Most California voters support a mix of spending cuts and increases in tax revenue to tackle a $26.6 billion deficit, a new Field and UC-Berkeley poll shows.
“The approach is backed by 52 percent of voters, according to a statewide survey by the University of California, Berkeley, and The Field Poll,” Bloomberg Business Week is reporting. “Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to ease the deficit by retaining more than $9.3 billion of temporary tax increases won support from 58 percent.
“‘There is no great willingness on the part of voters to increase taxes as a way of dealing with the huge budget deficit,’ Mark DiCamillo and Mervin Field, directors of the Field Poll, said in a statement. ‘However, majorities do support of the idea of extending the temporary tax increases enacted by the state several years ago.’”
The rest of the article is here.
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I really wanted them to go to the ballot with the support of at least some of the Republican legislators–and was curious to see who could resist the far right wing push to punish anyone who agrees to let the people decide–but now I would support placing the tax extensions on the ballot without Republican support.
I would like to see the legislature publish a provisional “cuts only” budget so the voters have a clear picture of the consequences.
The reality is that in a well funded campaign the numbers won’t change too much from the early polling.
Most Californians are sensible, pragmatic and moderate. Most Californians voted for Governor Brown, ergo, most will support his pragmatic, moderate ,albeit painful, budget. As elected Governor of California, Brown is due this consideration and is respected for going hard at it.
Meanwhile the campaign of hate continues at George Rebane’s web site. You all know George–he is the commentator that KVMR and The Union provides a platform for, and thus legitimizes as a rational voice.
“For what seems like forever, many conservatives and libertarians have puzzled on the real source(s) of the sociopathic ideology and behavior of the progressives. These appear to revolve around 1) ignorance of how the world actually works, 2) inherited stupidity which precludes the ability to remediate ignorance through learning, and 3) evil that in its foundation seeks to subjugate and/or eliminate all wrong thinkers (a la Bolsheviks, Mass Execution of Kulaks, Cultural Revolution, Killing Fields. The Holocaust was national socialist genocide based on your double helix and not belief.)”
So lets see, if you disagree with George, you are not only ignorant, you are inherently ignorant, and evil. You are the same as Pol Pot and Adolph Hitler.
Thanks KVMR and The Union for legitimizing hate as a community value.
Pathetic, grasping, sputtering hater on Rebane’s blog. Shame on defending the greedily indefensible. How about this Rebane? BIIIIGGGG Tea Wingers Convention set and billed in the infamous pain clinic “doctor”criminal, flag-waving, oxycontin whoring, backwoods, hillbilly Florida, (run by a convicted, plead out insurance ho Scott) had 25 bigtop tea speakers including Hannicle and Regrettable, Joseph Farrah, “Judge” Joe Napolitano and many more jack booted circus freaks from F News and only 300…um, yes, ONLY a wittle bitty 300 tea whackos showed. Your “message”, shilling for corporations and foaming for multi level marketing teatards and their “get rich off the working class schemes” is getting heard LOUD and CLEAR from regular, sane hard working folks and their message is, George: No Sale, Return, Exchange, Bad Juju…wrong answer. If that makes them progressive, and me progressive I thank God Almighty and the leprachaun from Lucky Stars for it…and Rebane, as a heavenly bonus your Arab royal rip-off artists in Tunisia and Egypt, and torturing, murderous dictators, see: Libya, that threw their own people over for dirty money are flamin out in a major way…P. Diddys video “Angels” captures the moment perfectly…the men and women of hip-hop got to live this crap long before we ever got to see it from the likes of Rebanes Blog…Kate
I don’t think Rebane’s Reactionaries appreciate performance art Kate!
I think the “Georges” of the world are dismayed that I not only don’t find their “arch-conservative” views in any way morally or ethically superior–but am clear to state that on most levels its about their wallets, and mostly morally reprehensible and uncharitably unchristian. It is what it is–and it is thoughtful peoples job to call it. Which is why I love this blog and the people engaging the issues on it…and it looks like they’re approximately 3 return guests on the other blog…who seem to know little about compound sentences. So word to ya George: If youall can’t keep up, den step da blank off…love, Kate
The public wants to vote on the tax extension and the R’s are blocking the vote, blocking the rights of the voters to make the decision… so who do the R”s serve if not the voters?
I think we should ask Mr’s McClintock, Logue, Gaines, McCarthy that question…clearly and loudly.
My guess is that the people who will be most effected by the Governors proposed budget cuts weren’t part of the sample, since we no longer even discuss the “poor” stopping our talk of economic issues at the lowest wrung of the ladder occupied by the middle class.
Can any of you point me to an honest poll that ask folks if they want their car tax doubled for the next five years?
Any families want the child credit reduced for five years?
How about a ten percent increase in the sales tax for their major purchases?
Show me those numbers and I will believe the “spin.”
John
For you John there will never be an honest poll that opposes your position.
Show me the poll that says California voters want people on Disability Insurance to live on less than $10 K per year, that we want indigent health care capped even if it means people die, that shows we want 40 children to a classroom, or that shows we want to close 3-4 state universities.
(By the way if we are going to close state universities How about we shutter 5 exurban commuter schools catering to the underachieving sons and daughters of upper middle class swing district voters? How about Stanislaus, Channel Islands, Northridge, Pamona and San Marcos?)
Steve,
You would find strong support for small classrooms and good support for those on disability, but sadly I agree with those positions. The problem is not meeting real needs, the problems is paying for so much that does not meet real needs. See our lengthy discussion on K-12 funding as an example.
John
As long as your guys sit on the sidelines and insist on an all or nothing solution instead of getting in there and actually governing the problem will persist.
Steve,
As to closing certain schools: I would say give every parent a $9,000 refundable education tax credit and have it spent at the school of their choice: Good ones would thrive and poor ones would soon close.
John
John,
Most people do not pay $9000 per year in taxes, so how would this work and/or be funded. Would it be a negative income tax?
Who/how would you control the charlatans who are sure to pop out of the woodwork in such a scheme? What would happen to the kids who are suddenly behind because said charlatan ripped them and their parents off for three years of education before they were caught? Who would take care of the kids (and parents) who were ripped off?
How could $9000 per year be enough, given that high quality private schools don’t do it for this little, and neither do public schools?
Tony
Tony,
The money would come from the $11,000 per student that is currently paid in taxes for K-12 education. I am leaving the rest for budget reductions and special needs students because they are funded with the same pot of money.
The $9,000 is probably too generous, but as soon as you set the level they will spend to that level. Anyway, here is a link that shows the costs currently, remembering that they maintain these schools with NO government support so the cost could be reduced if parents had more money to spend.
As to the issue of abuse, are you seriously going to argue that we have no financial abuse and no failing students in the current system? You would see substantial improvements on both fronts. Parental empowerment and a little competition would be very good things.
John
Sorry, I forgot the link: http://www.capenet.org/facts.html
John
John:
Thanks for the figures, which helped. But it looks like the only schools that could get by on the $9,000 are those which have nuns or missionaries who effectively subsidize education as a sense of religious calling. The secular private schools are all well over the $9,000.
You get abuse in all human systems, and there is no perfect system this side of Heaven. In this respect the private sector in fact have a lot in common!
Parental involvement and a little competition are both good things. But no schools I know of have perfect parent involvement, and there are limits to how much competition between is healthy in school situations. Much of the gaming of NCLB has come about because competition is imperfect in school situations.
Tony
Tony
Stoos, what century are you living in? Or what Dickens classic? It is 2011, in America, on Earth.
Kate,
I think parental choice is a very 21st Century idea!
Sure beats the old factory model of the 20th Century.
John
I think you are missing the point–these are not grade schools these are colleges–the state and its residents have a vested public interest in having widely available and reasonably priced public education. Your $9000 solution per pupil is in essence saying privatize college and all of the problems will go away. If that was the case private universities would be providing that service at that price today. It does not happen.
This is a classic example of throwing out there an ideological solution and pretending it is a solution.
You know exactly what would happen if higher education was privatized; only the rich would be able to get a college education.
STeve,
I was responding to your “40 kids in a classroom” comment which i assumed was referring to K-12.
John
Great, respond to one piece but not the others; we will have grade schools graduates who can recite the catechism but can’t go to college. Too bad we don’t have a 19th century economy of tradesmen, manufacturing and laborers any more.
John,
I would like to hear your opinion on my (Robert Reich) proposal about tax breaks for the vast majority of Americans while balancing the budget and keeping social programs in place.
http://jeffpelline.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/will-tea-party-torpedo-budget-cut-compromise/#comments
OK….so now, with no time left to put something on the ballot, there is a “list” from the Republicans.
http://documents.latimes.com/calif-gop-budget-demands/
I’m probably violating the terms of service, but this is just bullshit.
Reasonable people have been trying to have a discussion about a compromise on the budget since the first week in January, and Bob Dutton puts this out about 30 seconds before a decision about putting something on the ballot runs out.
The thing that really chaps my hide is that there are a lot of Republican ideas here that I think could have been worked with, and are actually pretty good reform ideas. I would like to have supported them and helped them reach an agreement, but I never got that chance, because instead of laying their ideas on the table they hid them, kept them secret, and only talked to the Governor behind closed doors or in code.
If they had put these ideas out in a rational format in January my guess is we could have reached an agreement.
This is the most vile form of obstructionism.
The people they are hurting are their constituents, who deserve to have a budget, predictable governance, and a realistic picture of what future conditions and rules will be . Instead Republicans are just perpetuating uncertainty. I can only conclude that they WANT the economy to stagnate to create political advantage.
Here it is in pdf
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/75021/gopdocument-1.pdf
Steve,
I don’t see anything on this list that Republicans have not proposed for years. IF the Democrats really wanted a bi-partisan tax deal then they should have proposed a real compromise. As you can see from the early items that were negotiated over the past two months the answer was always NO.
What you should be blaming the Republicans for is the continued waste and corruption of the redevelopment scandals that will now continue because they refused to join with the governor in voting for much needed reforms.
John
John: obstructionist nonsense.
If Republicans wanted to deal, they could have brought all this stuff out in an organized way months ago. They have nickeled and dimed, trickled and leaked for 3 months, then aggregated all of their demands at 1 minute to midnight.
The Governor has a mechanism for putting his plan on the table–he is the Governor–it is called the BUDGET.
I would have liked to have supported a bunch of this Republican stuff. I see about 40% of it I could not only have supported, I have actually been advocating for for years (proving my moderate cred?).
The Republicans could have laid this stuff on the table item by item, drafted and advocated for their won budget, and negotiated compromises in committee, all while taking their solutions to the people in the media.
They did not do that.
If you are accusing Republicans of NOT being good communicators, they are guilty as charged!
John
By the way, if you read the document, and remeber it cam from Republican leadership, the “noes” at the top represent a rejection of the “starting position”. If you read below there are some very good compromises in there. they would have been a great start toward getting us back on track.
We have about 3-4 days to get this back on track.
If not everyone is going to probably play hardball. That means the Dem’s take the tax extensions to the ballot (costing $100 million in election costs and probably close to that on advertising) without any Republican votes and we duke it out for another year. Then Dem’s try to redistrict your guys into oblivion, which is already starting.
What a colossal waste of time, money, social capital, and opportunity.
We fight to the death and no one wins.
Reminds me of that great line from one of my favority movies, The Return of the King:
“No chance of victory, the certainly to death… What are we waiting for?”
John
University of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau toll on Cal’s deficit. University of California Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau, Provost Breslauer Must Go: clean sweep Cal. leadership (The author who has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he was able to observe the culture & the way senior management work)
Cal. Chancellor’s arrogance and poor judgment: pays ex Michigan governor $300,000 for lectures; recruits out of state $50,000 tuition students that displace qualified Californians; Latino enrollment drops while out of state jumps 2010; tuition to Return on Investment (ROI) drops below top 10; NCAA places basketball program on probation.
Chancellor Birgeneau’s ($500,000 salary) fiscal track record is dismal indeed. He would like to blame the politicians, since they stopped giving him every dollar asked for, & the state legislators do share some responsibility for the financial crisis. But not in the sense he means.
A competent chancellor would have been on top of identifying inefficiencies & then crafting a plan to fix them. Able oversight by the UC Board of Regents and the legislature would have required him to provide data on inefficiencies and on what steps he was taking to solve them during his 8 year reign. Instead, every year Birgeneau would request a budget increase, the timid regents would agree to it, and the legislature would provide. The hard questions were avoided by all concerned, & the problems just piled up to $150 million of inefficiencies….until there was no money left.
It’s not that Birgeneau was unaware that there were, in fact, waste & inefficiencies during his 8 year reign. Faculty & staff raised issues with Birgeneau & Breslauer ($400,000 salary), but when they failed to see relevant action taken, they stopped. Finally, Birgeneau engaged some expensive ($3,000,000) consultants to tell him & the Provost what they should have known as leaders or been able to find out from the bright, engaged people. (Prominent east-coast University accomplishing same at 0 costs)
Cal. has been badly damaged. Good people are loosing their jobs. Cal’s leadership is either incompetent or culpable. Merely cutting out inefficiencies does not have the effect desired. But you never want a crisis to go to waste.
Increasing Cal’s budget is not enough. Take aim at the real source of Cal’s fiscal, & leadership crisis; honorably retire Chancellor Birgeneau, Provost Breslauer.