Governor Brown is necessarily in the position of an embattled centrist, much like his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He has to command a working majority of legislators, not just Republicans but also fiscally-minded Democrats who are willing to place the fate of the state above the power of their party.
Now the Governor has doomed us with the prediction that the budget short-fall weighing on California has almost doubled to $16 billion. With such sordid accounting practices, no wonder that no one is jumping at the chance to donate more of their shrinking paychecks to the coven of waste and fraud dominant in Sacramento.
If Governor Brown wants to push a tax increase of any kind, then he must also offer significant restrictions on public sector unions' collective bargaining rights, as Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin did for Wisconsin last year. The Governor should also mandate a cut in every public sector employee's pay and pension package.
If the state of California really wants to end the waste and revenue losses draining us to nothing, why not institute welfare reform that will discourage illegal immigration and beef up the power of local governments to retain their tax revenue. How many state offices are currently overseeing unimportant concerns? How many licenses do businesses have to apply for before going into business? I believe that by freeing up the power of school districts to evaluate and terminate ineffective teachers, future educators would not have to spend two-three semesters just to get a credential.
The high toll of regulation is squeezing wealth out of the state, and the voters have every right for less government, more accountability, and more power pressed back into their hands. Public sector unions will cry foul, but at least the rest of the state will breathe a sigh of relief that less of their money will be siphoned off into the big pockets of Big Labor.
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