State Senator Mark Wyland has just sent a thoughtful and important letter to the Governor and legislative leaders calling for a halt to all of the non-essential gyrations of the state legislature, and for a razor-sharp focus on job creation.

I’ve included the text of the Senator’s letter below.  Governor Schwarzenegger would do well to read this, and include this idea in his State of the State Address tomorrow.  In fact, I feel comfortable saying that Senator Wyland wouldn’t mind a bit if the Governor embraced this idea and took ownership of it! 

The reality is that our fiscal problems are so bad that all of the non-essential work of the legislature during this time amounts to moving deck-chairs around the Titanic.  How about focusing on the big hole caused by the iceberg?

Dear Governor and Legislative Leaders

As we commence a new decade, California’s economic condition continues to worsen. The fiscal crisis which has confronted California has continued, with little hope for positive change in the near future.

We need urgent action. I propose that we suspend work on legislation in order to focus all our energy on the overriding problem of spending limited revenue wisely.

Governor, I understand that you may emphasize the necessity of creating jobs in your State of the State address. I wholeheartedly endorse this initiative. Unless we address new job creation in California and job losses to other states that are more attractive for business investment, California cannot be a magnet for innovation, creativity, and job creation. For this reason, I urge you to call an Extraordinary Session so that the Executive and Legislative branches can work together to support job creation and business investment across every sector of our diverse economy.

In April of last year I wrote you with similar concerns. I have introduced legislation to both use the first year of every two year session for analysis of effectiveness of programs, and to hear testimony about how we might improve our state. I am gratified that Senator Steinberg has also recently called for using a year to address with these issues rather than legislation. Senators Governor and Legislative Leaders Wolk and Huff have co-authored a bill that would introduce performance based budgeting into our process. Other legislators have introduced bills to deal with these issues. Select committees in the Senate and Assembly, under the leadership of Senator DeSaulnier and Assemblyman Feuer, have worked diligently to hear methods of improving governance by considering several proposals.
 
As well intentioned as the attempts to address these problems are, they cannot result in the immediate solutions we need. These issues demand that we solve them now, with the great sense of urgency that they require. California and its citizens deserve no less.

By taking these actions, to suspend consideration of legislation in order to take the steps to solve our fiscal crisis, and by considering measures to attract investment and create jobs through an Extraordinary Session, we will exhibit the leadership California requires.

We must take action now.

s/SENATOR MARK WYLAND

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.