Can Jerry Brown pull it off?
That's the question as he moved into higher gear last week to sell his plan to have voters decide in June whether to extend higher taxes on income, vehicles and sales. Before that can happen, though, he has to get California's infamously dysfunctional state legislature to agree to allow the special election in the first place. For this to happen by June, Brown needs legislative approval by next month.
To accomplish this, Brown must garner a two-thirds vote of the legislature -- and that means picking up at least a couple of Republican votes while keeping all the Democrats on board and on message.
"I want Republican votes," Brown is quoted telling the Los Angeles Times. "I need Republican votes -- not just to get it through the Legislature but to make it credible so it will pass."
But Brown is well aware that getting getting the legislature to go along -- which is far from certain -- is not the same thing as getting voters to.
During a trip down to L.A. last Friday, Brown was hemmed in by reporters at Bob Hope Airport's A Terminal and peppered with questions about what would happen should the famously tax averse California voters give him the cold shoulder and turn down his plan.
He all but hinted at the end of the world as we know it!
Brown is smart and no doubt right that without the extension, at least, of the higher tax rates, the state is fiscally doomed. But it will likely be a hard sell. What's more, should Brown's plan get rejected by voters, it will weaken his hand politically. But he is experienced enough to know all of this. It's a gamble. But he knows this, too.
Charles Feldman is a journalist, media consultant and co-author of the book, "No Time To Think-The Menace of Media Speed and the 24 Hour News Cycle." He has covered politics and police in Los Angeles since 1995 and is a regular contributor of investigative reports to KNX1070 Newsradio.
Follow Charles Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cfeldman1
Just recently it was reported that in Sussex county NY that police on avg make 202,000 annually in salaries and yet only work approx 14 days a month. I know....it is in their union contract. So you could say they negotiated a great deal for themselves, which they did at the expense of all those living in Essex county. Making good on that contract is too heavy of a burden for any government unless the plan was to tax the citizens to death.
Now, I'm having fun with you (And God knows it's deserved),but it's now ordained California is to fail (Diffidently, I poijt out in a crisis you elected Jerry (chuckle) Brown.I'm most interested in how your defense mechanisms will deal with this collapse. Do you rail more about the Bad Smart People /Or,is there an epiphany in your future where you say, "I've been stupid." Please keep posting ,so I can observe.
Thanking you for your efforts.
Corwin
And,it's a rebuke to the trolls (mainly Smart People) who criticize HP for a lack of substance.Have you ever considered politics as a career / California can use a mind that thinks like yours
We do not mind paying more taxes if and only if the give-aways to the millionaires and billionaires stop. Abolishing the CRA's is step one in getting us to increase taxes
http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-02-07/bay-area/27105627_1_unused-vacation-police-brass-bart-police
Best line is by the resources spokesperson Jennifer Johnston "We have no discretion on vacation payouts. They are mandatory under state law,"
Probably should start there.
Go to jerrybrown.org, "Solutions" tab, "Pension Reform". Brown gives some history and then states his plan.
Maybe you will rethink your vote so we Californians can get a fresh start.
How can we have a "fresh" start when we are bringing along the same "old luggage"?
No the state is already fiscally doomed has been for a long time now!!!
I think people need to be scared.
This discredited conservative lie that tax cuts leads to more government revenue so that no hard choices ever be made or that someone ELSE's "wasteful" spending will be cut instead has been sold by conservatives for so long that people don't really accept that government services actually need to be paid for.
When that doesn't work, conservatives harp on "waste, fraud and abuse". Where is this mythical "waste, fraud and abuse" conservatives delude themselves is there. Dukemejian couldn't find it. Wilson couldn't find it. Schwarzenegger couldn't find it. One person's "waste" is another person's lifeline.
In any event, if Gov. Brown won't do it, the Democrats in the legislature should put forth themselves a budget if no taxes are extended so that the California people can see for themselves.
Just make sure those Republican-voting counties in rural California that would be wastelands if it weren't for the prison-industrial complex are set up for the biggest cuts first.
All we want is a world class infrastructure, the best public school and University system in the country, virtually no property taxes, plenty of police, firemen, and nurses, tough environmental regulation, and a ham sammich. Surely we can tax the Martians or something for the revenue, right? Because above all else, and especially down in Orange County, we want these things as long as we don't have to actually pay for them.
Good luck dealing with 30 million delusional children Jerry!
You left out banning coal fired electric plants then importing 40% of electricity from coal plants in other states.
THe Republican party has decided that the voters do not get to decide if they want to pay more to keep inmates off the street, to protect our states education system and preserve the golden state. I and the democrats will do what we can to limit the pain of the republican parties decision but we are now forced to release prisoners, cut education, decrease spending on infrastructure.
If the republicans decide to let it on the ballot. You make the case to the voters about the programs you intend to protect why it is the right hard decision but that you respect in this time it is their decision if they want more cuts to schools inmates released early and based on their decision you and the democrats will implement their will.
i.e. he is engineering a no lose situation for him and the democratic party. And if anyone thinks he's bluffing they should remember what he did after prop 13 passed.
It's not the end of the world as we know it, but it has to change, and it will take both parties to get together and create a plan for the State.
He, at least is trying, and not afraid of what people think of him.
Just as only Nixon could go to China without appearing "soft on commies", only Brown can propose cuts to DEM favored programs with any chance of success.
What kind of a journalist would write THAT ???
Major, major FAIL, Mr. Feldman.