This just in from Assemblyman Martin Garrick who last week was named Assistant Assembly Republican Leader:
As California struggles to dig out of the deep budget hole that liberal politicians have created over the years, you would think the last thing they ought to be doing is digging deeper. But proving just how out of touch they are with most Californians, the Democrat majority in the Legislature over the last few months have turned their backs on the economic reality facing our state.
Democrats are so resistant to GOP ideas on reform that on Wednesday of last week, as we reached the deadline to pass bills out of the house of origin, the Assembly took up a total of 94 bills – 91 of which were sponsored by Democrats and only 3 by Republicans. As if that were not enough, 10 bills were approved that would create new boards and commissions that will not generate any economic benefit to the state.
Furthermore, Democrats have also shot down Republican bills that would have made government more efficient, such as eliminating the Integrated Waste Management Board that serves as little more than a haven for termed-out lawmakers.
The Democrats may say they are doing their part to reduce spending and reform government during these tough times, but their actions say otherwise. Merely reducing the amount of new spending and at the same time creating new bureaucracies is surely not what the voters had in mind when they sent Sacramento a message to reform itself during the recent special election.
The fact of the matter is that spending in Sacramento is out-of-control and the voters know it. To illustrate, the state has more employees on its payroll today with 9.5 employees per 1,000 residents compared to 8.6 employees in 2004-2005. This is a 10% increase!
As the state struggles to balance its budget, more Californians lose their jobs. Unemployment in California has soared to 11.0%, which is higher than the national average of 9.4 percent and much higher than comparable big states such as Texas that has 6.7 percent unemployment and New York, which stands at 7.7 percent.
It’s time for the Democrats to get real and work with Republicans to improve our state’s hostile business climate and create the jobs our communities desperately need. At the same time we must also reform government so it will work more efficiently for the people. Failure to do so will only hurt our efforts to get our state back on track.
Garrick calls it like it is, folks.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Only 17 of California’s 120 State legislators refused to accept the “free”
State car allowance. Assemblyman Martin Garrick is one of those 17.
Assemblyman Garrick also voluntarily cut his own State salary by 3%.
[source: Sacramento bee, June 8, 2009]
Now that we have addressed that, perhaps Mr. Michaelini would care
to engage on the undisputed facts Mr. Garrick cited above about the
bloated size and cost of State government?
refused to accept the “free” State car allowance.
Assemblyman Martin Garrick is one of those 17. He also voluntarily cut his
own State salary by 3%.