Well, a year ago, FR San Diego Blogger Barry Jantz and I came up to Sacramento with a red-carpet invitation from the Governor’s office to the State of the State Address, and we even got a special ‘pre-brief’ with some senior staff members. Of course, last year the Governor rolled out his Strategic Growth Plan, and we were pretty critical of it. So, go figure, no red carpet this year!
Nevertheless, thanks to live-streaming video, I was able to take in the entire address from my own laptop computer! Of course, my immediate reaction was — this speech seems an aweful lot like last year’s speech, in that everything that I heard was all about spending, spending and more spending.
But, since it seems to be the most accepted rhetorical style these days, let me start by taking a moment to praise the Governor for some of what I heard in his speech…
I applaud the Governor for his strong stand in support of redistricting reform, and the Governor declared that his proposed budget would actually close the existing deficit by a large amount — both important items. I also commend the Governor for his bold statement that it is now how much money we spend on education but how that money is spent that needs to be the priority. His calls for a focus on technical education, and for more transparency in public schools (and support for charter schools) are all to be applauded. The Governor’s call for making sure that the bond money authorized on the November ballot is spent on real infrastructure projects, and not on pork projects, was right-on.
That said, I still cannot get past that we have heard a second State of the State address that proposes tens of billions in borrowing! All in told, it sounds like that the Governor has proposed over $40 billion dollars MORE in bond measures, and this in addition to other very costly programs such as his proposal to massively increase state government’s role in the healthcare business, imposing new restrictions on businesses to bring compliance for environmental standards, and more. I opposed the Infrastructure Bonds on last November’s ballot because I felt that with a state budget of well over $100 billion, the Governor and legislators should be making a large, very real annual contribution towards infrastructure in current dollars (and not just by committing a fraction of the budget towards bond repayment). Consistency being my long suit, I think that even more borrowing without severe reprioritizing of current state spending is reckless and ill-advised.
Some of the items for which the Governor proposes borrowing money, such as construction of prisons, or funding to build dams, are good ideas. But one is left wondering why those items were not in the first round of billions of borrowing that was approved in November. Instead, Republicans who support these programs are left to be torn between their support of them, and the knowledge that this state simply cannot absorb more mega-debt.
I listened carefully for themes that hinted at living with our means, maybe even a push for some actual reductions in tax rates. The Governor has a nifty website where you can really drill down into the subject areas that he covered in his address — healthcare, prison reform, research & innovation, environment and education, political reform, infrastructure, and alternative fuels. (If you go to the section on political reform, you can actually see a rather lengthy video of our State Capitol Correspondent, Dan Schnur, talking about the need for redistricting reform — perhaps the section of the site that would do the most to excite core Republicans who are tired of the gerrymandered legislative districts in this state). It is rather telling about the speech that there were no sections on "tax reduction" or "regulatory relief" or "finance reform" — items that would have been indicative of a Governor who wants to undo decades of liberal programs that the Democrats have loaded up into what is now a mammoth-sized, unweildy budget.
When I hear rhetoric like "shared responsibility" — it really scares me. They theory of shared responsibility (that _____ is not a responsibility of the individual, but a joint responsibility of the individual AND the government) can be used to justify government intrusion into virtually any aspect of the lives of Californians. I have already written plenty about the Governor’s proposed healthcare ‘fix’ that includes massive tax increases.
In closing, I will simply say that I found that when the speech was over, it seemed like perhaps it should have been Republican Leaders Dick Ackerman and Mike Villines giving the traditonal response to the speech, because so much of what the Governor proposed — big, large SPENDING proposals — are the stuff that Democrats enjoy. There were some positive things tucked into the speech — but the meat of the proposals made by the Governor simply do not appeal to someone who feels that current state spending is out of control. Consequently, the response from Perata and Nunez, predictably, were echo-chambers that bragged about achievements attained with one Republican – Arnold Schwarzenegger. You know the chorus — raising the wage mandate on employers, placing price controls on drug companies, and the draconian greenhouse emissions bill.
I will look forward to the Governor’s budget proposal, and see the foreshadowed reductions in the state deficit. And it my hope that as we get into a lot of details of these proposals, that common-sense prevails, and some fiscal sanity prevails.
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