Dateline Sacramento – After digesting Gov. Brown’s revised $122.6 billion budget just approved by the Legislature, Board of Equalization member George Runner offered a critical evaluation that strongly opposed spending increases.
“The governor is wise to boost the state’s rainy day fund by an additional $2 billion, especially with the threat of a recession looming,” Mr. Runner, a Republican, said.
“However, the majority party has produced another budget that breaks spending records, and it does not wisely spend taxpayer dollars.
“This budget does little to improve our neglected roads. If budgets are about setting priorities, you have to consider the statement the majority party is making.”
Slightly cynically, Mr. Runner said that a less costly solution to infrastructure repair “would be to actually spend transportation dollars on transportation projects.
California would be better off, in Mr. Runner’s view, “if the majority party spent more time eliminating government waste while providing hardworking taxpayers value for the money we already send to Sacramento.”
Mr. Runner may be contacted at www.boe.ca.gov/Runner
