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The California we know is going down in flames |
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Written by Byron Williams
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Monday, 11 April 2011 |
 For several years, Chicken Little prognosticators, myself included, have argued that the California we know was falling.
With each, albeit late, budget that was passed, there were warnings that California could not continue its financial gimmicks that essentially kicked that can down the road.
In lieu of making tough choices and engaging in the antiquated political process known as compromise, there were just enough members of the Legislature who preferred their own ideology to making unpopular decisions that were in the long-term interest of the state.
If the additional cuts proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown come to fruition, those of us who offered warnings over the years will look like charter members of the Nostradamus Society of America.
Brown, who must find another $15.4 billion in cuts on top of the $12 billion already slashed from the state budget, is now proposing cuts that could officially declare California as the first dysfunctional state in the Union.
Last week, the governor signed a bill that would shift responsibility for jailing and supervising thousands of California criminals to the jurisdiction of local governments.
An unthinkable measure has come to reality. To reduce California's deficit along with its prison crowding, Brown has placed local municipalities with the burden of housing 30,000 low-level adult offenders convicted of nonviolent and nonsexual offenses, along with many parolees and rehabilitation programs.
And this probably represents the good news in this scenario. Local governments, like the state, do not possess the resources to successfully accommodate the shift.
But wait, there's more.
Brown also stated last week that UC undergraduate fees could hit $20,000 to $25,000 a year, if the Legislature approves the cuts.
Neither the governor nor the Legislature has the authority to raise fees for the University of California or the California State University systems. But additional cuts to higher education, could make fee increases the only viable option for UC and CSU boards.
Under the proposed cuts to higher education, the UC and CSU systems, which emphasized educating its residents, would morph into an oasis for international students.
How ironic that California's Master Plan for Higher Education began under the leadership of former Gov. Pat Brown would effectively come to an end under his son.
But I do not blame Brown for California's dismal state of affairs. He inherited this mess.
Moreover, his inability to find enough Republican votes in the Legislature so that any tax extensions could be placed on the ballot for the people to decide the type of state they want is immoral, at best.
We wanted term limits for elected officials. What we got were a series of ideologically driven elected officials with no incentive to make tough choices or deal with those on the opposite side of the aisle.
Hindsight allows us to see that every photo-op and news conference touting a balanced budget as the ominous shadow of institutionalized deficits loomed in the background was simply the cacophony of political speak.
The cuts proposed by Brown have been decades in the making -- a toxic elixir that put off tough choices, oversimplifying the problems, and lulling the California electorate into believing the initiative process, which became the fourth branch of government, could serve the state's interest as well, if not better, than the Legislature it elected.
The momentum for a much-needed constitutional convention was quickly squelched. We've long been stuck in the quagmire of immaturity, knowing that change was in order, but willing only to make the tough choice for someone else's issues, while maintaining our issues as untouchable.
How bad does it need to become before we collectively reach the obvious conclusion that change is in order?
For his part, Brown has vowed to travel the state to pressure Republicans to support his tax extension.
But as long as elected officials do not feel the pressure from voters, they will be free to offer their focus-group tested pabulum while the state crashes and burns.
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