“Fresh Perspectives from Sacramento”
Reflections from the desk of…
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West Los Angeles and Culver City Democratic Assemblyman Sebastian Ridley-Thomas
The people of California did a great thing in November 2012 that has made state government much more effective. By raising sales and income taxes until 2017, California voters temporarily corrected a spending imbalance (also known as… the structural deficit) for five years. The electorate believed Gov. Brown’s message that, by passing Prop. 30, they would promote effective governance by increasing resources for education, public safety, and critical safety net programs.
Watching Each Other
Gov. Brown indicated he would push to ensure that the Legislature would join him in being faithful and disciplined stewards of these new temporary revenues that were meant to correct the state’s fiscal challenges of the last decade.
Much of the conversation about how to accomplish this focused on strategic investments in the social safety net and tending to the state’s growing infrastructure needs.
Toward that end, I have begun my work on our state’s early childhood education and childcare system. Quality preschool education is critical to our children’s success in school. Our business leaders acknowledge early childhood education’s importance and have backed efforts to promote quality preschool education and a workforce of highly trained child development teachers.
Gaining Needed Insights
In addition, I have been listening and learning from legislators and transportation experts to gain a grasp on the work that must be accomplished to address California’s infrastructure needs. California is in a drought emergency. If you are not already taking steps to save water, now is the time to start.
With our state’s water woes, members of the Los Angeles legislative delegation are working diligently to ensure water bond negotiations can help advance our regional water management interests by addressing critical water issues, such as contaminated groundwater treatment, water storage, storm-water capture, treatment and storage, Ballona Creek, and the Los Angeles River.
Gov. Brown has indicated he would like to pursue a re-write of the proposed state budget rainy-day fund to make it more sensitive to the dynamism of California’s economy.
The proposed rainy-day fiscal measure currently on the November ballot was a product of the pre-majority vote budget era. The minority party, at that time, had wanted a hard cap on expenditure growth and a special fund for revenues that exceeded allowable expenditures. Their proposal ignored debt obligations, deferred payments owed to schools, and the potential will of the Legislature or Californians to increase revenues (taxes, fees).
Gov. Brown has called for a special session to amend the rainy-day fund and make it more flexible and reasonable for a dynamic economy that will grow with strategic investments in human and physical infrastructure and a concentration on innovation. The Legislature will begin its review and deliberations on the governor’s proposals in the coming weeks.
The people of the 54th Assembly District, in my estimation, will be better served with a re-written rainy-day fund that is more flexible on the uses of the funds and focuses on capturing the most volatile forms of revenue: taxes on capital gains above 6.5 percent.
I look forward to a final product that is fair for all stakeholders. I will be sharing developments as Gov. Brown negotiates with the Legislature.
Lesson of the Week:
The art of the possible and the reasonable ought drive public policy conversations. “No for no’s sake” is one of the most annoying aspects of the business of governance.
