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On Saturday, Jan. 24, more than 200 community stakeholders joined with legislative leaders to discuss state budget priorities for the coming fiscal year beginning July 1.
There was spirited dialogue and there were constructive presentations on state spending in each of six forum breakout sessions: education; health-and-human services; labor and consumer protection; resources and environmental protection and transportation, housing and veterans affairs.
Now it’s time to take substantive discussion and frameworks for state spending to the next level: action.
My staff has begun the process of capturing the major points of discussion from each of the above mentioned forum breakout sessions from digital recordings made during each session.
These minutes will be compiled in a forum report I intend to share with community stakeholders and legislators as we begin to take up state budget line items in legislative subcommittees.
The budget forum report will show how 54th Assembly District community stakeholders and key interests feel about state spending in their areas of prime concern. The task ahead will be to try to match local state budget expectations with our state’s funding realities and the needs and wants of residents in California’s 79 other Assembly Districts.
When the budget forum report is finished, we will post it on my website: www.sridleythomas.com.
Waiting for the Revise
In four months’ time, state budget revenues will be revised, based on the amount of taxes collected statewide and the condition of the California economy. The so called “May Revise” will give us another opportunity to push for your fair share before the legislative budget subcommittees complete their work on budget line items in the Senate and Assembly.
We intend to remain focused on your state budget concerns as expressed during our budget priorities forum.
The budget forum report will be used as a roadmap to chart our direction and progress.
We won’t get everything we ask for. But with your continued interest, engagement and involvement, we can achieve what we need: Your fair share.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our inaugural California Budget Priorities Forum | 2015 from Los Angeles and Culver City.
Feedback from participants was uniformly positive. The vast majority of attendees believed it was a major success.
We couldn’t have done it without the support of Dr. Reginald Anthony Sample, principal of Dorsey High School and his staff. Special praise to the members of the Dorsey Choir. These dedicated Dorsey High students distinguished themselves with their stirring vocal performance during the budget forum’s opening session.
We thank Rusty Hicks, executive secretary-treasurer of the County Federation of Labor, for putting the significance of the state budget into a proper perspective for our forum’s participants and state leaders in attendance.
“It’s about jobs and ensuring that women and men can support their families on the wages they earn in California,” Mr. Hicks said.
Follow our progress at Facebook.com/AssemblyMemberRidleyThomas and on Twitter at Twitter.com/SRidleyThomas. Be on the lookout for the budget forum report at #CABudgetForum.
Mr. Ridley-Thomas, a Democrat, represents Culver City and Los Angeles in the state Assembly’s 54th District.
