This column was submitted by FR reader Eric Wickland. Wickland is a recently retired urban planner and building official. He is a former director of the California Association of Professional Employees, CAPE, AFL-CIO. Wickland serves on the Executive Committee of the California Republican Party, and is a member of the Lincoln Clubs of Los Angeles County.
The Case For Taxation With Representation
by Eric Wickland
Tomorrow morning, after California voters’ rejection of budget balancing propositions 1A-1F, Governor Schwarzenegger should invoke his emergency authority, to initiate formation of a nonpartisan commission, with the singular task of cutting state expenditures to match revenue over the next three years.
The commission would best serve the taxpayers, property owners, local business communities, homeowners, employers, workers, parents of public school children, as well as, the local government fiscal and service managers who deliver the vast majority of public services throughout California, by being composed of successful professionals representative of these sectors of the economy and society. It is critically important that no current state officeholders be appointed to a commission expressly formed to redress the partisan legislative failures which have led directly to the budget crisis in California. A state legislature which has recklessly expanded government spending, and attempted to pay for their excesses by raising a wide variety of taxes, even proposing to change the constitutional term "Tax" to "Fee", can not be trusted to do anything in the best interests of Californians after May 19.
Indeed, the near super majority Democrat dominance of the California Senate and Assembly has precipitated fiscal crisis at all levels of government throughout the state. including the City of Sacramento. City and county governments with fewer options than the State, are all the more dependent on state revenues and subventions to balance their own local budgets. Recent polls indicating greater citizen anger toward local government than Sacramento, are a clear indication that city and county officials much closer to the actual point of service are being short changed more critically than are any state programs or institutions.
In choosing representatives to the tax commission, the governor should draw on the experience and insight of local government managers and service providers for strategic perspective on funding and revenue allocation. The CEO of Los Angeles County manages a $22 billion budget and 100,000 county employees in the provision of a wide range of services to the county’s 10 million residents. On a state government scale, LA County provides a broader, and more direct level of services than do any state agencies, commissions or authorities. City managers throughout California must balance budgets and advocate for adequate state funding, while maintaining the quality of services to their local communities. Citizen and local elected officials’ expectations and feedback to city managers are direct, and seldom aimed at state government. State legislators receive virtually no such feedback or criticism.
Once appointed, the tax commission should conduct all of its analysis and deliberation in closed session, free of the political, special interest and media influences which have characterized the budget process to date. This elegantly nonpartisan process should produce a credible proposal, representing the broadest interests and financial security of the people of California.
The tax cutting, budget balancing recommendation of the commission should be submitted to the State Assembly and Senate for a vote of approval as a complete, unalterable measure. As a purely tax cutting fiscal plan, the proposal would require a simple majority approval by the state legislature before sending it to the governor for final signature. This could be accomplished with as little as one fourth of legislative Democrats’ support.
Beyond the immediate salvation of the California budget and economy that adoption of these measures would accomplish, the tax commission’s formation and deliberations would set a new tone in Sacramento. And, voters and constituents throughout California may begin to be respected and defended by the legislators they have elected to represent their best interests in the state capitol.