"The most consistent and smartest thinking and writing about progressive politics isn't happening in Sacramento, but being churned out day after day on sites and by organizations like Calitics, Orange County Progressive, and the California Budget Project." - CalBuzz
We all now know that Arnold topped off the "budget of misery" with even more misery, cuts that may not even be legal. These cuts will literally kill thousands of HIV-positive Californians. These cuts will throw thousands of working families off their health care programs, and may ultimately kill a number of them. Don't be fooled, these cuts are lethal and we're only starting to feel the pain.
However, a few good progressives haven't given up yet. Courage Campaign is responding by calling on the Legislature to return to Sacramento ASAP to vote to override Arnold's additional line-item veto cuts. Included after the flip is the full letter from Courage Public Policy Director (and friend of OC Progressive) Robert Cruickshank.
75% support increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages (62% support among 'No' voters)
74% support increasing taxes on tobacco (62% support among 'No' voters)
73% support imposing an oil extraction tax on oil companies just like every other oil producing
state (60% support among 'No' voters)
63% support closing the loophole that allows corporations to avoid reassessment of the value of
new property they purchase (58% support among 'No' voters)
63% support increasing the top bracket of the state income tax from nine point three percent to
10 percent for families with taxable income over $272,000 a year and to eleven percent for
families with taxable incomes over $544,000 a year (51% support among 'No' voters)
59% support prohibiting corporations from using tax credits to offset more than fifty percent of the
taxes they owe (55% support among 'No' voters)
Duh! - promoted by atdleft)
Remember when rabid anti-tax, anti-government GOP connector Grover Norquist openly fantasized about shrinking government to a point where it can be "drowned in a bathtub"? Well, it seems this may finally come to fruition in California. It seems Mimi Walters and her fellow Yacht Party, "NO!" Party lemmings may finally get the whole state to fall off the cliff with them. I guess we're all screwed.
But wait, is this all really inevitable? When did Grover Norquist & Howard Jarvis become eternal dictators of this state?
And now, let the blame game begin! Who's to blame for last night's election results? The LA Times is wasting no time blaming "we the people" for rejecting a craptastic set of initiatives. The OC Register, meanwhile, looks to be pointing the finger at Arnold. The Republican minority's trying to blame it on Democrats, while many Democrats are blaming the Republican minority.
(Yikes! Check out the local OC results. I guess our neighbors really didn't like the May Props! - promoted by atdleft)
OK, I know this seems anti-climactic. But come on, this is about the future of our state. The "May 20 conversations" can now begin.
Check the statewide results here and OC results here. I'll be back in just a moment to give you the first numbers.
UPDATE: Here are the new statewide numbers with 37.9% reporting!
1A: Yes 36.6%, NO 63.4% 1B: Yes 40.1%, NO 59.9% 1C: Yes 38.2%, NO 61.8% 1D: Yes 37.4%, NO 62.6% 1E: Yes 36.9%, NO 63.1% 1F: YES 76.4%, No 23.6%
Stick a fork in it, all except for 1F have gone down. 1B is only leading in a handful of Bay Area counties, while 1A through 1E are all massively failing all throughout the rest of the state. The corporate media are starting to frame tonight's stunning results as "an anti-tax victory", but they're not telling the whole story. The "tea baggers" are trying to call this their "win", but it's really a loss for Arnold and a verdict on the failed "borrow, tax cut, and spend" policies of the CA GOP.
I'm sure you all know that Election Day is today... So why haven't you voted yet? Go forth and vote! The polls are open until 8:00 PM.
If you want, go over to Memphis in Downtown Santa Ana (201 N. Broadway) for the new tradition of the "Final Tally" party after the polls close. Otherwise, stay tuned here at OC Progressive once the polls close. We'll be following the statewide and Orange County election results LIVE, so don't miss our "online watch party" here!
And no matter what the final results are, stay with us in the coming days as we cover the aftermath and the upcoming state budget debates.
The Governor's decision to roll out an early May [budget revision] puts into perspective some of the very ugly cuts that the Legislature will have to make in the next few months. Yet some opponents of the May 19th ballot initiatives seem to think this is nothing but a pre-election PR ploy. Think again. These proposals are very, very real.
Progressives like [State Assembly] Speaker Karen Bass and [State Senate Pro-tem] Darrell Steinberg already are warning that the magnitude of the cuts that will need to be made are so severe that there isn't much "protecting" they will be able to do. Traditional Democratic allies already are preparing for the worst, as no one expects the new Republican leaders Sen. Dennis Hollingworth and Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee to even entertain the thought of revenue increases. Even fee increases may be off the bargaining table, as well as borrowing.
This is going to be ugly folks. And even uglier if the props don't fast [sic?]. The Governor's action is, at the very least, serving to show the public that the legislative leaders haven't been crying wolf.
So what are we to believe? Will California sink into the Pacific if the May 19 Special Election Initiatives fail? Or is this whole discussion "fail"?
Here's a new one: on Monday, May 18 at 9:30 a.m., Prop 1A-1F supporters are planning to post a Twitter message - or "Tweet" - urging their friends and family to vote Yes on 1A-1F.
Hundreds of organizations and individuals supporting these reforms will be joining together to send this coordinated, mass Tweet that will reach hundreds of thousands of voters throughout the state the day before the election. Organizers want the Tweet to be short and simple: "Vote Yes on 1A through 1F tomorrow, May 19th, at the polls. http://tinyurl.com/qwqokg." or something similar.
The campaign's official campaign Twitter page is http://twitter.com/cabudgetreform.
Is this snark? Serious question.
And more serious question: Is this supposed to magically turn upside down those darned poll numbers showing 1A-1E failing miserably? Methinks not. If nothing else this is the final "last hurrah" being pulled by this tragically sinking ship, kind of like a graceful waltz being danced before The Titanic sinks into the ocean.
Yikes, we Californians are feeling pessimistic these days! But are we also starting to think "penny wise and pound foolish"? PPIC has a new poll out today focusing on education, and the results look bleak. Whether it's just a recurrence of the usual "I want something for nothing!" attitude we see in The Golden State all the time or a real lack of understanding of how little we actually fund our schools, we progressives have our work cut out in cutting through Arnold's BS and actually getting the state to rethink its budget priorities, especially when it comes to education.
And Arnold himself? Well, he's faring no better as he falls back to his 2005 record low 32% approval rating. However the Legislature's approval has actually risen from a catastrophically low 18% to a just dismally low 23%, so perhaps Karen Bass and Darrell Steinberg have been doing something right lately.
So what does this all mean? Again, we have our work cut out for us. As voters seem likely to judge next month's Special Election Initiatives as faulty and unnecessary, I think we progressives have a challenge to explain to them WHY they are faulty and unnecessary. Even if John & Ken may temporarily be "on the same page" with us on the May Props, they're nonetheless wrong opposing 1A-1F with the mantra of "NO TAXES".
What we need to explain is that the problem isn't "high taxes" but rather the unfairness of the tax system.
Should a middle class couple in Irvine pay fifteen times as much in property taxes for every dollar of property as a billionaire like Donald Bren?
Before Bush and Arnold, California had an estate tax that was fully deductible against federal estate taxes. If we had that revenue back, we would have an extra 1.2 billion a year, enough to save the jobs of 20,000 California teachers.
So if you want the full PPIC release, follow me after the flip. Otherwise, consider this a warning that Californians haven't yet fully realized what our education problems really are.
During the budget week from hell, we mildly cheered on the progress of the budget process. We were concerned about the short-term budget issues, but were also dismayed by the rapid rightward shift of the negotiations. Unfortunately, as an Editorial Board we simply cannot support the measures as they have been brought to the May 19 Special Elections Ballot. We share the concerns of the League of Women Voters that this package was poorly designed and poorly executed, resulting in a plan that will ultimately create more harm than good. And since none of these measures address the structural revenue gap, adding another layer to an already suffocating fiscal straightjacket makes no sense whatsoever.
We do not appreciate the fearmongering message from supporters of the initiatives, who obviously can't find anything to recommend in these solutions and thusly must warn of impending doom in order to get them passed. We remind voters the words of Bill Clinton: "If one candidate's trying to scare you, and the other one's trying to get you to think... if one candidate's appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you'd better vote for the one who wants you to think and hope."
This is what the Caliticians think about the May Special Election Initiatives. Believe it or not, they are endorsing a vote against all the initiatives that our legislators worked so hard to agree on in order to pass a workable budget. And guess what? I think they're right in doing so.
