More on the State of the State

The responses on the Governor's State of the State address have begun to roll in and many are predictable. Dan Walters, cynic in chief at the Sacramento Bee, suggested that his proposals will fly when pigs do. George Skelton thought he hit the right tone. From my perspective - Skelton is more right than Walters. (That is often true.)

There were three kinds of issues raised by the Governor. The first might be called aspirational. He argued rather forcefully that the Feds owe us some dough for their mandates. This is not a new argument from the state, Pete Wilson made a similar argument when he was governor. But it is still true. For $1 that Californians send to Washington we get 78¢ back. I have a brother in Idaho who immediately sent me a note and asked that we not try to get Idahoans to fix our "tax and spend mess." I replied that based on their population (1.4 million) and their federal receipts ($9.9 billion) that they owed us each about $1500 to balance the books. The chart shows the to and from of our federal dollars - clearly we get a lousy deal.

In the same vein his proposal on asking to have more money spent on higher education than prisons is a good idea. It may not be a good idea to do this as a constitutional amendment but in these times - violating basic principles of organization might be a good idea. We are still not sure whether this proposal includes all of higher education, including student aid or whether it merely includes the CSU and UC funding - if it is limited it is a bad idea.

His comments about the health care bill, I think reflect the thinking of a majority of Americans. They are disgusted by the Louisiana purchase, Cornhusker deal and the raft of other bribes in the two bills. They are also annoyed about the apparent rush to decision which the majority seems to want to advance in secret negotiations.

The second set of issues were bully pulpit issues. The Governor's strong defense of the work of the Tax Commission is a good example. He urged the legislature to think about an income tax that relies on 144,000 Californians for half its revenue. The Tax Commission may not have been perfect but it needs to be a starting place. The business community's immediate rejection of even consideration of alternatives to the present system shows how bereft they are of current leadership

His comments about the state's pension system were also important. California, over the last couple of decades has significantly increased both current and pension compensation for its employees, way beyond what the private sector offers for comparable work and way beyond what we can afford. Even Willie Brown argued that in one of his most recent columns. But because of the control the public employee unions exercise over members in the democratic caucus, this one will be hard to get done.

HIs third type of issues were the reality ones. A budget is about choices and priorities. And with the dismal state of the economy - The University of the Pacific Economic Forecasting Project said yesterday that the state's 12% unemployment is likely to consider for at least a year more - a lot of what we have come to expect from the state will not be there.

It remains to be seen how the legislature will handle the three kinds of issues - but the Governor has set the plate quite well.