful patriarch. It ran today at the top of the site, in its #3 slot.
The subject is the growing trend of outsourcing by California cities that are struggling to deal with salaries that are too high and benefit/pension plans that are out of control. As an afterthought, it just occurred to me that Jerry Brown’s Sacramento is not following the cities’ lead. Why not? Could it be because he, unlike electeds even in liberal strongholds like Marin County, remains a cowering coward in the face of public employee union bosses?
Maybe. So, here’s the lead of the Flash Report piece:
In June of 2010, the tiny Los Angeles County city of Maywood admitted what many of us have known for some time – city employees are just too expensive. Maywood’s admission came in the form of laying off every single one of its employees.
The city, a neighbor of the infamous city of Bell, had already outsourced its parks department, landscaping and street sweeping to private contractors and was happy with the results. City officials said, in what CNN called “an odd twist,” that the outsourcing the rest would allow Maywood to provide its residents with better service for less. There’s nothing at all odd about that, unless one has a CNN-style belief system.
The New York Times later found the city council’s prediction that Maywood’s residents wouldn’t notice a difference in service to be true, writing, “The [expected] apocalypse never arrived. In fact, it seems this city was so bad at being a city that outsourcing – so far, at least – is being viewed as an act of municipal genius.”
Cities don’t have to be bad to benefit from outsourcing, and many municipalities across the state are following Maywood’s lead.
To read the rest of the piece, click here.
Crazifornia a Neal Boortz Reading Assignment
Mar 17th
Crazifornia got a great plug this morning as Neal Boortz included my Daily Caller column from yesterday among this “Reading Assignments” for the day:
Here’s the latest example of how Governor Moonbeam in California Brown is not going to deal responsibly with the state’s unfunded government employee pension liabilities. In other words: he isn’t going to stand up to the unions.
The piece, also linked in the post below, shows how the new contract for California’s prison guards shows Brown’s true colors, as the union suffered no losses in the latest contract, despite the state hemorrhaging money because of ridiculously lucrative public employee union wages and pensions. Thanks, Neal!
Daily Caller: Brown’s Hand Is Union Made
Mar 16th
As California Budget Battle Sequel XXXVIII (Or is it LXXIX? I get so confused.) heats up, I actually got so ballistic I wrote a Daily Caller op/ed just one day after the one you see in the post below. Note the headline – they’ve agreed to brand my pieces with the “Crazifornia” moniker. Very cool.
CRAZIFORNIA: JERRY BROWN SHOWS HIS HAND – AND ITS UNION-MADE
California’s 32,000 prison guards and parole officers — notorious for enjoying political clout wildly exceeding their meager numbers — tried to negotiate a new contract with former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for four years but got nowhere. After just three months of negotiations with Jerry Brown, they got their contract, and hapless Californians got the clearest signal yet that Brown is not going to deal responsibly with the state’s unfunded public employee pension liabilities of as much as $500 billion.
The details of the new California Correctional Police Officers Association contract haven’t yet been made public and haven’t yet been analyzed by people who, unlike me, can tell a POFF from a PLP. (If you’re curious, POFF II contributions are suspended for two years under the new contract and one PLP will be granted every 12 months.) Still, it’s easy to read the net result.
In a letter yesterday to his board of directors, CCPOA executive director Chuck Alexander wrote, “The majority of the rights and protections that exist in our old MOU have been carried forward in this new MOU.”
Any objective California governor would realize the state can’t afford to do that. It’s not like this is a union that needs more coddling. It has grown at a rate of almost 1,000 members a year since its formation in 1980. It has a 70-person staff that includes 20 lawyers. Even that’s apparently not enough, since Brown’s new contract with the union includes even more new positions. You’d think California was a state that’s not in a fiscal crisis. [Continue reading]
Daily Caller: Unions Sinking Brown’s Budget
Mar 16th
The good folks at The Daily Caller ran this piece by me on March 14:
In California, Unions are Sinking Brown’s Budget Proposal
Talk about crappy timing for California’s Democrats: An oversized colon was sitting on the California capitol’s north lawn Monday, even as budget talks broke down and the powerful California State Employees Association and the California Teachers Association rallied on the capitol’s south lawn for higher taxes.
The colon was a publicity stunt by a Democrat assemblywoman from San Francisco, Fiona Ma, whose cause was fine even if her timing wasn’t. She put the 20-foot-long replica intestine on the capitol lawn to promote a resolution that declares March to be Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, but it can’t help but be seen as a symbol for the constipation that’s blocking the state’s budget process, and the colon-full of bad news that’s hit California governor Jerry Brown.
The worst news for Brown broke early Monday morning when it became public that the “Gang of Five” Republican senators who were trying to find a middle ground with the governor have ended their budget talks. Both Connie Conway, the GOP Assembly leader, and a spokesman for Bill Emmerson, a Gang of Five senator, confirm that the talks are dead, but Brown’s camp insists they are continuing. [Continue reading]
Please do click through to read the rest. Not only is it brilliant and informative, but the folks at The Daily Caller want to know you’re interested in this stuff, so every hit helps.
Stop the Desecration of the 4th of July!
Feb 15th
There are sane people in the California Legislature. They’re just outnumbered. One of my favorite of the outnumbered and sane set is Diane Harkey (R, of course, 73rd), who has a keen nose for regulatory insanity. She’s just introduced AB 206, a bill that would exempt municipal fireworks shows from the heavy hand of the California Coastal Commission (and the California Environmental Quality Act, to boot).
This is a subject near and dear to Crazifornia’s heart – and the subject of much of my upcoming book’s chapter on the Coastal Commission – due to the plight of the good people of the North Coast town of Gualala (pictured), whose Fourth of July fireworks show was blasted out of existence by the Coastal Commission. Here are some posts you can check out for more on the story:
From Cheat-Seeking Missiles: Coastal Commission Attempting to Ban Fourth of July Fireworks
From The Daily Caller: The Queen of the Coastal Star Chamber
The bill is not yet posted on California’s LegInfo site, but it should be soon, and I’ll update this with a link when it does. A fact sheet on the bill summarizes the issue as:
Broad interpretation of environmental regulation law has defined fireworks as “development” which has expanded regulators authority to require permits or licenses in order to display fireworks. This interpretation has applied particularly to coastal communities. These regulations threaten the ability of local municipalities along the coast to provide this public service to both their communities and the state.
In order for Californian’s to celebrate the great independence of this country and continue with traditions that previous generations have enjoyed, it is necessary that the ability of public entities to put on such firework displays is protected.
These shows are a cultural event that are enjoyed by many Californians and also provide an economic benefit for the municipalities that display them.
Assemblywoman Harkey also sent me a sample support letter. Please help her in this important effort (which faces a bleak future in the Dem-dominated legislature) by getting folks in your neck of the woods to support it. Here’s the sample letter:
Dear Assemblywoman Harkey,
On behalf of the (INSERT NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION) I am writing to express support for Assembly Bill 206, which will provide an exemption for municipal firework shows from the California Environment Quality Act and California Coastal Act.
In 2008, the Gualala Festivals Committee received a cease-and-desist order from the California Coastal Commission for discharging fireworks without first receiving a coastal development permit. The Coastal Commission determined fireworks caused an increase in nest abandonment.
This action was confirmed by a court, setting a dangerous precedent in which “development” was deemed to encompass the discharging of fireworks as described in the California Coastal Act because the displays deposited spent materials into coastal waters.
Fireworks shows are an inexpensive way for families and the community to celebrate the independence of this country. Previous generations in California have enjoyed these shows without burden of a government agency standing in the way of a long celebrated tradition.
In addition, these shows provide an economic benefit for the municipalities that display them. As a coastal community this issue is especially significant to the citizens of (INSERT NAME OF YOUR CITY OR ORGANIZATION).
Environmental protection is important, but a line should be drawn to ensure the preservation of long held traditions that provide enjoyment, foster patriotism and stimulate our coastal economies.
(INSERT NAME OR ORGANIZATION) stands in support with AB 206 for the above mentioned reasons.
Sincerely,
CA Forward Offers Slate of Phony Fixes
Feb 15th
CalWatchdog picked up the op/ed I wrote after sitting disgustedly through two hours of dangerous ideas, mumbo-jumbo and government-speak from the reformers at California Forward – the folks who brought us the insane “budget with a 50% majority” and open primaries propositions. Here it is:
One of my daughters is an esthetician, and as she studied for her state certification so she could be sanctioned by Sacramento as worthy to give facials and wax eyebrows, she had to learn two completely separate and conflicting approaches to her chosen work. First, she learned how to give facials and wax eyebrows. Then she learned how to pass the California’s esthetician certification exam, which is based on practices no one uses anymore and maybe never did.
I thought of her experience on Friday afternoon as I found myself in a conference room with several other business people, trying as hard as we could to share our point of view about how to fix what ails California with two representatives of California Forward, the outfit that brought us open primaries and new state budgets on a simple majority vote. They’re cooking up some new reforms that made me so frustrated I could have ripped out my eyebrows – if I didn’t have a daughter who knew how to wax them. At the same time in Sacramento, a group of state employees was in another conference room with another group of California Forward representatives, sharing their perspective of the same topic. I have a feeling they had a much easier time of it.
The two meetings were part of California Forward’s current effort to gather input from all over the state so it can by synthesized into a new model for governing California, one that would fix things for good, with consensus support. Or, as the group puts it on its Web site, “We want a government that is small enough to listen, big enough to tackle real problems, smart enough to spend our money wisely, and honest enough to be held accountable for results.” Good luck with that – especially that last bit about honesty and accountability. After all, we live in the state that designed the California esthetician certificate examination.
Read the rest of the piece – and my proposed California reform measure – here.
The Queen of the Coastal Star Chamber
Jan 18th
The Daily Caller ran my op/ed on the latest intrigue at the California Coastal Commission, the state’s all-time champ at trampling on private property rights and the test case for obsessive over-regulation. The column focuses on the new chairwoman of the Commission, Sara Wan, and is appropriately titled, “The Queen of the Coastal Star Chamber.”
When the Star Chamber ruled atop Great Britain’s legal system for 150 years until its demise in 1641, it was characterized by secrecy, intrigue, and the often arbitrary and oppressive dispensing of what could hardly be called justice. California has its own Star Chamber, the California Coastal Commission, lorded over, for the time being at least, by a portly grandmother from Malibu, Sara Wan.
There is a pitched competition between California agencies for which is the most nonsensical in its implementation of over-reaching regulations. Certainly, the California Air Resources Board, which recently tried to ban black cars in the state in its fevered effort to save the world from global warming, is a strong contender. The California Energy Commission, which last year deprived Californians of the right to purchase large, high-performance LCD and plasma televisions — also to save the planet — is another contender. But none can top the Coastal Commission when it comes to imposing its will forcefully on the hapless Californians who are deemed to fall short of the Commission’s deep green political will.
For the rest of the post – including a blow-by-blow recount of Wan’s recent power grab and the possible ramifications, read the entire op/ed at The Daily Caller.
Daily Caller – From RINO to Redux
Jan 3rd
The Daily Caller, one of the nation’s leading conservative news websites, ran my Moonbeam Inaugural op/ed today. It also appears below, but please read it at the Daily Caller (here), since they’re always interested in seeing how many readers their op/eds get.
Thanks!
Thank God for California’s Public Employees!
Dec 23rd
Cross-posted at the FlashReport Weblog on California Politics
I’m looking sadly at the family refrigerator, imagining it as barren white slab, stripped of all the children’s artwork that makes it such an emotional focus of our home. And I’m thanking God for California’s public employees, because they made it possible for the Pearce clan, and all California clans, to enjoy the best of Crayola art while we put away the milk and cold cuts.
And it’s not just that. Without the fine folks whose paychecks are signed by John Chiang, we would be living in a gloomy and dangerous place. (I thought California was a gloomy and dangerous place, but now I know better.) We wouldn’t have known of this great debt we have to our state employees were it not for Willie Pelote of the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees, who wrote an open letter to Jerry Brown and published it in today’s California Labor Federation blog,
“Imagine being unable to take a walk in a park on a sunny afternoon or being unable to borrow books from the library or to hang a picture drawn by your child at school on the refrigerator.
“Imagine traversing potholed roadways or waiting hours to catch a train or bus home after work or telling your children that you can’t afford to send them to college.”
Pelote tells us that’s not just what could happen, no, it’s what already is happening for “the majority of Californians who have to work for a living” – as opposed, I suppose, to that minority of trust fund baby Californians who sit around drinking champagne and sending their butlers to cash their dividend checks. Why? Because we’ve bought into the false reality of thinking we can balance the budget by doing with a smaller state government. Foolish us!
I’m so glad Pelote made this an open letter instead of one of those infernal closed letters, because now I understand the risks to the very bedrock of American ideals – equal opportunity and a fair deal – that we would face if we ever eliminate a single additional state employee from the payroll. It’s not just that these folks are “stewards of the sources of our common wealth,” why they’re “necessarily more highly educated, more highly skilled, and more highly experienced” than the rest of us schleps. And that’s why they all rush to retire at 50 or 55 with their full salary and benefit package for life – if they didn’t, they’d become so much more educated, skilled and experienced that their heads would probably explode.
Pelote is really trying to help the incoming governor, because Lord knows, the man’s got a Gordian knot of problems to deal with. I’m sure Brown is relieved that the solution to it all is so clear. First, Pelote says, we’ll drop those pesky Enterprise Zones and the tax credits they provide to evil private sector employers. Then we’ll eliminate all those nasty corporate tax loopholes because they might encourage private companies to hire people who otherwise could become AFSCME union members. And the state should just knock off this crazy hiring of private contracting firms because, as Pelote has already explained, the public sector guys and gals are better educated, more skilled and more experienced – and let’s not forget, they’re nicer, less self-centered and more responsive, too!
Then, just to make sure there’s enough money flowing in to keep those benefits dollars flowing out, we’ll raise taxes. Not just any taxes, but taxes on capitalist, free-market types by taxing stock trades. That’ll hurt Wall Street, and we all know it’s Wall Street that we have to blame for our ills, not public employees, like the ones that forced Wall Street to give home loans to just about anyone, and the dedicated state employees who invested CalPERS money in top-of-the-market real estate. With the bureaucrats doing such a smashing job, why bother with a free market anyway, Pelote asks?
“If the free market is really as ideal a mechanism for creating wealth as its supporters claim, then why must taxpayers subsidize the operations of private sector companies?
“In fact, since the private sector has so far been unwilling or unable to produce the kinds of jobs we need to pull California out of recession, that is all the more reason to be vigilant with our tax dollars.”
Amen! Now that we’ve regulated and taxed it into oblivion, let’s just do away with that burdensome private sector entirely. Pelote and his union friends, smart as they are, can see a better world, where California agencies, departments, commissions, boards and councils will employ all of us, and as our union fees go to feather Pelote’s bed, we’ll spend our time writing regulations for each other in one big, happy festival of oversight and micromanagement, with comfortable salaries and splendid retirements for all.
It’s interesting that Pelote – who, after all, is just a consonant and a vowel away from “Pelosi” – couldn’t find a way to get the words “retirement benefits” or “pension spiking” into his open letter, or that with all his talk of rosier state finances he eluded any mention of the state’s $500 billion unfunded liability for the retirement and lifetime health benefits of our cherished older stewards of the sources of our common wealth. I’d probably understand why he did this if only I were better educated, more skilled and had more experience.
