Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/52188
6A Daily News – Saturday, January 7, 2012 Opinion Lawmakers respond to Gov. Brown's budget D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Sen. Doug LaMalfa Senator Doug LaMalfa (R- Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Richvale) responded to the early releases of Governor Brown's new budget proposal that will spend $92.5 billion next year, $6 billion more than the previ- ous budget. The plan would par- tially close the $13 billion deficit but unrealistically assumes voters will agree to tax increases. The plan also fails to address any pension reforms that would save the citizens bil- lions over the coming years. "Governor Brown's plan increases spending by $6 billion and taxes by $7.1 billion yet still leaves a multi-billion dollar budget deficit to deal with next year," LaMalfa said. "Increas- ing spending is not a justifica- tion for increasing taxes and is not a responsible budget. Governor Brown holds hostage $4.4 Billion from edu- cation if his tax proposal fails. "It is time for California's Legislature to dispense with childish desires," continued LaMalfa. "Sacramento cannot continue to increase regulations, add entire new agencies of gov- ernment, like this budget does, and throw more money at high speed rail while cutting funds to education and medical pro- grams. This budget purposely hurts Californians as justifica- tion for increasing taxes, then proposes to hurt them more if they don't agree to the taxes." "California would be better off enacting last year's budget rather than increasing taxes and spending." Assemblyman Jim Nielsen Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) issued the following statement today following the release of the state budget, pre- viously anticipated to take place on Tuesday, January 10th. This new budget proposal will spend $92.5 billion next year, $6 bil- lion more than the pre- vious budget and assumes voters will support more tax increases. "The last thing we Guest View Doug want to do is stomp on California's recovering economy by raising taxes. If the state can- not live within a 7.7 percent increase in revenue over last year, then we really have problems," said Nielsen. "Average California families are certainly not seeing a 7.7 percent raise this year." Nielsen said that with each update of the budget, the deficit appears to get smaller, due to an improvement in California's economy. If spending continues to outpace revenues, the state budget can never be balanced. "The Governor's proposed budget increases spending by a LaMalfa Jim Nielsen whopping 7% based on his rosy assumptions. The Legislature and the Governor need to get real about reforming this perpetually- flawed budget process by examining every department and expenditure of gov- ernment to ensure that taxpayer priorities are being met. I suggest a performance-based or a zero- based budget, with a hard spending cap and a reserve as a very good start," said Nielsen. Assemblyman Nielsen repre- sents the Second Assembly Dis- trict, which includes: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama and Yolo counties. For more information on Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, visit http://arc.asm.ca.gov/mem- ber/2/? Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Talking about the weather, and boiling water Commentary I am sitting here in Wauke- sha, Wisconsin, on New Year's Day, listening to the fifty mile per hour gusts of wind and watching flecks of snow fly from my right to my left. I am thinking about something Mark Twain was alleged to have said: "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does any- thing about it." There are other examples besides the weather when it comes to not doing anything. The Pacific Gas and Electric Company was allegedly con- cerned about the safety of their natural gas lines, and they spoke highly of their safety record--but they paid incentives to supervi- sors whose crews found fewer leaks in the gas lines. It made their records look good, but it did not improve safety, as wit- nessed in the San Bruno explo- sion in 2008 and as recently admitted by that company. Some law enforcement agen- cies report that crime rates are down—but yesterday the New York Times reported that: "Crime victims in New York sometimes struggle to persuade the police to write down what happened on an official report. The reasons are varied. Police officers are often busy, and few relish paperwork. But in inter- views, more than half a dozen police officers, detectives and commanders also cited depart- mental pressure to keep crime statistics low." China brags about its indus- trial growth; not everything has grown with it, however. Last year I wrote about a factory in China that was having serious morale problems with its employees. Morale was so low that one employee climbed up onto the roof and jumped off. The company solved the prob- lem by putting a net-like fence around the roof to prevent sui- cides by jumping. Worker sui- cides rates are down. No one is sure about morale levels. Everyone from Jennie Craig to the federal government talks about our alarming obesity rate. Finally, however, someone is doing something about the obe- sity problem in our country. The state of Washington has changed the estimated weight for a typi- cal adult on its ferries from 160 pounds per individual adult to 185 pounds per adult. This will mean fewer passengers per boat and long lines on the dock, hopefully not filled with people killing time by snacking on candy bars and Twinkies. Of course changing the estimated weight per adult will not solve the problem of obesity, but it will likely make the ferries safer, at least for insurance purposes. I often think about the con- versation between a father and his daughter that went some- thing like this when he came upon her reading a magazine: "What are you reading," he asked teen aged daughter. "An article about how unhealthy kissing is," she replied. "I think I will stop." "Stop kissing?" "No, stop reading," she replied as she closed the maga- zine. When I was studying at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford one of our exercises involved sorting through a hypo- thetical in-box to see how we would handle problems. There was a matrix used to score our approach to the items in the in- box. Some students handled each problem as they came up. Some put the items in the box into some kind of priority order. Others sorted out the items that could be delegated. Many, how- ever, simply took the easy items and did them first regardless of their importance. Our professor then spent some time describing task avoidance, control issues, and vision. Our politicians would not receive a very good task oriented rating in dealing with the impor- tant issues of our time. They most likely would be graded very highly for the attention to influential fund rais- ers and lobbyists, that is, careful adherence to the market mechanism of being re-elected, but low marks for working on the issues facing the electorate. Most likely Mark this humble trek to Sacramento the "post Proposition 13 pil- grimage." Joe Twain would make the same kind of comment he allegedly made about the weather in reference to the Cali- fornia state budgetary problems. Our state leadership has prac- ticed the same accounting tricks that have gotten large corpora- tions in trouble with the Securi- ty and Exchange Commission. They have made unrealistic forecasts for income and eco- nomic recovery, hoping that they do not exhibit pessimism; no one wants to re-elect a pes- simist. They pass trailer bills to satisfy their constituents who are unhappy with the budget. They create "trigger cuts" so reductions in service are not blamed on them but on revenues not living up to their "reason- able" expectations. They have pushed for more "local control" of state mandated programs with promises of state revenue to sup- port those programs, at least for the time being. In the meantime local entities cope with less flex- ibility and more uncertainty, while continuing to go hat in hand to Sacramento. Some call Harrop At the federal level similar tactics prevail, but they take place while each party points fingers at the other while huffing and puffing with self- righteousness. Each party proclaims prob- lems we need to solve, and each party says they cannot agree with the other party's "solu- tion." The token tax reduction the parties have recently battled over is just that, a token. It does not solve the issue of the federal budget and revenue; nor does it help "solve" the reported actuarial problems of Social Security. It is like the "bread" that the Roman emper- ors gave to their citizens along with the circuses to stave off unrest. When I was in the Army we had to trek to West Virginia to find a downed bomber with nuclear bombs on board. It was in the middle of winter. I drove two doctors and the chaplain to a small rural community, and we were assigned a summer cabin for shelter. There was no run- ning water, but one of the doc- tors looked at the mounds of snow and proclaimed, "The snow is clean." That was well and good, but we knew enough to boil the snow before we made coffee. It's time we started boil- ing water if we want to give birth to true solutions. Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net.