Contributor

John Campbell

John Campbell (R-Irvine) is an Assemblyman representing the 70th District in Orange County. Mr. Campbell is the Vice-Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. He is the only CPA in the California State legislature and recently received a national award as Freshman Republican Legislator of the Year. He represents the cities of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest. He can be reached through his Assembly website and through the website for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]

Sacramento Stall
The Dems want the Governor to look bad...
[John Campbell] 7/19/04

At about this time last year, Democrats were caught on tape in a meeting with a microphone inadvertently left on, as they plotted to intentionally hold up the passage of a state budget because they believed that it would politically help them with some issues on the upcoming ballot. When they realized that they could be heard outside the room, one of the Democrat Assemblymembers present exclaimed "oh s---." Very soon thereafter, a budget agreement was reached.

They have not left any microphones on this year, but the same thing is clearly happening. Governor Schwarzenegger has bent over backwards to accommodate many Democrat budget requests, but they keep demanding more. They clearly believe that a late budget makes the Governor look bad, or at least not invincible and helps their tax hike efforts on the upcoming ballot. So, they continue to demand more and more and more of the same stuff that got us in the budget mess in the first place, knowing the Governor cannot possibly allow this budget to be that irresponsible.

So what are the issues in play here? In short, they are:

• Democrats want to add $2 Billion in new spending to the Governor's May Revise budget proposal. This will make the ongoing deficit problem worse.
• Remember that the main reason most Democrats joined the legislature is to raise taxes. They have not given up on this goal. They are pushing for some taxes disguised as "fees" in this budget and they figure that the more they can increase spending, the more tax increases they can try to get next year.
• Democrats want to restrict funding for local governments, which spend money on stuff most people want like roads and parks and cops. Instead, they want to bring that money to Sacramento where they can spend it on state union bureaucrats' salaries, pensions and benefits.
• Republicans want to repeal some job-killing and local school budget mandating legislation that was passed in the Davis years. Repeal of this legislation will improve economic growth and free up more classroom money for schools. But Democrats are blocking these repeals entirely because union bosses and trial lawyers benefit from the status quo.

There are some other things too, but you get the point. Democrats supposedly may try to bring their version of the budget to the floor this week for a vote.

The people voted in the recall last year for change. They voted for lower taxes, less spending, economic growth and a responsible budget. Democrats are trying to give them none of that and say that it's the Governor's and Republicans fault that there is not an on-time budget. The people and this state deserve better. CRO

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